By Dr. Asma Anjum Khan for TwoCircles.net, , teaches English, talks a lot, read her at your own risk. Follow her: @sillyanjum]
A Face book post said.
An Afghani child falls asleep after hard work at a brick kiln. Children as young as three year olds do hard labour, as seen here.
I got curious reading the caption of this heart rending picture.
“If you’re in a better situation, “like” and say Alhamdulillah.”
I found it quite amusing too.
So everything, even such sheer heart breaking poverty and extremely wretched pitiable condition of a child [this cute kid could be our own child, just imagine.] is all about Face Book likes? Is saying, Alhamdulillah, (Praise be to God, Thanks to God) for Allah has put you and me in a better situation than this; enough? Or is it akin to feeling satisfied and relieved that, thank God, I don’t suffer this and I have so much and my children are well-fed and not facing this harshness? How many of us including myself would think, ponder, and feel agitated enough to decide to adopt simplicity in our ways of living ,so that we could then help those of our kids, brothers and sisters in humanity, who are not fortunate enough to see this Face Book post and say or write Alhmadulillah or Praise be to God? Yes, donating the extra cash or earning more for the sake of charity is an option; this is easier.
Difficult is adopting simplicity in our habits of living. Right?
(But why should we be doing so when we can donate that extra cash?)
Plus more the money, more the greed to hoard.
True?
The empathy one feels when one has gone through or at least seen, observed or felt, at some level, the same pangs of hunger, loss or deprivation, is something different, something true. It’s not like that Maggi sauce, which is different because it’s different. But because it’s really; really different.
Can we improve things?
Without simplicity in the ways of living it would be hard to improve things. Also think this way. Following and observing of flamboyant life styles, where we flaunt, assembly line clothing, gizmos with features changing before you can change your T-shirt or color of lipstick , or luxury cars etc. ; sends waves after waves of depression among the, ”oh-not –so-privileged”, sections of the people. Then what begins is a ruthless rush and pursuit of getting the ’same’. It’s a total disaster after that. Chaos and nothing but chaos. Today these ‘desire sparks’ are ignited, mainly by our advertising industry.
The result?
A Blind society whose moral fabric has been torn to pieces, where teenagers murder their friends because they wanted money to recharge their mobiles.
Just an instance for example.
Our extravagance, our luxurious ways of life spark a sense of insignificance, and sorry lament in those who do not have or do not have enough. Earning wealth through appropriate means is never a crime but making a deliberate show of it, certainly is.
“The added insult is to be aware of one’s poverty “. Says, the ever profound Maya Angelou the Black American writer.
Interestingly Maya blames Television for this sense of deprivation and regret among the masses. Earlier we didn’t know that we do not have that designer sari, that Tommy Hilfiger shirt that Pantaloon, (and aah that iPhone 6!) but television has made it quite obvious, difficult to ignore and in your face’, kind of thing. When the blatant display of wealth is seen, the disadvantaged poor begin to question themselves, “Why them and why not us? The furnace of this internal wrath can pour out into the streets and foment riots, unrest. It leads to anger, resentment, deep regrets about life and one’s own self, turning them into misfits of the society; ready to implode, any time. A society, Maya says is as wealthy as its most deprived.
Islam strictly forbids people from provoking such fissures among members of the society. Simplicity is the essence of Islam and if we do not truly understand the essence of Prophet Muhammad PBUH’s ways of leading a life, a life full of austerity and devoid of extravagance of every kind; such heart breaking pictures would keep appearing and perhaps, insensitive people like me/us would either keep liking it or post comments on it.
We will be questioned about our excessiveness, our extravagance, on the Day of Judgment; and it won’t be enough to say, “O, Allah, I liked and posted my comment on such horrific pics and issues, what else did you want me to do? “
To tell you the truth, this SIMPLICITY issue has become my pet peeve. I speak among women with my little knowledge and they do seem to understand but when the time comes, I see that same profligacy and wastefulness on occasions. Apart from that a few of my relations and friends attack me vehemently when I say;
Simplicity is the essence of Islam.
Because, for them it’s no crime to enjoy the wealth one has created and be extravagant, with it. While the correct thing would be to believe that, this wealth is an Amanah for us given by our Creator and we are accountable, for it and also will be asked where and how we spend/t it. My Prophet Muhammad PBUH’s home used to go without active fire for two consecutive months. No cooked food for two successive months! Imagine! Add to this, the simplest ways of living adopted by him and his caring and spending for the needy .[ Important to mention, we don’t need to starve ourselves for two months but there is a need to practice austerity in its right proper context, in the right proportion and in the right proper way.]…and here we have Muslims who think it no wrong to spend huge huge amounts on marriages, luxury items, touring the world for recreational purposes …all this has become the norm. And our voice of advocating Simplicity and moderation becomes a butt of their jokes.
This is our level of sensitivity for an injured child. It’s all about Face book likes you see.
About wealth:
Wealth doesn’t come alone. When it comes, it is accompanied often by selfishness, greed and a growling insensitivity. It also makes its possessor a little bit devoid of soul, a little hard hearted. You might have seen the spikes planted in, on the front yards of some of the posh housing societies and shopping malls so as the poor do not enjoy their sitting-inns and sleepovers there. This is cruel.
Ours is a religion that tells us to take care of people’s sensitivities, their sentiments, in a most elaborate way and to the extent that:
Do not throw away the fruit peels you have eaten with your family, out there. The neighborhood children would be reminded of not having tasted it.
Our Prophet Muhammad P.B.U.H. speaks to us this way, and he is asking us to be careful of other people’s sentiments and not to make them conscious of their deprivations, through our careless ways.
(On a side note how can a religion, and it’s Prophet who is so sensitive towards people’s sentiments and warn their followers to be careful in not hurting them in the smallest ways imaginable, terror monger? This Prophet even goes to the extent of asking the Muslims to throw away the peels of fruits had by them in their own trash bins lest it be seen by their neighbors! This is to save the deprived people from possible hurt remorse and regret.)
He Prophet Muhammad PBUH has specifically asked us to never make a display[show] of our prosperity through such and other ways,
Hey, I remember here our marriages and the Insensitivity Scenes shown there; how some women are dolled up in gold from head to toe; glittering gold dolls and you know nah how when some women are dressed in gold. This Gold Greed of our females appears impossibly unbelievable for me.
What female heart can gold despise?
What cat’s averse to fish? — (Thomas Gray’s lines from a 1757 poem )
These Golden Girls hog the whole limelight. This leaves those with less or nothing of the sort, struggling to search for a seat and someone to sit together with. [How is it different from his PBUH’s command to not throw away the fruit peels and save the neighbors from envying us?] Our marriage scenes are insensitive places coupled with hypocrisy. A man, sorry a woman’s worth is measured by the weight of gold she is donning! Can you believe this? Heavy weights win and (poor) feather weights lose.
Obviously.
Now how many Face book likes for these Golden Girls and cute little Afghani children who fall asleep during duty hours and neglect work and annoy their masters and may be get beaten up too?
Sound punishment for them, you said?
Aah! I just clicked that like button!
Our Sensitivity Quotient, it seems is at an all time low.