Abû Hurayrah relates that Allah’s Messenger (peace be upon him) said: “Islam began strange, and it will become strange again just like it was at the beginning, so blessed are the strangers.” [Sahîh Muslim (1/130)]

Friday, October 31, 2014

Looking for Contrast


I had the pleasure recently to pay a trip to the lovely country of Turkey, a country that finds itself at a central point intersecting between Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Stunning topography and fascinating historical heritage aside, what continually piqued my interest through my week-long stay was the sense that the Turkish culture I witnessed was essentially a fusion of many European and Central Asian elements culminating over centuries. Many cities you could see the leaning more towards one continental expression than the other. The grand city of Istanbul was described by our tour agency as "the meeting point of the two continents", as the two halves are split only by the Bosphorus. The cosmopolitan and frenetic European section stands in marked difference to the ambiance and history of the Asian side. It was this level of contrast within the confines of a single city that sets Istanbul apart from any other major global metropolis, and gave me a bit of inspiration to explore the concept of contrast further.

Contrast refers to a difference in juxtaposition of something with something else. It is more commonly thought of as a visual phenomenon. When one objects displays a luminance or color lacking in the other, the concept of contrast is evident. But contrast that we witness in our surroundings hold meanings that call for a degree of contemplation. It we look further, we can realize that contrast is something that speaks deeply to our psychological buildup, how our brain operates. If we accept that humans are beings created with a gift of observation, then contrast plays a vital function.



There are aspects to contrast that are inimitable to human perception. The Contrast Effect, for example. The easiest physical demonstration of this phenomenon is to notice the response of putting one hand in cold water and the other in hot water, and then to simultaneously put them both in water of room temperature. We'll receive two different sets of sensory input telling us what temperature the new water should be. This effect extends on the sociological level as well. How we judge other human beings is dependent to a large extent by measuring based on societal and group expectations before they're seen as good/bad, rich/poor, tall/short, etc. We need to contrast any object or person with its broader place in the environment to define its meaning. We constantly search for contrast to understand our surroundings.

I was recently taught about the principles of permaculture, a methodology meant for creating ecological designs that are truly sustainable and resource independent. I particularly struck by the concept of edges, the meeting or overlapping point between two different ecosystems, such as land/water or forest/desert. The edge effect is unexpected in that it tends to produce an increase in diversity and productivity, more energy, wildlife and plant life. My own meandering mind suggests that it touches on a more universal theme of contrast, and the collision point between two highly contrasting elements, or maybe the point of maximum contrast, creates a zone of intensity. Think of the splash of colors in the sky during sunset, when the day and the night meet in head-on collision.

The theme of contrast also abounds in the Holy Quran. Repeatedly, Allah (sbt) compares fundamental elements found in the observable Universe. Among many sacred dualities mentioned are the Sun and the Moon, man and woman, human and jinn, Sammawat (Sky) and Ardh (Earth), etc. "And all things We have created by pairs, that haply ye may reflect." (51:49) There is a mesmerizing attraction to such dualities when you think about it. Think of the finest natural scenery that you have witnessed in your life, and inevitably the contrast of color and topography defined the sense of wonder. Each quality of a created object or being is highlighted and reified through reflection with another counterpart. And the more fundamental and contrasting the nature of the archetype, the deeper the impression it leaves on us.

Beyond the sheer beauty, contrast in the Sacred Text becomes a tool of instruction. This is especially clear in the famous verse: "O mankind! Lo! We have created you male and female, and have made you nations and tribes that ye may know one another." (49:13) The marked differences between people serves to educate them as to their own nature and that of the other. The differences are given a Divine Sanction. It also necessitates that cultures and ethnicities interact through channels of trade and diplomacy. Through contrast can come knowledge and mutual benefit.


We live in an age where there is almost a conscious effort by those on top to remove contrast in terms of culture and lifestyle in place of a standardized national or global identity. Some Western countries over the decades have realized the excesses in this approach, and replaced it with a kosher liberal democratic vision of multiculturalism. This much-touted multiculturalism, while certainly having many advantages, hasn't succeeded in any true 'celebration of diversity' though but has become more of a cultural leveling device in the West. Rather than allowing each cultural voice to have its own authentic expression, it often ends up in risk management mode and seeking to avoid potential hotspots of cultural contrast.

