11
Dec
2006
23 Comments
States of Melancholy
What’s happening to the world nowadays?
Islam is being trashed, and it’s been hijacked by people who claim to be religious scholars when fact of the matter is that they don’t know the first thing about Islam.
People writing books about the problems with Islam?… Islam is perfect, it has no flaws.. no matter how hard this fact is for some people to accept. It’s the fact that it’s got practitioners who are representing it in a negative manner that’s got people questioning Islam.
Have you seen some of the videos about Islam on youtube? Most are just wrong representations of Islam, the religion of Peace not violence.
We’ve got all sorts of people saying all sorts of things about Islam, and sadly some of these people are Muslims and are unfortunately conveying our religion in such a misleading fashion.
And just exactly how could Islam equal terrorism when the word Islam is derived from the word “peace”?
Wars all over the place. People are dying and losing their loved ones, while the ones responsible are sitting at home with their families.
Governmental conflicts resulting in mass damage and significant loss of innocent lives. Crippled children permanently scarred both emotionally and physically, and possibly orphanized.
Where is the love?
Prejudice and biasing based on ethnic backgrounds of individuals.
Is lighter skin really a label for superiority? Just exactly how primitive is our thinking these days?
Poverty in some parts of the world, and in other parts people are feasting on all types of foods and neglecting the needy.
Diseases with no cures.
Domestic violence.
Child abuse.
Sexism.
Incest.
Greed.
Ignorance.
Soooooo much more.
What has become of the world?
We’re supposed to be living in a modern age, where appropriate approaches are supposed to be implemented in order to get to the roots of each and every problem and thereby solve it.
But this isn’t what happening… I just don’t understand.
Where is the humanity?
The above & more just never cease to bring me to my states of depression knowing that no matter what I do none of them will actually vanish.
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Join the Conversation
It’s not your job to make them vanish. Your job is to spread the awareness necessary to help decrease any of the above. This site is already taking care of the “ignorance” part, or at least it aims to, and the Muslims here are doing a good job of protecting their religion from general ignorance and hatred inspired by fear-mongers and media bias. You personally can’t be the miracle that wipes out any “evils” in this world, but you can help decrease it, especially if you commit your life to it. If you lose hope, you already failed. You need to see that light at the end of the tunnel that encourages you to keep going. Anything you do can and will make a positive difference, just as long as you keep it up.
And it’s not just “nowadays” that this is happening. We think it’s bad because we don’t compare it to our past, but it’s always been like this if you’ve paid attention to history. People are using their media powers to make it seem like it’s worse now than ever, but that’s not true. Even Saudi Arabia used to be worse than it is today. It’s just a matter of how aware you are of their past and present. You see more bloggers and journalists from the region telling you it’s bad, if we had the same technology years or even centuries ago we’d be celebrating our progress right now. In one way or another we’ve all come a long way, and at some point in time, it was way worse than what we’re exposed to. If history stopped violently repeating itself, if only people know what to avoid for that not to happen, we’d be moving forward. But ignorance stops us from doing so, that’s why in our mission statement eliminating “ignorance” is one of our main goals. Not one we can fully accomplish, but definitely one we’re trying to spread to as many people (especially young people) as possible.
Hang in there, and I promise, you will see the worth of your efforts. But that’s only if you never ever lose hope.
Maha
Maybe all the major religions are perfect…though I have my doubts. But I know that people are not perfect and when it comes to religion, folks have an interesting way of ramming a square peg into a round hole.
Some folks attempt to interpret their religion to do good, others find a way to excuse terrible behavior.
Maha..I would bet that if you were born into or early adopted into a Jewish, Christian, Hindu or Buddhist family…your outlook and behavior and beliefs would not be much different….because there is something intrinsic in your personality and something in your personal choices that leads you towards good.
If there is a God…I sincerely doubt that he has given us one magic formula to repeat to become saved or “right with God”. I believe there are certain elemental standards that apply to all human behavior and apparently you have a good handle on these…Islam or not.
Mah, what *is* Islam?Is it an ideal?If so, whose ideal?Yours?Esra’a's?Qaradawi’s?Or is Islam the sum total of its followers?Maybe even not that but a bunch of societies with similar origin and beliefs?
