Sitting your life away...

With roughly a third to a fourth of our life spent in slumber, our opportunity to experience all the possibilities of waking life is limited from the outset. Why then, in this modern world of hustle and bustle, when time is money and the pace is frenetic, do we modern folk spend most of our time with our rump rooted to a single spot? Whether it's at home at the dining table, in front of our computer at work, at the movie theater or wherever else, we spend an inordinate amount of time in the standard sitting position of back straight/slumped, thighs forward, and legs draping a cushioned seat in a chair.

Whereas our ancestors had no problems using their legs for their God-given purpose, for us walking amounts to just a few brief spurts of exertion in anticipation of finding rest for wearied limbs.  Whereas for our ancestors walking was their lifestyle, for us it is a tiresome task. Why bother getting up from one's seat, strolling across the hall and interacting face-to-face with the coworker, when you can simply dial their number and get the message across? Of course, we like to give ourselves some false mental comfort that traveling around in a vehicle all day is tantamount to physical activity, while ignoring the fact that even if you are going at 100 mph, you are still sitting. Only in the modern world can we have the illusion of perpetual motion while at rest.

Experienced walkers can tell us of the subtle gifts of walking that possibly outweigh its numerous health benefits.To walk is to witness the overlooked pathways of our urban existence; the nooks and crannies most urbanites may never know of; the faces, sights and sounds that we normally experience as a blur. To walk is to feel the pace of life as it was naturally intended. Whereas for some walkers to walk is to set one's mental gears in motion, for others to walk is complete meditation and therapy.

The philosopher Henry David Thoreau, in his famous essay 'Walking', describes the leisurely stroll through the wilderness as one of life's true pleasures. Each daily walk into the woods was a voyage into uncharted seas. He bemoaned the workers (in their cubicles) who restricted themselves to an existence indoors. "When sometimes I am reminded that the mechanics and shopkeepers stay in their shops not only all the forenoon, but all the afternoon too, sitting with crossed legs, so many of them—as if the legs were made to sit upon, and not to stand or walk upon—I think that they deserve some credit for not having all committed suicide long ago."

Far from treating walking as a captivating activity, there is ample evidence that the urbanised Muslim world today couldn't care less for pedestrians. In some Muslim countries, to walk in the city is comparable to a traffic offense, as pedestrians are considered an unwelcome intrusion on the road even as sidewalks are largely absent. Other countries may view pedestrianism through the lens of social status, as if walkers are a underclass of untouchables not deserving of a second look. Perhaps a common view is to see walking as a half-hour pastime exclusive to the elderly who need to make up for years of seat warming. Whatever the reason, the default position for a vast number of Muslims has become the sitting one, much to our detriment.

Yet even when we have to sit, our etiquette towards sitting has largely disappeared. In ancient times, the four-legged chair we are familiar with today was considered a mark of state royalty and hierarchical status. Few if any of those sitting on the chair would sully their hands in manual labor, but would rather sit indolently giving orders for their peons to carry out. It was only with the beginning of the modern era in the 16th century that chairs proliferated as the common way of sitting, and eventually this seeped into the Muslim world as well. What was once a symbol of inertia became the norm.

The traditional sitting method of humility, cross-legged folding of the legs on the floor, has simply gone out of fashion, outside of masjids where chairs have not yet become standard. How common it is to see a middle-aged Muslim who is simply physically incapable of sitting cross-legged due to a lifetime of sedentary chair-sitting which has taken all the nimbleness out of his or her legs? Of course, this problem is not Muslim-specific; few Japanese perform the seiza anymore, for example.

Let us put aside the mounting evidence of health problems associated with too much chair sitting, such as organ damage, back issues, leg issues, etc. Let us ignore the increased mortality risk of sitting all day. The fact is that generations of chair sitting has somehow convinced us that the zig zag style of sitting is natural. But try looking at someone sitting and imagine that the chair is invisible, and you end up with the image of a elderly crone with an arched back. Quite ugly actually.
                    

Of course, part of our work and lifestyle may necessitate sitting for long periods of time. But in the end, only we are answerable for not taking the time for a stretch and putting the blood back into your legs. Sitting has become a position of comfort, and walking the chore. It is time for us to reverse the equation.   

