Tag: simple truth

  • Born Restless

    The only constant emotion that I can recall in my life is restlessness. Perhaps it’s a state more than it is an emotion. I don’t care. The net effect remains the same. There is little that I can leave untouched. I have an incessant need to unravel issues that plague myself or others. I can’t let sleeping dogs lie (all puns intended). There are too many dogs that pretend to be asleep and in so doing they lie through their fangs in their efforts to garner social acceptance or admiration. They’re dogs, regardless of their pretenses.

    The heart of mental illnesses lies in society, and not in the brain. There is no chemical imbalance that can be righted in order for it to right the betrayals of society at large, and significant others at the least. So instead of contending with the elephant in the room, we’d much rather pretend that we have a mental illness to deal with. At times like this I feel mentally ill. The same restlessness creeps into every thought pattern and disrupts my focus leading to angsty drivel that aspires to become a meaningful post. But I know that this restlessness is not an illness. It’s simply the reality of my attempts to live consciously.

    We’re all alone. No matter how big our social circles may appear, deep down inside only we understand the gravity of being who we are, and what we fear. The social circles are just a distraction from this reality, but in no way erases that loneliness. It’s all just a distraction, but it’s a very effective distraction which is why we’re amusing ourselves to death, only to realise too late that we were in fact distracting ourselves from life. It’s therefore no surprise that avenues like social networking and technical gadgetry are increasingly popular to all generations and not just the young ‘uns any longer. We all need the distractions equally.

    The problem is not in the distractions, or how they’re being abused. Those are just symptoms. The true problem is in a society that sees the need for escape as being a mental illness. The problem lies in academics that lack any real life experiences but feel accomplished enough because of a piece of paper to pronounce their judgement on the mental state of others without even considering the reality of life. That’s why we have the ridiculously high levels of bipolar disorder that is diagnosed in all spectrums of society, let alone depression and so many other abused terms of mental illness.

    In a dysfunctional society it’s next to impossible to find a healthy support structure to avoid the temptation of labelling our mental states. Support structures are not synonymous with support groups, but are in fact the family structures and community networks that talk to the village raising a kid, rather than the village raising an idiot. The collective responsibility of society has long been abandoned in favour of individual appeasement and selfish goals.

    The restlessness I feel is born out of this same dysfunction. But according to many, I could successfully be diagnosed with a mental illness because I have an insatiable desire to see wholesome values and communal living that is morally grounded realised in my lifetime. Perhaps I am mad. Perhaps my restlessness is in fact insanity. Perhaps my desire for old school values is merely my distraction from a society that has evolved beyond such wholesomeness. Perhaps I am that sane man that is compared to an insane society, and because the mirror with which I reflect on my life is that insane society, it is entirely possible that I may appear insane. Worse than this is the innocent soul that lacks such a realisation and still seeks affirmation from that same insane society.

  • Knowledge

    A little knowledge makes you arrogant,

    A lot of knowledge makes you humble.

    ~ Cynically Jaded

  • Freedom of Speech, etc.

    After seeing a headline in a local community newspaper this afternoon, it suddenly struck me why Muslims, in their current approach, will always be on the defensive when debating issues of freedom of speech or expression. The headline read something like, ‘Freedom of Speech, or Freedom to Blaspheme’. It was that last word that caught my attention.

    You see, when we accuse someone of blasphemy, there seems to be an underlying assumption that they hold dear what we hold dear. Or at the least, they respect what we respect. For this reason, we will forever be mocked by the irreverent few that take much pride and joy in mocking us. Why? I think it’s actually quite simple. We’re so drawn into defending and protecting the rituals of Islam, that we’ve failed dismally to demonstrate beyond any reasonable doubt why we proclaim Islam to be so beautiful, and worthy of respect.

    If I look around and see how entertainers garner respect even by people that do not normally take to such forms of entertainment, I notice that what is usually accompanied by such respect is an appreciation for the effort and skill that goes into that art form that is presented as entertainment. Hardly seems like a worthy comparison considering the mainstream Muslim views on entertainment, but bear with me. Note, I said Muslim views, not Islamic views, which is an inherent part of this problem. We’ve become so obsessed with point-in-time interpretations about what Islam stood for or represented during an era many centuries ago, that we’ve given up the principles that those wise scholars extrapolated their rulings from, and instead turned their guidance into ritualistic observations subscribed to by sects.