I am reminded of the saying that wherever you have two Jews you’ll have three opinions on every subject.Go ask around your social circle “What is Islam?” I’ll be surprised if you get less the 3-4 very distinct answers, probably with a myriad of subflavors.The same is true for every religion.
As to morality:You seem to connect it intimately with religion and God.Care to comment on the thread I started here?I’m waiting eagerly for more comments then Joel’s:)
Islam is not perfect. No religion is perfect. Why? Because humans created religion.
If Islam was perfect then there wouldn’t be Sunni, Shia or Sufi. Same goes for almost every other religion.
World is what it is today because we are animals. An intelligent animal, but animal still. Our animal instinct makes us do what we do. Let’s just say that if there is a god then it is he who made us to be like this.
Morality has nothing to do with religion. Morality is a result of cultural practices and not religion. If morality is based on religion then we won’t have suicide bombers blowing themselves up in the name of Islam.
I personally thing the world today is far better than it has ever been, even with all its problems…is that just me here who thinks that?
Jina-
If you are correct, and you could very well be correct (this is a faith/belief issue with no objective proof), then there is no hope for mankind.
If there is no Creator (no I am not talking about some grandpa with a beard on a throne) and no objective truth, no objective morality then live is an existentialist darkness that has only the pretend meanings that we give it. Your hypothesis is one of basic little or no hope where everything is relative and people end up subsituting politics, culture, or even the worship of sports teams for God.
Again…as I said…you could be correct. You also won’t see me doing much defending of what much of religious leadership has given to the world. But to me, out of God comes the only potential hope for man…otherwise…just pour me a beer (please…not Canadian beer, English..ahhh Newcastle) and another and another…and a bit of hummos on the side please.
Funny…I wrote a little article that relates to this very topic by ESRA’A did not post it yet…ESRA’A.
Jonny-
That is a whole other topic. I do tend to agree with you. Probably is…we have the potential for enormous destruction beyond anything the world has ever known…but yes…I prefer not dying of measles or polio or small pox, I like heating and air conditioning, I could go on and on…but you have a good point.
Yeah, that’s what I implied in my comment.
Anton you should be a writer with us here, what do you think?
Most of these comments are well-meaning, well-intended, BUT
the funny thing is that you can’t use the same arguements with the Bahai Faith for a number of reasons.
Esra’a, thanks. Even though I (as I’m sure lots of others) feel deeply stirred by the events taking place around us, I still am not intending on losing hope.. Hope must be the only thing helping me carry on with life, otherwise the entire world would suffer from melancholia.
The site is great, and I love the blending of ethnic diversities of the youth in here.. each is giving us a perspective on a certain aspect on life that other parties haven’t seen before.
Howie, I agree with you on people practicing their religions the wrong way, and in the case of Islam it’s making things even worse. Islam has already been associated with terrorism, and the damage was done.. but what’s not helping is getting more Islam practitioners portraying Islam in more misleading ways. I guess if everybody practiced their religion correctly, then and only then would the world be a much better place.
There’s no magic formula, in most cases it’s you and what you think is the right thing to do.
Islam is believing in the existence of only one God.. the creator of all, and the existence of his Prophet Muhammed (PBUH).. the simple definition of Islam should be unified and not unique for every Muslim.
Jonny – I really hope so.
Mahoya, welcome aboard.Your post has hit home.
I have nothing more to add to what Esraa & Howie have stated.
I spent a good deal of my time being depressed & mad at the world as well as endeavouring to make sense of what is happening around me.It’s no walk in the park, I tell you.I have recently realized that if I wanted to make a difference, even if nominal, I must channel the energy wasted on anger & bitterness towards positive & constructive action:)
Realizing what the problem is & venting out is your first step towards healing & progress.
Jonn, from an Islamic persepective & with reference to the Arab world, I think it’s moving backwards despite the sophisticated technology & advancement.
Maha-san,
Islam is believing in the existence of only one God..
Yes this is true, but don’t you think Islam has advanced over Adam? I mean the existence of one God is much older than Islam.
Howie, why does the non-existance of God remove hope for us?For me it gives me a much greater hope, we who are brothers to the chimps and gorillas, cousins to th cats and gazelles, relatives of plankton and amoebas.We made these changes, we did much wrong- yet also much good, yes, we did damage and destroy much, yet we have created much that is worthwhile- architecture, painting, sculpture, the various sciences.The only star stuff we know of, to date, that has pondered the stars.
