It’s my Life

Fajr Reminders - Mahmood Habib Masjid and Islamic Center

We live in a paradoxical world. We are knowledgeable about the earth but are burning it up at a pace which is out of control. We are knowledgeable about health but disease, especially mental illness is in rampant proportions. We collectively have enormous wealth, but its distribution ensures that vast populations are deprived, even starving, while a few live in luxury. We have moved from physical conquest of countries to proxy wars which can provide never-ending ROI for weapons manufacturers. It is not a war to conquer land but to achieve macroeconomic goals while making profit for both sides. The devastation of cities and nations is an opportunity for contracts to rebuild which means more profit. The deaths of civilians is collateral damage mourned only by their families. The fastest spreading religion in our world is Materialism and its presiding deity is money. It runs on the illusion of fiat currency, its temples are banks, and its high priests are those who manipulate interest rates to enrich and impoverish people and nations at will. In our world, sin is good, greed is virtue, cruelty is nobility, anything that makes money for those in control is good, lying is the biggest talent, and truth is evil. We are living in a stupor in a 3-D surround sound theatre, wearing virtual reality glasses and anyone who tries to wake us up to the reality of our lives, is brutally silenced, so that it becomes a salutary warning for others. We have assets. What we have lost is our moral compass. We are like a very powerful car speeding downhill without brakes. Our speed is exhilarating, but the end is obvious and inevitable. The rise and fall of civilizations is not based on how much wealth they have but on how it is used. That depends on their values. Values decide how assets are used. That is destiny and it is in our hands. The biggest casualty of this state of affairs in our brave new world is the almost total collapse of credibility. Today we trust nobody, believe nobody and suspect everyone. Politicians, religious leaders, business heads, teachers, media, doctors, attorneys, parents, spouses, children, and elders; we don’t believe any of them. We are constantly looking for second opinions in the name of trying to be accurate. The truth is that we do it because we don’t believe anyone. Our society feeds us a constant diet of bad news, usually exaggerated. We never hear or think about the enormous good that there is in our world today. The result of this way of life is stress, anxiety, and depression. You can’t live in a constant state of fear. And its effect shows. There is a solution to all this and that is to rebuild our faith. To return to the standard that was taught and exemplified by Rasoolullahﷺ. A standard of life that was birthed in a society very similar to ours with similar materialistic motivations. He taught us how to deal with it in practice. His time and life were the pilot project, proof of concept that Islam works. His way, the Sunnah proves that Islam is not merely a theory, philosophy, or concept, but like Judo or Aikido, Islam is a practice. Like all practices, it must be practiced if you want to benefit from it. Merely knowing about it or having academic discussions is of no use. Allahﷻ drew our attention to it and called Rasoolullahﷺ and his way, the best choice for anyone who looks forward to meeting Allahﷻ and the Day of Judgment. If we follow him we will benefit. So, do values matter? Think of values as a life jacket. The time you need to hold onto it and wear it openly is when you're in the flood. When you're on dry land it doesn't matter. But when you're caught in a flood, in danger of drowning, that’s when you need those values most. We need to hold onto our values especially when things are difficult. Sometimes people ask, “Why should I do it when nobody else is doing it?” I say, “I should do it especially when nobody is doing it because if I don't, there'll be nobody else doing it.