The whole topic of contrast may seem like a mindless digression, but one of the purposes of this blog is to highlight topics given scant attention. Its worthwhile at times to stop the racehorse of modern life and think about the big things that stare us in the face while we close out eyes. Our existence is one defined largely by contrast, none moreso than that between Creator and creation. My advice for those readers who have an inkling of what I'm trying to say is to go outside and take the time to marvel at the gifts offered to us everyday by our sense of contrast.

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Beware the Facebook Activist

It's been a few weeks since Israel's deadly bombardment of Gaza. Similar to the last few cycles of devastation, there is plenty of talk about lifting certain parts of the blockade, bringing in a slew of international aid donors to come and do some face-lifting to parts of the Strip. The old chorus is playing again, circa 2008 and 2012, talks of political unity between Palestinian factions, bringing Israel to the Hague, and some Gulf state cash for rebuilding Gaza neighbourhood by neighbourhood. We've heard it all before, and it all seems a precursor for another round of savage assault by Israel to level Gaza back to the ground, God forbid. Don't get me wrong though, the scale of the destruction this time has been unprecedented, look at the video below to get an idea:


US Secretary of State John Kerry is also going through the motions. At a recent Gaza Donors Conference, he had the temerity to praise the enabler President Sisi of Egypt, and describe the conditions in Gaza as 'difficult'. Conveniently left out of his speech is why Gaza needs to be rebuilt in the first place, as if the entire area was hit by a meteorite from outer space.

Another disturbing aspect of this whole scenario is the rather muted response of the online community, particular the Muslim community, now that the bombs have stopped dropping. Its fairly predictable but disappointing nonetheless. In the midst of the massacre, all you could see posted by the army of Facebook warriors was pictures of Israeli barbarism and dead Palestinians, along with pledges to boycott this brand or that as a way to cause a financial pinch to the oppressor. Now that the rockets and gunfire have temporarily abated, its back to selfie mode or the occasional post about ISIS or Ebola. The seeming strong sense of solidarity for the Palestinian cause has lost much of its sting, at a time when sustained engagement can actually make more of a difference.

It is a natural reaction to feel a sense of empathy and outrage when we see a people besieged. If we didn't feel that, we could have justification to question our humanity. But beyond the necessary prayers and pain, we need to train ourselves to think beyond the online medium.



This problem cuts to a larger topic beyond just Israel-Palestine. The delivery of the modern mass media is geared for the scatterbrain whose attention span lasts only as long as the news stays on the headlines. It tends to arouse our emotions when it needs to, and drop us back to complacency when it needs to. As if by remote control, Muslims especially seem so easily manipulable and taken for a ride when the situation serves it. We need to move beyond this and channel our passions to effective action. Otherwise, we risk being a dilettante.

The vast majority of online commentators are not by by any stretch activists or committed to a cause. Their commentary is more informed by opposition to something rather than true support of a higher goal. But for a small minority, their commitment to a cause is genuine, and they are able to sustain the momentum in keeping informed. To this few, it is critical that they understand that being an armchair critic is of little value.


Activism implies feet-on-the-ground work. It implies dedicating time for research to understand an issue in depth. It implies feeling the true human ramifications of a problem rather than mouthing platitudes. It implies organising oneself, then your friends and your community. It implies putting your heart and soul in what you do to be sincere. It implies a whole lot more than just a post or a Tweet, which are supplementary at best.

This is not to suggest that online spreading of information is not a vital part of modern activism. Instant access to facts on the ground has tremendous potential. Information wars now occur outside the mainstream TV and radio media, and it is important that counter arguments are presented to propaganda that is proliferated online. Just in this recent Gaza conflict, for example, Israel army reservists actively took part in an online Hasbara campaign (translated as 'explaining' but in reality just pure propaganda) to effectively sell their war. This sort of deliberate misinformation has to be responded to.

But activism should not end there. It is healthy to be dedicated towards a cause beyond oneself. But try and emphasize the 'active' in activism and get off the keyboard once in a while. Not only does it save yourself from being a seasonal hypocrite but you will find yourself so much more effective at what you do. Listen to some lecture, organise an event, collect some donations, talk to your community...just put some power behind the words you type. And I say this to myself before others.


Thursday, October 2, 2014

Let the Grudge go

Any advice of a moral nature should be internalised by the adviser first, else it may become hypocrisy. With that proviso, and the intention that I seek to remind myself first before the one ahead of me, I give the following few points.

