The Search for Humanity
20:00
Ramadan Mubarak to all my celebrating followers!
As promised, this is me kick-starting my Ramadan series; you can read last year's journal entries here and for a quick mini guide to ensuring this month is a fulfilling and spiritual one, here are my top ten Ramadan tips and tricks. As always, I wish an incredibly blessed month for you all; may we find the spiritual awakening we so desperately search for and crave, and may we be blessed with the strength to work on our spiritual journey throughout and after its passing. Welcoming you into this beautiful and holy month fills me with a subdued excitement this year because I, alongside Muslims not just across the UK but across the globe, enter it with a melancholic air. It's with an almost heavy heart that I'm putting this post out there today.
In light of recent events, it felt only fitting to write about the lost humanity that chokes us with every fresh wave of terror that shakes us to our core. I feel like we're now living in an era that's bleak and fuelled by so much hate and poisonous ideologies, twisted, messed up versions of the truth that drive insane and horrific crimes against humanity that in turn fuels a fierce backlash against a population of people who wish they could tell you that they feel your pain too. Because we do feel it. Waking up to Monday's devastating headlines about the cold-blooded murder of innocent young children broke our hearts just as much as it broke yours. You may not believe it, you might not want to believe it, but we felt its impact just as much as you did. Not because it was unfairly done in our name, or because we fear how people will hate us even more than they did before - but because the sheer agony of not knowing whether your child will walk back in through that front door, is unimaginable and we wouldn't want a soul in the world to suffer it. The unlawful killing of innocents breaks every moral code and we only have to be human to know it. Religion doesn't even come into it. It is the humanity that bleeds through our veins that made us wish the death toll wouldn't keep climbing; that made us wish we weren't being painted with the same brush because we mourned when the nation mourned; that made us wish we could turn back the clock and save those young victims from a fate no one deserves.
I can't even begin to tell you how helpless it makes us feel when someone launches an insane, useless, cowardly act of terror - and does it in our name. Or how frustrated it makes us feel when our faith is branded as corrupt or evil, when it is a faith that vehemently condemns the smallest act of violence, never mind the taking of human life, and preaches consistently about the sanctity of life itself. So much so that the taking of our own life is forbidden because the sheer act of breathing, the fact that you and I have the steady beat of a heart behind our rib cage is a gift. It is a gift so sacred and precious that the absurdity of individuals labelling themselves a hero or a martyr in destroying it, makes us want to tear our hair out and scream in frustration. Believe me when I tell you that every time it happens, a little piece of our heart chips away for every life lost, in knowing that a select few relish the opportunity to shatter and divide a society that we are only ever proud to be a part of - and that we are grateful for. We recognise it; the freedom to practise our faith, the tolerance and acceptance, the love and solidarity we're shown in the face of adversity each time it happens, not just on home turf but anywhere in the world. And believe me when I tell you that we know we don't deserve it. I wish we could do more, I wish there was something we could say or do to change the dark, inhumane world we now live in but the truth of the matter is, it will never bring those kids back. It will never erase the sharp pain that has been inflicted on innocent victims, and it will never alter the poisonous, ingrained rhetoric that tarnishes a population that only ever want to see peace.
My blog is by no means a political vent space, nor is it a political platform to advocate for such issues, but I do want to address this particular point, especially in this particular month. Educate the kids of this generation about their faith because that's where we're going wrong. Educate them about what's right and wrong, enlighten them with the truth instead of exposing them to a warped, distorted interpretation of their faith that is so often presented by the uneducated. Give their faith context instead of letting it be open to false connotations that triggers this vicious cycle of murdering innocents. And educate those that aren't of our faith so that the brunt of the backlash isn't so harsh, so that the people who are angry and resentful towards our faith - and understandably so - can learn the truth too. How else do we expect them to stand by our side, when all they've ever known and heard is the twisted version of the truth. It's a double-edged sword and it's one we need to break because there's no other way to combat this war on terror, our World War III that comes with no face or flag or motive.
My message to you this Ramadan is educate. Educate through your actions; Ramadan is about reconnecting with God and rebuilding spiritually but it's also - if not more importantly - about reaching out to others. My message to those of you celebrating this blessed month is to simply show that humanity prevails. The little acts of kindness that you may brush under the carpet or consider insignificant, those could be life-changing acts of compassion that prove how your faith defines you and changes a person's perspective on what it teaches. Live and breathe your faith so that it educates. That alone has so much power.
Focus on what makes us so fundamentally human; be selfish in your prayers and your personal growth, but don't forget the bigger picture. Pray for the lives that are lost not just in the UK and the West, but the lives that are lost in the conflicts raging on in other parts of the world. For them, our current reality is their reality every second of every day. The bombs and gunshots and explosives are a soundtrack on replay in their fragile lives - the blood that spills on British soil is worth just as much as the blood that spills through the cracks in the concrete in broken Aleppo. Pray for peace as much as you pray for your career and your wealth and your family. Because the latter will mean nothing in a world ravaged by stone cold hearts, cruel intentions and bloodthirsty executions.