    How does this play into the hands of those that criticise Muslims for their supposed intolerance, or as some would like to believe, their bronze-aged-myths? Again, it’s really simple. When you become a ritualist, expect it to lead you down the path towards blind following. When you become a blind follower, it’s inevitable that intolerance will set in when others fail to see the merits of your rituals, especially when you’re incapable of explaining the principles and real-world value from such rituals. And that is the problem with most Muslims. They fail to see this connection. Look at the mobs and the out-of-hand protests that violate the very same principles and direct injunction of the same way of life, including the blessed personality that they profess to be defending and it’s easy to see how lost we are as an Ummah.

    Fortunately there are an increasing number of informed voices of a youth that appear to be inspired by the truth as they experience it, and as they can rationalise it based on a clear understanding and study of the most pristine sources of Islam that are speaking out against this ignorance. There are many difficult debates to still be had, but the fact that the aloofness of the present-day scholars is now being openly questioned instead of being blindly venerated is a clear sign that we’re finally emerging from the slump of cult-ish behaviour that we’ve immersed ourselves into from fear of getting things wrong.

    So freedom of speech, according to its present-day practice, is very likely, and somewhat justifiably, going to be exercised in a manner that can be deemed blasphemous by many. However, they can only successfully ridicule that which we hold sacred if we conduct ourselves in a manner that feeds such ridicule. There will always be irreverent idiots out there that despite the most convincing arguments, will always arrogantly hold fast to their ideologies that justify such condescension and ridicule even where none is justified, but the irony is that they are in fact a reflection of the behaviour of many Muslims today, just with the absence of faith in Allah. Perhaps when those mainstream Muslims realise this, they may just allow themselves an opportunity to think, rationalise, and appreciate the true beauty of what Islam offers them, rather than just stubbornly observing rituals without any consideration or understanding for its intended purpose.

    I could continue for hours on end discussing the contradictions between what Muslim claim to stand for these days, versus what their actions reveal, but I don’t think it’s necessary. The fact that we’re fair game for ridicule these days proves this point sufficiently.

  • That Thing Called Free Will

    It occurred to me tonight that it is entirely in the interests of atheists to discount, or at least attempt to disprove the reality of free will. In the absence of free will, it’s easy to argue that our actions and decisions are nothing more than elaborate sequences of instinctive behaviour hard wired into our brains. The more we experience, the greater our ability to present individuality because of the increased variables that influence our behaviour.

    However, such a theory falls far short of explaining the reason why we are able to actively and consciously choose between multiple outcomes of equal benefit. It also fails to address the reason behind us being able to consciously act against our instinctive responses. In fact, in the absence of free will, can we even claim to be conscious beings? Being conscious, being aware, being lucid all imply that there is an intelligence that allows us to acquire, grasp, and process information, and then do something meaningful, or at the least, something deliberate with that information. Even choosing not to act when action is prompted is further proof of this free will that we have.

    In considering all this, I find it somewhat amusing that many, especially atheists who pride themselves in being scientifically grounded, find it necessary to first prove that we have free will through scientific means despite the evidence that we live out on a daily basis that confirms our ability to choose independent of instinct.

    It reminds me of the ridiculous approach that we take towards life and health these days. For centuries we’ve known that chicken soup is healthy and aids in our recovery from cold or flu symptoms. Yet it was denounced by the ‘scientifically adept’ community of health professionals because no scientist took the time to understand and therefore prove the benefit that it provides. Don’t believe me? Read this. Yet if I were to take every atheist and scientist seriously, I’d have to discard the wisdom of the ages that was not grounded in scientific research, and wait patiently for them to come up with remedies that actually deal with the root causes of illnesses rather than their creative ways of dealing with the symptoms instead.

    Atheists, in all my discussions with them to date, have proven to be extremely myopic in their view of the world. They insist that their independence of religious dogma (which can also be argued to be a false notion of theirs) raises them above the ‘sheep’ that subscribe to theistic scriptures and principles. If I were to take the example of the chicken soup a step further, such a simple matter that took scientists possibly millennia to figure out benefited millions of people in the meantime. How? Through simple observation and common sense. So to apply this to the concept of creation, and therefore a creator, why should I abandon my belief system in there being a god until such time as some scientist in a distant time and place is able to confirm what I knew all along through simple observation and common sense?

    It simply doesn’t make sense, does it? The atheistic mind set that is. Abandon all knowledge unless scientifically proven and acquired, and collaborate with your peers to determine what is best for society because morality has no divine basis. The argument is so flawed that it’s almost entirely ludicrous.