Maha, then what is the difference between Islam and, say, Christianity?Both believe in one God, and Muhamad was a historical figure, so you won’t get arguments from most Christians(or Jews) on both counts.
I have to go with Jina on this one- religion as we know it is a Human product and flawed. I agree with his post 100%. But I have an answer for Howie. Sort of.
Jina did not deny the existence of morality, or a divinity, just the validity of religion. Some animals, after all, can act morally. The greatest con game ever pulled off on Humans has been the packaging together of morality and religion, as if one cannot exist without the other. This is false. It becomes obvious when we see that Morality is pretty much the same religion to religion, only the rules and requirements that make each religion special and unique differ.
Remember what the Pope quoted about Islam bringing nothing new that was good, and how this upset so many people? Here is the reality: the same can be said of every religion. The morality that the priests claim as their own- protect the weak and innocent, do not lie, steal, murder, etc, is universal. The other stuff- eat the wafer and confess your sins, wear this thing on your head, recite these words, bow in this direction a certain number of times per day, don’t eat this, do eat that, obey and never question the priests/imams/rabbis/gurus etc, is all that religions ever really added on their own. The trick they have pulled on humanity is convincing billions of people that morality “do not steal” and religion “wear this hat” came from the same place, and are inseperable.
You might say, the world would be a better place if we all practiced religion “properly”. But who is to say what is proper? After all, we disagree constantly over the meaning of religion, how to interpret this line or that line, who was a messiah or a prophet, but we have a very shared sense of morality. I would be willing to bet that if I, secular westerner with Taoist leanings, and an Orthodox leader of any religion, were to both write up our lists of what is “immoral”, at the most basic level, there would be a lot of agreement.
Ben
Anton and Ben-
Oh…not too hard to answer you guys…
If there is no God…then life is an accident, morality is a relative creation and you die and become nothing. Therefore…everything means nothing. Killing and loving are just in the eye of the beholder as there is no universal standard because there is no universal source.
I had this discussion with my wife the other day. I simplified it and asked her “what if everybody just practiced the 10 commandments” or just the Golden Rule?
She thought for a moment and then said “it would be gan eden (paradise)”.
Look guys…I am a practicing Jew but also quite a doubter. I was not blessed, or cursed, with the gift of faith…not much anyhow…belief just does not come to me and I have tried hard. I have seen contradictions in the Bible and I have been reading the Qur’an and I already see contradictions there. So maybe our books do not represent revelation….or maybe they are only partly revelation…or maybe just the Mormons got it right…I don’t know.
But I do believe there was and is a Creator and that life has a deep meaning, not just what we make up and apply to it. I don’t worship politics, nation, or the Pittsburg Steelers, nor pop culture nor any culture (more on that crap later).
If there is no God, then life has no meaning, everything becomes relative because there are no standards except what we dream up…
If I am wrong…pour me 10 Newcastles, turn on some porn. and let’s meet soon in Las Vegas (hmmm…sounds kind of nice even if life does have a purpose
You see, Howie, you are doing it again. Consciously or subconsiously, I do not know. You are connecting religion with spirituality and morality, as if the one was needed for the others. They do not have to be connected. Jina did not say (as far as I know) “No God”. Neither did I. It is entirely possible to be a spiritual person, believe in morality, the existence of a divine creator and supreme architect of the universe, and at the same time believe that religion is nothing more than a conspiracy of old men who want to control people’s lives.
Otherwise, how to explain the fact that you can go find a tribe in the jungles of Papua who have never read anyone’s Holy Book, and yet they also think that rape, murder, stealing is bad? Amazing coincidence? Or perhaps this morality thing goes deeper than we are told?
And if everyone practiced the Golden Rule, we would all be in danger from people who are clinical masochists. Except the masochists. They would lead miserable lives.
The Tao te Ching is full of moral philosophy, and yet, no religious instruction. No ceremony or ritual.
Ben
Ben-
You make some good points…and no I don’t recall trying to sell religion per se…though we may end up splitting hairs here about definitions.
I know how Jews would explain the Papua situation. They would tell you that God revealed the Code of Noah to all people long before the revelation on Sinai. Maybe there is some along that line that did happen.