As promised, this is me kick-starting my Ramadan series; you can read last year's journal entries here and for a quick mini guide to ensuring this month is a fulfilling and spiritual one, here are my top ten Ramadan tips and tricks. As always, I wish an incredibly blessed month for you all; may we find the spiritual awakening we so desperately search for and crave, and may we be blessed with the strength to work on our spiritual journey throughout and after its passing. Welcoming you into this beautiful and holy month fills me with a subdued excitement this year because I, alongside Muslims not just across the UK but across the globe, enter it with a melancholic air. It's with an almost heavy heart that I'm putting this post out there today.
In light of recent events, it felt only fitting to write about the lost humanity that chokes us with every fresh wave of terror that shakes us to our core. I feel like we're now living in an era that's bleak and fuelled by so much hate and poisonous ideologies, twisted, messed up versions of the truth that drive insane and horrific crimes against humanity that in turn fuels a fierce backlash against a population of people who wish they could tell you that they feel your pain too. Because we do feel it. Waking up to Monday's devastating headlines about the cold-blooded murder of innocent young children broke our hearts just as much as it broke yours. You may not believe it, you might not want to believe it, but we felt its impact just as much as you did. Not because it was unfairly done in our name, or because we fear how people will hate us even more than they did before - but because the sheer agony of not knowing whether your child will walk back in through that front door, is unimaginable and we wouldn't want a soul in the world to suffer it. The unlawful killing of innocents breaks every moral code and we only have to be human to know it. Religion doesn't even come into it. It is the humanity that bleeds through our veins that made us wish the death toll wouldn't keep climbing; that made us wish we weren't being painted with the same brush because we mourned when the nation mourned; that made us wish we could turn back the clock and save those young victims from a fate no one deserves.
I can't even begin to tell you how helpless it makes us feel when someone launches an insane, useless, cowardly act of terror - and does it in our name. Or how frustrated it makes us feel when our faith is branded as corrupt or evil, when it is a faith that vehemently condemns the smallest act of violence, never mind the taking of human life, and preaches consistently about the sanctity of life itself. So much so that the taking of our own life is forbidden because the sheer act of breathing, the fact that you and I have the steady beat of a heart behind our rib cage is a gift. It is a gift so sacred and precious that the absurdity of individuals labelling themselves a hero or a martyr in destroying it, makes us want to tear our hair out and scream in frustration. Believe me when I tell you that every time it happens, a little piece of our heart chips away for every life lost, in knowing that a select few relish the opportunity to shatter and divide a society that we are only ever proud to be a part of - and that we are grateful for. We recognise it; the freedom to practise our faith, the tolerance and acceptance, the love and solidarity we're shown in the face of adversity each time it happens, not just on home turf but anywhere in the world. And believe me when I tell you that we know we don't deserve it. I wish we could do more, I wish there was something we could say or do to change the dark, inhumane world we now live in but the truth of the matter is, it will never bring those kids back. It will never erase the sharp pain that has been inflicted on innocent victims, and it will never alter the poisonous, ingrained rhetoric that tarnishes a population that only ever want to see peace.
My blog is by no means a political vent space, nor is it a political platform to advocate for such issues, but I do want to address this particular point, especially in this particular month. Educate the kids of this generation about their faith because that's where we're going wrong. Educate them about what's right and wrong, enlighten them with the truth instead of exposing them to a warped, distorted interpretation of their faith that is so often presented by the uneducated. Give their faith context instead of letting it be open to false connotations that triggers this vicious cycle of murdering innocents. And educate those that aren't of our faith so that the brunt of the backlash isn't so harsh, so that the people who are angry and resentful towards our faith - and understandably so - can learn the truth too. How else do we expect them to stand by our side, when all they've ever known and heard is the twisted version of the truth. It's a double-edged sword and it's one we need to break because there's no other way to combat this war on terror, our World War III that comes with no face or flag or motive.
My message to you this Ramadan is educate. Educate through your actions; Ramadan is about reconnecting with God and rebuilding spiritually but it's also - if not more importantly - about reaching out to others. My message to those of you celebrating this blessed month is to simply show that humanity prevails. The little acts of kindness that you may brush under the carpet or consider insignificant, those could be life-changing acts of compassion that prove how your faith defines you and changes a person's perspective on what it teaches. Live and breathe your faith so that it educates. That alone has so much power.
Focus on what makes us so fundamentally human; be selfish in your prayers and your personal growth, but don't forget the bigger picture. Pray for the lives that are lost not just in the UK and the West, but the lives that are lost in the conflicts raging on in other parts of the world. For them, our current reality is their reality every second of every day. The bombs and gunshots and explosives are a soundtrack on replay in their fragile lives - the blood that spills on British soil is worth just as much as the blood that spills through the cracks in the concrete in broken Aleppo. Pray for peace as much as you pray for your career and your wealth and your family. Because the latter will mean nothing in a world ravaged by stone cold hearts, cruel intentions and bloodthirsty executions.
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