    Oh, in my ramblings I forgot to make the point I started out trying to make. Why is it convenient for atheists to discount free will? Simple. If we have free will, it implies intelligent design. Intelligent design implies intelligent creation. And, you guessed it, intelligent creation implies an intelligent creator. It all flies in the face of the parts of the theories of evolution that suggests that we simply evolved into intelligent beings after originating from a single celled amoeba, or some crock like that. Even that single celled amoeba has a specific function and purpose, and I challenge any atheist to explain what cause an amoeba to be an amoeba. And when they explain that, I’d like to hear them explain what causes the cause of the amoeba to be an amoeba to be the cause of the cause of the amoeba. See how ridiculous infinite regression and the insane theories of causality can be?

    Yet atheists fancy themselves as being the only intelligent free thinking beings around. I beg to differ.

  • A Rant About The Petty Impotence of Muslims

    We had an interesting incident at work today. It was related to a new prayer facility that we managed to obtain from the company in recent months. The pettiness and irrationality of today’s incident made it clear why the Ummah is in the state that it’s in. This might sound overly dramatic, or it might even sound petty in its own right, but the underlying principles struck me as exceptionally concerning because of the way it plays out in much greater issues than what took place today.

    The incident involved the installation of carpets in our new facility. The carpets are specifically designed for mosques, so it has patterns that guide the rows that we stand in to perform salaah. The fact that there is real cause for concern regarding the direction that the carpets face relative to what was previously agreed to be the direction of the qibla is a separate issue. However, in the installation of the carpets, the project manager forgot to set aside a section at the entrance to the room to be tiled so that we could enter the room before removing our shoes. As a result, the practice for the last couple of weeks was to remove our shoes outside the room in the common use area which is a high traffic corridor shared by all employees, and then step into the room with shoes in hand to be placed in the provided shoe racks.

    Last week we agreed to place down a strip of tape to demarcate the salaah area from the entrance to the room so that it was easy to determine which area could be stepped on with shoes, and which not. After salaah today the changes were announced. I later received an email advising me that some ‘brothers’ took exception to this common sense approach. They apparently didn’t feel it was right to step on the carpeted area inside the door because it was a single piece with the area that we performed salaah in. Is it just me, or is this seriously ridiculous logic?

    So I asked what the basis for such a decision was, since I’m quite certain that it has absolutely no basis in the Sunnah and in fact inconveniences the Muslims that wish to use the facility, and I was told that it would just make it easier for those that were using the facility, so we should just accept it. Makes it easier? Really? According to some nameless/faceless ‘brothers’?

    The underlying principles that I complained about at the beginning of this post relates to the willingness to give way to common sense in the enforcement of petty personal preferences. It has a distinct undertone of extremism that has no basis in Islam, and cannot be justified in any reasonable manner. But we’re loathe to object because of our need to pacify those that hold sway, rather than speak out against such pettiness.

    This same inclination to give in to personal preferences over what is specifically allowed or forbidden in Islam is exactly the source for so many contaminants of culture that have soiled the simplicity of Islam. I wondered about the precedent already set in almost every other mosque where a single piece of carpet extends between the official boundary of the mosque and what is deemed to be the outside of the mosque for purposes of i’tikaaf, and it simply caused me to struggle even more with the ridiculous logic being subscribed to in this instance.

    This must seem really petty, but it’s the pettiness of it that seems to carry the theme of the Ummah these days. We’ll strike out in full fury to defend the honour of Rasulullah (SAW) when some idiot makes a second rate movie that received almost no attention prior to our mob-like behaviour, but remain silent when innocent Muslim men and women are assaulted, harassed, murdered, abused, raped, molested, mutilated and worse. Is it because we’re incapable of behaving honourably, that we find it necessary to seek honour in defending something in a manner that is not even sanctioned in Islam? It’s this same mindset that has created suicide bombers and indiscriminate attacks on unarmed civilians including women and children and the elderly, simply because this same irrational logic that we allow to perpetuate in the Ummah is used to justify our actions where cowardly acts are easier to enforce than having a backbone and taking a principled and bold stand against the injustices that we profess to want to avenge.

    Muslims have earned the scorn and contempt of the disbelievers, most definitely not because Islam is prone to attracting such vile criticism, but simply because we’ve become petty and impotent to the point of having inane debates about simple logic and sectarian bull, while pretending to be defenceless when faced with the responsibility of protecting the honour and dignity of those we are responsible for.