Recommended Reading:
'Walking' - Essay by philosopher Henry David Thoreau, 1862

'The Lost Art of Walking: The History, Science, Philosophy, and Literature of Pedestrianism' - Geoff Nicholson, 2008

'The health hazards of sitting' - The Washington Post, 2014

Children in a World of Screens

As photography was introduced across the world in the 19th and early 20th centuries, many traditional cultures, particularly Native American tribes and indigenous tribes in Central and South America, viewed the camera box with suspicion. A common belief was that the act of taking a photograph was a blasphemy, stealing the soul of the individual in front of the lens. Eventually, many tribes relented and adopted photography as a way of keeping alive their ancestral heritage, but even then many would still refuse to have the photos of infants taken, as they were unprepared for this soul-sucking process.

Today, we may chuckle at the naivety of these pre-moderns and their clumsy approach to technology, but in a sense, they did have a point. The world now is saturated with imagery, and much of our daily routine involves staring at some screen or the other. The screen itself is the preeminent image of the modern man. Screens have become our gateways to reality and our portals to past, present and future. Whereas for decades, the television played the role of the wise sage who extolled earthly wisdom in family gatherings, now computer and smart phones are our techno-friends whom we share more time with than their human counterparts. Surely there is a cost to this? 

Those of us who grew up in the 90s, 80s or earlier may remember a time when life was about simple pleasures that involved a good deal of physical play and face-to-face interaction, normally outdoors. Occasionally, we would enjoy the odd card game or board game at home with friends and family on a rainy day. During childhood, indoors and outdoors were two entirely separate domains each with its own pleasures and protocols.

The childhood today for those with handheld devices is in a sense always indoors, inside their pocket dimension where time has no meaning and the definitions of reality and fantasy are in a continual blur. It doesn't matter if they are in school or in a masjid or in their bedroom, their are always at home. Parents may brush this off as knee-jerk alarmist rhetoric, but how can they be so confident of the long-term impact of these devices on their children's health if the smartphone (which is leaps and bounds more complex than the handheld games of the past) has only been around for less than a decade?

Let us set aside the possible medical risks associated with early exposure to similar technology, such as psychological problems, addiction, and radiation exposure. As Muslims, we should be concerned with the spiritual health of the next generation we are raising. A cornerstone of the Deen is salah (prayer), to stand in front of our Lord in the entirety of our being at least five times a day. To do so requires a complete sense of presence, a combination of mental focus with spiritual clarity and humility. A major stumbling block in achieving such a state in salah is our inability to resist the gravitational pull of the Dunya as it weighs upon our soul. Having the mind preoccupied by a fantasy digital world that acts as escapism from the Dunya adds only an extra layer to this problem.

I am not suggesting for Muslim parents to be become Luddites with a rejectionist attitude towards technology. All I am suggesting is for us to look beyond halal/haram labels and assess the spiritual value of such items before granting access to them by the impressionable young.

What this blog is about...

Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim

Asalam-u-Alaikum! What I am attempting is with this blog is give a Muslim perspective, off the beaten path. I consider myself a struggling Muslim, struggling not with my belief in Allah (sbt) or His Deen, but with being faithful to His Deen in an increasingly shifting modern context.

As stated by our Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), Islam began as something strange (ghareeb) and will return to this state. The onset of modernity has seen similar to this effect, with the spirit and practice of Islam often seeming at odds with the pillars of modernity. Of course, many other Muslims may suggest complete harmony between the ways of 'progress' and Islam. Regardless, among the Umma there is a tremendous sense of what sociologists refer to as 'anomie' - a disconnect caused by the loss of traditional values in the wider society.

The goal of this blog is perhaps to shed some light on the bigger picture of the world we live in and on some of the fundamental design flaws of modernity that we as Muslims should question, as well as some of the day to day issues we Muslim Moderns face. Perhaps the sense of otherworldliness Muslims may feel at times may not be such a bad thing. Perhaps we should embrace the strange if it means keeping true to our faith. This entails not a wholesale rejection of anything and everything modern, nor an uncritical acceptance. Rather, we need to use our Islamic traditions as our primary guide.

As someone who would struggle to qualify for even being a student of the Deen, I don't lay any claim to scholarly verdicts. This are merely my observations and may Allah forgive me for my faults. Ameen!