me in my bubble-
A few days ago, someone who is a friend of a friend added me on msn to "ask me a question". The I-need-your-take-on-something technique is one that I cannot resist. He exchanged a few necessary pleasantries and then asked what I thought of the Lebanon crisis- and the Hezbollah stance. Since this person is more or less a stranger, I doctored my vehement response (reserved for friends and people who shall not judge me) into something tamer- and replied in perhaps what is the usual indignation, about how sad the whole thing. How the world feels helpless. Banal response I realized, but why would I get into an intense discussion with someone random, right?He snickered. Online. Dont ask how I know. He just did, and then he says, "Figured not much would penetrate into your artsy fartsy world of make believe." I could have had a million responses to him and his impression of my world- but I calmly decided that someone I have perhaps SEEN only once in my life is not worth it. That I will not let someone who barely knows me or my environment pass a comment on how I live my life and what issues I am concerned with. I just informed him that I don't think I want to continue a conversation with someone who has a brain the size of a pea with a vision to match and promptly blocked him.
So if we are not out there shouting about how much we care about Lebanon, we don't care? If we are not rioting, then the cartoons didn't bother us? If we don't stone KESC, we have no desire to change the society? If we buy fuel for the generator, then the misery of 12 lightless hours doesn't bother us? Someone who must have been wise once said that sometimes in times of trouble, pain and strife, the best thing one can do is not be part of the noise, but be part of the silence instead and go one living as honestly, truly and purely as you can. And in that silence pray for better times to come.
posted by jammie @ 10:10 PM
13 Comments:
amen!
*i think im a bubble liver!
ouch!
"And in that silence pray for better times to come."
Very true, silence afterall, has a power of its own. And of course, so do prayers.
I saw your comments on Sheza’s post about Pakistani life style. I’m an expat Pakistani myself and there are too many Pakistanis in the North America who are confused and nothing else. I’m not against personal freedom and Hijab is one of them. But few points irked me. One of which is why they need to come to the west to discover religion? There are too many countries where they can sit and pray and do nothing besides talking about morals. I don’t like the idea when they spread false rumors that they are wearing Hijab as it is mandatory in Islam which is so wrong. There is no mention of Hijab in Koran. They want us to respect their belief but forgot to respect ours. Here in the west brown complexion is not considered cool. One needs to work very hard to get noticed. Indians are performing well in Science and other areas and getting notice. Pakistanis are not that well educated so in the competitive job market they end up doing menial jobs. So most of them (second generation) end up losers and to keep their identity they turned to religion. I on the other hand came to the US for the pursuit of higher education and knowledge which is quite impossible for me back home. I cherish my personal freedom very much. I do the things which were unthinkable for me in Pakistan such as swimming in a bikini, sky gliding, hiking, canoeing, flying and you got the ides. I should point out here most girls who wear hijab move freely here. They talk to men without any restriction. Well my point is you are wearing a cloth to keep men away but you are not following it. So can I ask them for whom you are wearing this Hijab? I wish when my fellow Pakistani move here for better opportunities one day they really take advantage of it. One thing people forgot when they talk about Pakistan is. It supposes to be a secular country and all the religious leaders were against its creation. He could never ask for a Muslim state as his wife belonged to a Parsi religion and he himself belongs to Ismaili sect the most liberal sect of Muslims.
Related Link which shows Pakistan suppose to be a secular country
http://www.pakistan.gov.pk/Quaid/index.htm
i love how all the anons are turning to u! :D
but i love ur post and have lots to heed from it!:D
The word hijab appears in the Koran. It refers to a curtain in the Prophet's room. Naturally, it was impossible for the Prophet's wife to sit there, while people entered the room √ Muslims who came to ask for rulings, converts to Islam who wanted to ask questions, people of the Jahiliya who wanted to visit √ this is impossible, even in modern homes...
Allah be praised, today's homes are larger, and there are halls and guest rooms, but back then there was only one room, so they put a hijab so the woman would feel comfortable, and wear whatever she liked. And if we want something from her, we request it from behind the hijab.
The Koran did not refer to this thing as a hijab. This was called a khimar, and it was worn over the chest only. What they are referring to is the khimar, not the hijab. You keep hearing hijab, hijab, hijab... When these words are distorted, they mislead people.
More here http://www.memritv.org/Transcript.asp?P1=1112
We need more Muslim thinkers like this guy who says things with proof not just lies like others.
I feel like many modern day Islamic practices are the result of ancient interpretations of ambiguous literature that have gone unchallenged by the majority, who have been told (and are still told) they're unqualified to interpret the literature. I am so tired of the question, what happened to the Golden Age of Islam? I know what happened to it, it left on the first train out of the Empire when we decided that the best thinkers had already, and forever, answered all the important questions; there is no philosophical inquiry anymore because everyone is convinced they need to know more about the Arabic language, Arabian history, or 6th-century Arabian economic theory. Like I need to know the whole Arabic language to find out that there are 120 meanings to the root word daraba, and it doesn't have to mean "beat your freakin' wife". But, there are 100 million Muslims worldwide who think it's okay to beat your wife because they're convinced they have to listen to the Mullah, who graduated from the Fugazi School of Islamic Thought, and believes he has acquired the answers, when in fact, he's just been inundated with someone's biased reading of the literature. This process continues for ten centuries, and all of a sudden, no one's sure what's original and what's interpreted. As a result, undiscriminating thinkers believe the interpretations of authority figures and are comfortable endorsing ideas that don't reflect their values, and discriminating thinkers are left wondering what they're missing, why the larger picture doesn't make sense. All this because no one wants to say, wait, could Ghazali have been the last great thinker in the Islamic world? Maybe we should return to questioning. And that, Maleeha, is the answer, we should return to philosophical inquiry of the most piercing sort, where nothing is sacred, and assume that we can find the answers, but not because they are stated clearly in a book; only because they're stated clearly in the reason made clear through discussion. And art. We should return to art. Maybe then, we wouldn't take cartoons so seriously.
anonymuouses- thanks both of you for the research based comments-
i tend to agree that in a lot of cases people are mixing up what was supposed to be and what is- in islam, in society and perhaps even in pakistan- im going to keep my comment general because i did not intend and def dont want to get into a religious argument on the blog comments- im merely trying to make a point that there are different ways to reacting to circumstances/situations that a country/individual/city/house faces- until one lnandsin that situtaion place- we can really honestly feel very little as to what we would/would not do-
jammie, i understand what u mean by saying that just because you're not participating in a march you don't care about an issue.
but sometimes actions need to be taken to let the world know u care. prayers certainly help but so do actual actions.
totally plain jane- hence the use of the word "sometimes" in that last sentence :)
interesting reading. the societal sociological trends are rather intriguing among your readers
abbas- and these arent even my regular readers!
well im a regular. i just hate to comment =). but this post i had to comment since i've been facing a lot of "you're not doing anything so you mustn't care" argument.
Nice. I think I made a comment that would have been more fitting here in the Spaces post.
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