  • On Atheists, Cartoons, And Muslim Mobs

    There is nothing so bad that there is no good in it. This has proven to be true in every challenge or struggle I’ve ever experienced in my life. Most recently it has once again proven true in my engagements with a group of atheists on Facebook. I’m constantly cautioned by those around me that engaging with them is a futile exercise and will only create doubts in my own mind about what I believe to be true. I respectfully disagree.

    By engaging with these atheists, I am forced to rationalise my beliefs, my faith, my subscription to a set of laws that have proven to transcend specific periods of time, and in this there is much to be gained. It confirms that man-made laws have to constantly be adapted to cater for the changes in society, but laws based on sound principles are applicable at every stage of human development.

    Muslims generally avoid taking a critical view of Islam because of the fear-mongering Imams that discourage such questioning. If you believe in something blindly, can that really be called faith or iman? Assuming that it can be considered as iman, how is blind belief ever going to strengthen that iman? Will that iman not then stifle and be fragile the moment it is challenged rationally by one that does not hold Islam in such high regard? Isn’t it then true that by not rationalising or clarifying your beliefs or at least trying to understand the logic behind the Islamic injunctions, you’re actually exposing yourself to a greater risk of misguidance or deviation, let alone the risk of being ‘convinced’ that your belief system is not credible, thereby resulting in you either holding on because of the fear of letting go, rather than holding on because you actually believe? Worse still, doesn’t it then expose you to the very real possibility of having that iman stripped away from you because of doubts that others could sow in your heart?

    I strongly oppose the views of many that suggest that we must simply do and not question. How we question is the critical differentiator. But that we must question is unquestionable. That we must understand is undeniable. Yet we have mobs of Muslims running through the streets destroying private property in their display of outrage in defence of the image of Rasulullah (SAW) whilst at the same time being oblivious to the fact that Rasulullah (SAW) himself or his companions never responded in such a despicable or barbaric manner when the very person of our beloved prophet was directly and infinitely more abused and attacked by the disbelievers in Mecca and Taif and so many other incidents. When the entrails of a goat was thrown on Rasulullah (SAW) he didn’t pronounce the death sentence over those that did it. When he was stoned out of Taif and had the opportunity to have the entire town destroyed, he made dua for them to be guided and didn’t rally the companions into mobs to harass or destroy the property of anyone that got in the way of their ‘protest’.

    This dignity and patience is absent in the mobs that profess to be protesting in the name of defending the honour of Islam and the Prophet (SAW). All they’re doing is revealing their barbaric tendencies and ignorance of the true values that Islam inculcates in us. I still maintain that the Muslims are directly responsible for the tarnished image of Islam today. If we conducted ourselves with integrity and dignity in line with Islamic principles, we would be above the reproach that is being levelled against us, because it would have been easy for the layman atheist to even determine that any such unfounded criticism against us is exactly that, unfounded.

    It’s time to stop blaming cartoonists and pathetic attempts at sensationalism for the attack on Islam, and start looking inwardly at our own communities and personal behaviour that maligns the honour of the Prophet (SAW) much more than any despicable cartoon or video could ever do.

  • South Africa, A Nation Under Siege

    We had a security incident at our home tonight. It was literally a minute before midnight when I was prodded out of bed by the sound of the siren for the electric fencing screaming. In typical fashion, I loitered, somewhat from being disorientated because I was in a deep sleep, and partially because it takes me some time to completely snap into crisis mode. I slowly worked through the process of switching on the outside lights, then getting my firearm out of the safe, and then making my way to the security gate that separates our bedrooms from the main living area of the house. In between I vaguely recall going to the bathroom first before finally making my way over to the back of the house to see what was happening.

    When I pushed my curtains back, I saw an owl that could easily have been almost two feet tall standing on the parapet of the outside room. I shone the torch straight at it, and it looked at me as if I was wrong for having electric fence. I suspected that the owl had tried to sit on the top strand of the fence but caused the two strands to short circuit because of its weight, resulting in the screeching siren in the middle of the night. But this is South Africa, so you’re an idiot that’s just asking for it if you don’t make sure that all is relatively safe before you step into your own back yard at that time of the night. So I waited patiently for the security company to send out a response vehicle before venturing outside. Unfortunately, due to a poor installation by a fly-by-night contractor who was an ex-cop, my control unit for the electric fence is located in the outside room with no direct access from inside the house. It’s also not wired up to the main alarm system, which means it gets armed and disarmed independently.

