SENTIENCE
Awareness precedes transformation, and becoming fully conscious requires a deliberate cognitive, emotional and interpretive connection with God and the world. If we are to progress meaningfully, the reckoning must examine the causality of things instead of solely focusing on their symptomatic expression.
My analysis of the world suggests that it is not in a happy place. Societies are becoming more and more fragmented. People are living in a perpetual state of agitation, dysphoria and disquietude. Anxiety is ubiquitous, and suicide is at an all-time high. Material acquisitions are fleeting, yet we still use retail therapy to fill the spiritual void that plagues us. Fame fails. Our lives will remain devoid of meaning when fettered to other than the Divine. Feeling incessantly economically insecure implies faith deficiency. Economic injustice is widespread. Yes, 85 of the wealthiest people own more money than the combined wealth of 3.5 billion people. First Nation peoples the world over still suffer injustice. The earth is suffering from our exploitation of her; racism is an abomination, and many still face this evil daily. With its proliferation, screens are now omnipresent in every culture, and societies are distracted more than ever. We perpetually seek entertainment and become more disconnected as a result. When atomised, we become easy pickings for those who wish to divide and rule and subjugate us to a new form of imperialism enforced not by an army but by corporations. The largest 100 corporations produce seven trillion dollars in sales and have the power to control governments. These fell corporations occupy most of our shared spaces and dominate our consciousness with their strange philosophies. Many of us today imbibe these philosophies and deem them absolute.
The protracted colonisation of our minds has reduced them to fossils incapable of breaking free of the bonds of this illusory world and its systems. The ruling class wants us to believe that the current political, employment, financial, commercial, educational, healthcare and societal systems are absolute. But these are only human constructs, and we can and must change them for the betterment of all.
What we are guilty of is similar to the refrain in Surah Baqarah when Allah says:
“‘Rather, we will follow what we found our fathers doing.’ Even though their fathers understood nothing, nor were they guided?” [2:170]
In yet another refrain, albeit from reggae lyrical vibes, is Bob Marley’s cry: ‘Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery.’
Freedom from the assault of empire is what Muhammad (s) tirelessly fought. Long before he was a Prophet, he knew that a hedonistic and unequal society in all its hues was a wretched one.
Yet today, the colonial project remains successful. So successful that it could free us from our physical bonds, give us a choice to write a new destiny, and still know that we would choose the will of our imperial masters above a better-shared future for all.
Disabusing ourselves of our hegemonic proclivities and eradicating them from our societal systems is vital to better organise our societies, politics, economies, education and religion with new methods that serve everyone.
Pre-Islamic Arabia was a hedonistic society. One thousand four hundred years later, a post-modern Cape Town and the world suffer the same ills.
So what’s the answer?
A revolution. And we seek the way in God’s final Prophet (s).
Muhammad (s) and his message (al-Quran) were revolutionary and are the balance needed in this otherwise polarised world.
THE UNIVERSAL MAN
The Prophet (s) life transcended the anatomical and the material. Muhammad (s) challenged the dominant narrative. His message was counterintuitive, not because it wasn’t natural, but because people had separated from their spiritual selves. They’ve become atomised.
He (s) came to teach us that nothing is separate and we are all connected.
He was the universal Prophet, sent with a universal message to all humanity.
The Prophet’s impartiality and love for justice allowed him to draft the Jews into the Charter of Madinah, illustrating that the right to equal liberties exists in our humanity.
So, how can we be considered the Ummah (followers) of Muhammad (s) if we don’t extend goodness to all?
Who are we?
Who do we become when we wrap ourselves in organisational nouns?
Will we become tattered and torn, tired, worn out, and soiled like their logos?
To war for residence in that which decay;
To enshrine human constructs in absolutism is idolatry.
Idolism enslaves.
Surrendering to Divine instruction liberates.
Thine Will, O God, not mine.
Until next week, InshaAllah
Zaahied Sallie
Author of The Beloved Prophet – An Illustrated Biography in Rhyme
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