And I don’t agree with you on the Golden Rule thing. Masochists see pain as pleasure, so if they practiced the Golden Rule, then they would only ask for service from sadists who get pleasure from giving pain. See…then everybody is happy in their S/M world
On a more serious note, I would still have very little problem with people practicing the Golden Rule or the 10 commandments and I don’t care if Jews or Muslims eat pork or Hindus eat cows.
If there is no God, then all “rules” are merely expressions of a given culture. I don’t give a rat’s ass about culture. Culture can be cute and interesting…even lofty and good, but it is just one more creation of man.
In terms of Tao…I don’t know much about it. I do understand Buddhism and its offshoots, at its basic, is more of a philosophy than a religion though my guess is that these two things overlap and are not mutually exclusive.
Can I get an Amen?
Maybe an “Om”?
Ben-
And the philosohical tenets of Tao…from where were they originated? Lau Tsu? Did somebody receive a revelation? Are these things that wise men figured out?
It is a question key to this conversation…
Why does a morality have to come from a spiritual source?It may well come of good evolutionarily viable reasons- you see mutual altruism, for example, in various higher mammal societies, Primates being a classic example.there you have the universal source *I* suspect.Why do we have to add any gods into the mix when nature is wonderful enough as is?
For me to believe that *if* there is a Creator(something Occam’s Razor makes me doubt very strongly) he can and will even pay attention to the behavior of a single species on a small planet revolving around a rather ordinary yellow dwarf on the outer edges of the arm of an undistinguished spiral galaxy would require a monumental self esteem.I find it far more likely that if He exists it would take something on the order of supernovae just to get a sliver of His attention.
The fact my personality will not survive death makes this life even *more* precious, and my decisions in it more important, every breath more meaningful.For every story there is a beginning, a middle, and an end.So it is for the story of our life, and I accept it peacefully, knowing there were many stories before mine, and(hopefully) there will be many after me.I will survive in the memory of the people who knew, in my contribution to the human race in the areas I find important.That is more than enough.
Oh, that’s a tough one. The origin of the Tao…
As usual, there is little agreement. One thing that is agreed: Lao Tsu was not the inventor, not a prophet, merely a teacher and recorder of a philosophy that was already old when he was born. Tao does not deny or dispute the existence of God (or gods), but Tao looks at morality not as revelation, but as part of the nature of the universe.
From the Tao perspective, the idea that without God, there are no rules, would not make sense. Rules are because they are- they are expressions of the natural world, we cannot live without them because they are the environment in which we live. For example, supposing that you came into
some absolute proof that there was no God. I don’t know how this could be, just, for arguments sake, let’s say you did. Would you then assume that you could then jump off a cliff safely or eat a plutonium sandwich because the rules- the laws of physics- no longer apply? Of course not. To a Taoist, something like “to be rigid and inflexible is the way of death” is a simple statement of fact, like the equation governing gravity. Morality exists as an element of the universe in which we live.
Could we make up our own rules? Could one, without God, then decide, “I would prefer being inflexible, so my rule will be- Being flexible and accepting of change is the way of death”. Well, to a Taoist, certainly you could, and you could also create your own rule of gravity: “I prefer if temperature and color, and not mass and distance, determined the strength of gravitational interaction.” Sure you could. And, to a Taoist, your chance of actually convincing the Universe to go along with your scheme would be the same, either way.
In both cases, gravity and change, this is not someone telling us what “should” be, merely what is. They are not commandments but observations.
Thus, much of the Tao is not so much rules as it is observations on the reality of the universe, teaching us that things are not as they appear at first sight:
“Great straightness seems twisted.
Great intelligence seems stupid.
Great eloquence seems awkward.”
These are observations. It is not a commandment to “be smart by appearing stupid”.
And so, Morality, in Tao, is an observation “act this way, things will be better, you will be happier”, not a judgement of divine intention.
So, back to the question, is it divine revelation? Hmmm. If you believe that God created the universe, is it not then logical that any act of observing the universe and understanding it is divine revelation?
And then, if you believe that God created the universe, with stars, clouds, mountains, ponds, oceans, rocks, elephants, etc, then why would any person think he could the divine revelation only in something clearly manufactured by man- a book? Wouldn’t it make even more sense to seek revelation in something humanity didn’t create?
As to the relation of Tao, Buddhism, and other religions, this list presents as clear a picture as I have seen:
http://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/shit-happens.html
Ben
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