    A long 20 minutes later the security company arrived by which time the alarm had been screeching for almost half an hour. I expected to receive a call from the neighbours, but no such thing happened. Not even a light was switched on. But, this is South Africa, so we’re either immune to the sound of house alarms in the middle of the night, or we’re too afraid to get involved for fear of our lives.

    I did the walkabout around the house with the armed response guy and confirmed that the top strands had shorted. We sorted it out, I reset the electric fence, and it was back to being armed and ready to irritate again. Throughout this ordeal, my mother paced restlessly in her room in the cottage in my back yard, while my wife who is an American ex-pat got her first taste of the anxiety that South Africans have grown accustomed to. If it wasn’t for the two of them, I would not have given a second thought to the incident, but realising how it affected them reminded me of exactly what hell South Africans deal with on a daily basis. However, because there’s a constant threat to our safety, we’ve grown accustomed to living at a heightened level of stress and fear.

    At that moment, when the vulnerability showed on my wife’s face, something inside me cursed deeply. It cursed the corrupt government, the inept officials that lead the police force, and it cursed the arrogance of the likes of Nathi Mthetwa and his fallen comrades who were unceremoniously dismissed from their posts after finally being exposed as the corrupt thieves that they are. The average South African burns a significant portion of their monthly income on security related services and equipment just to feel ok, not safe. High walls, electric fence, armed response, firearms (if you’re fortunate enough to have been granted a license), satellite tracking, anti smash and grab window tinting, security spikes, security gates, and the list goes on. Until recently, even those inept police officers were getting their police stations guarded by private security companies, yet we have an arrogant minister and president that believes that South Africa is safe!

    I don’t quite care about the political correctness of this article, but under apartheid, at least we knew what we were dealing with. There was a sense of community and a sense of real safety in our neighbourhoods. The most drastic measures we ever had to take was to setup neighbourhood watch groups, and then also, it was manned by the teenage boys of the area because the threat was mainly to property and not to persons. The crime associated with property theft has grown increasingly violent and sadistic since 1994, and news reports on a daily basis proves that criminals are not only getting more creative in their efforts to terrorise people, but are also getting more brazen in their attacks on both private individuals and police officers alike. And all the while our incompetent minister continues wreaking of arrogance and incompetence, while proclaiming that the police are winning the fight against crime.

    Too many South Africans have grown complacent, and are still so stuck in the past that they fail to see the country rolling downhill as a dung ball gathering mass until it settles as a heap of manure at the bottom of the hill of progress, with a finely inscribed label made of the most extravagant materials saying ‘Failed State’. I hate what the ANC has done to this country, and every person that heaps unrestrained praise on the ANC-led government for how they’ve pulverised this country into a stink-hole of morbidity needs to have their IQ retested so that we can find a spot for them in a suitable institution. Hopefully for them funding for that institution won’t be cut because of yet another scandal of untold billions of rands having been squandered or simply unaccounted for.

    This is not what we protested for in 1976, nor what we protested for in 1984. This is not what I aspired to have as my quality of life in this country when I got my first job and started paying my taxes. We give idiots a soap box to spew racial filth disguised as affirmative action and then cry when we see senseless crimes being perpetrated. We’re focusing on rewriting history by spending billions on establishing monuments and renaming roads, highways and cities while law and order is having to be upheld by the citizens and private security industries of this country at the expense of the ordinary South African who still gets taxed on those security measures that are needed because government is not doing its job to protect its citizens. It’s ludicrous!

    There are exceptions to every rule, and that is what is shameful about South Africa. The exceptions are all that’s left in the offices of public service while the norm is to deploy overpaid fat cat cadres to do the jobs of real public servants. While I’m fully aware and I acknowledge the presence of some level of competence in the public offices of this country, without which we would have arrived at the bottom of that proverbial hill already, but just because we have a semblance of competence in isolated areas of government in no way provides justification for the continued presence in office of a largely corrupt and incompetent government. We need change and we need it soon, and waiting for people with weak zips and dripping shower heads to provide that change is tantamount to signing your own death warrant. They’re too incompetent to even run their personal affairs with dignity, so how on earth are they ever going to be capable of maintaining the dignity of the ordinary South African?

  • Student Debt in the USA

    Simple truth