more than slightly sickening
lately i’ve been getting the feeling of nausea, thinking about the distance we’ve put between ourselves and our fitra. balking at the emptiness that can be human existence. (pause: i know, there are good things out there) how does one *exist* without thinking about the nature of existence? how does one go about finding peace that way…by just existing without thinking? i’m not talking about formal education; i’m talking common sense. i was on a bus full of 30, 40, 50something women (it was a women’s leadership event) yesterday when the storm hit- sheets, buckets, cats and dogs of rain, trees blowing over, all traffic lights out. and in the initial moments i heard laughter, as if they were on a roller coaster or something. not just general laughter- but laughter at the weather and situation specifically. i’m not asking for people to become fearful, but at least aware! are you not aware? can you ignore your own fitra so much as to be foolish in the face of something so out of your control? there’s a reason young children get so nervous when they see lightning and hear thunder. why animals start taking cover, settling down, getting quiet. and yet, i’m not supposed to blame people. i’m supposed to give the benefit of the doubt- they just don’t know. or whatever.
but it’s a greater sick-to-my-stomach feeling, one that supersedes just the individual human…dilemma. it’s a total unease with the very way our society is set up. the government where popular vote is (outvoted?) by closed door meetings, where if the power goes out for a day whole cities suffer tremendously, where we use potable water to wash cars, where our immense materialism blinds us from anything and everything regarding stuff so simple as our own hearts, minds, spirituality.
my biggest headache? the suburbs. born and raised in the suburbs, i can no longer stand them. the feeling in the pit of my stomach just gets worse the more i drive around and think about it. suburban sprawl is one of the ugliest problems facing america today, in my opinion.
and you know, i just have a hard time reconciling the benefits of technology with alllll the apparent negative aspects. the problem is that while the benefits are often immediately apparent and helpful, the damage occurs much further down the road- antibiotics, for example. good intentions! and seemingly miraculous cures! baaaaad effects down the line. for pete’s christ’s sake, if you’re one of those habitual purell users- please? stop? the commercials that tell me how it’s gonna kill 99.9% of bacteria make me sick, too. first off, for all of 1 second- before the atmosphere deposits more on your skin, or heaven forbid, you turn a doorknob (which is probably “dirtier” than eating off the ground, right?). second, not all bacteria are bad. third, you could spend your money on something much more useful. the list goes on.
just, please, think. be extremely, annoyingly, critical of all the norms this society imposes on us. it’ll be good for your soul, i promise.
hijabihoodlum
June 7th, 2008 at 5:44 am
You should get Eric Voegelin’s “Modernity without Restraint: Science, Politics, and Gnosticism and the Political Religions,” for a good critique of postmodern nihilistic materialism! And you should also get C.S. Lewis’ “The Abolition of Man” for a great argument about how man’s very nature and soul is being abolished and simple and absolute right and wrong now become prohibited to teach to school children who know better than us and how this is destroying society. Lastly on the list, you should get the Muslim writer, Ibn Tufail’s Hayy ibn Yaqzan, or translated in English as “The Awakening of the Soul” which although did contain some errors (Ibn Nafis, the inventor of opthalmology and a big sheikh corrected him later) discusses a baby born an island who ponders the universe and the nature of man and arrives at knowledge of God and natural law by following the natural order (or “fitri order”).
A side note: John Locke read Hayy ibn Yaqzan before writing his “Two Treatises on Government” which discussed limited government and human rights and influenced Thomas Jefferson and our government. Muslim CONNECTION yo.
Those 3 books, only one being by a Muslim, offer a much better answer to modern society and suburban life than I could ever do. And as a plus, they also reject the radicalism and self-alienation which comes out of people who reject this form of life. Instead they call for harmony with the natural order (”the fitra” the natural way of things). It was the great Imam Ali who once said, “justice is putting everything in ITS NATURAL ORDER.” If you want a very good book on the natural order and fitra of things, there is one which Dr. Robert Crane the former National Security Council Deputy Director under Nixon who is now a converted Muslim, recommends highly - and that is Russell Kirk’s “Roots of American Order.”
Kirk strongly attacks modern American society and seeks a return to the natural order. For an Islamic version of this argument a long time prior read Ibn Khaldun’s al-Muqaddimah where he argues that while property rights (”haqq al-mal, the third of the maqasid or higher intents of the shari’ah), freedom, and tradition must be respected in a good civilization oftentimes the luxury of the sensate overwhelms a society into laziness in all of these things which lead to the revolt against tradition and traditional moral behaviors as well as property injustice by the government - both of them are the key to civilizational decline according to Khaldun.
The impetus of decline is the revolt against the natural order. The impetus of rise is the conformance with the natural order. This is a very abstract statement, but it also enters into religion very strongly. The late Sheikh ‘Ali al-Nadwi for example writes in his beautiful Sira, why Allah chose the Arabs for his final Message, and concludes one reason why is because the jahiliyah Arabs although they were backwards and ignorant still displayed some conformance with the natural order (al-fitra) (Hatem al-Ta’i was the great generous person, the Arabs were hospitable at that time and had strong family ties, they also believed in chivalrous and dignified conduct) and these areas were preserved by the Islamic message while correcting the bad points of jahiliyah (infanticide, alcoholism, sexual promiscuity).
Sorry I always write an essay. But still pray for this sinful one.
wa ‘alaykum as salam.
June 13th, 2008 at 2:44 am
May Allah Almighty make the Ummah more aware of our fitra and give us guidance to act upon the teachings of Islam, ameen.