Quite a few of you may already be familiar with this well-known hadith regarding the merit of daily forgiveness. It bears repetition:

The Messenger of Allah (SAW) was sitting with a group of the Sahabah (ra) in the mosque and he said “A man will now enter [who is] from the people of Paradise.” and a sahabi (companion) walked in. Later it happened again, and then a third time. ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Amr ibn al-‘aas (ra) wanted to find out what was so special about this man, so he asked the man if he could stay over his house for 3 days. The man allowed him to stay. 

Abdullah noticed that the man didn’t do anything out of the ordinary: He didn’t fast all the time, he slept some of the night and prayed some of the night, and so on. So after the 3 days, ‘Abdullah told him the real reason why he requested to stay with him, and he asked him what it was that could be the reason why he was from the people of Jannah. 

The man (ra) couldn’t think of anything, but after a bit he said “Every night, before I go to sleep, I forgive whoever has wronged me. I remove any bad feelings towards anyone from my heart.” (Kitab al-Zuhd by Ibn al-Mubarak – Number 694) 

Let the last line sink in for a minute. Beyond even forgiveness, what can set an otherwise unremarkable individual on the path to Paradise is the simple recognition that the heart must be clear of any ill will towards others. On paper, this sounds rather simple, Who would seek to intentionally cultivate feelings of negativity towards another soul? Yet this ideal is rarer than gold.

A common affliction of today has become the grudge. A grudge is a nurtured feeling of resentment or hostility towards another, more of a longstanding emotion rather than a momentary spike. The reasons for the emotion can be varied depending on the circumstances of our lives, and the feeling of negativity can be justifiable or irrational.



Human beings nowadays are especially prickly by nature. With our enlarged egos and bloated sense of self-importance, it doesn't take more than a minor transgression to offend us personally. Many times we let the ashes of these emotions reside inside us, and often derive a bit of comfort from the warmth of our smoldering anger. This shouldn't be confused with righteous indignation, which isn't personal and can be justified on occasion based on moral principle.

Grudges respond to our more baser instincts. We can feel vindicated by feeling either the poor victim or the moral superior. But in the end, grudges gnaw at our beings, eat us slowly inside, and compromise our ability to be truly compassionate to others. No matter how far developed we think our spiritual status may be, or how clean we think our hearts are, grudges will hold us back. More intense grudges that last years can even be a cause of physical and psychological trauma. And of course, grudges can weaken or end relationships with those whom we should be closer to.

With this in mind, I am just proposing the following tidbits of advice on how to deal with grudges, with the ultimate objective of letting the grudges weaken, wither and disappear, so we can breathe a much lighter breath.

Don't let a grievance become a grudge. Many times, grudges begin from some perceived grievance, which may well be legitimate. As the aggrieved party, the onus is on us on how to respond to avoid a problem becoming a bigger one. If we take a passive-aggressive route, we can sidestep the real issue and allow the feelings to fester inside of us, gradually becoming a grudge which is hard to remove. We can either directly voice our grievance in the hope of resolving the problem, preferably sooner rather than later. Or, if that would be ineffective, and there may be nothing we can do at this point to resolve the matter, better to internally forgive and more on with life.

Identify if you have a grudge. Oftentimes, we may not be fully aware that we possess a grudge. It may be buried under a host of other emotional issues, and neatly hidden behind polite discourse and social protocol. A good way to identify a grudge is to check if the visage of the grudgee elicits some sort of visceral response.  My friend Hakim Archuletta pointed out that emotions are not just mental abstracts but things we experience as somatic (bodily) sensations. So does the mere thought of the person trigger some bothersome feeling in our chest, or stomach, or elsewhere? That may be a clue that we are burying something deep.

Disassociate the person from the action.  This may not be easy, but it may be necessary. Humans are error-prone and often we set unrealistic expectations for others. But even if an otherwise good persons does actions which fall far from the mark, we should be able to isolate our distaste for the action and not define the person solely based on that. Rather than sitting in high judgement of the whole individual, perhaps it may be worthwhile to condemn the action while counterbalancing our assessment with some of the person's more positive traits.

Look Inward. We can take a leaf from the moral wisdom of 'He that is without sin among you, cast the first stone'. Haven't there been times when we bungled a situation, and wished that others would cut us some slack? And is our grudge truly for the reason we claim it is, or are there other underlying emotions of envy and pride that have crept in? We should never underestimate our power at self-deception.

Is it worth it? What price do we pay by allowing the grudge to metastasize inside of us? Do we end up pouring a lot of emotional energy into an issue of little significance? Do we end up granting a sort of victory to someone that annoys us, by being so utterly consumed in thought over him or her? Can the grudge effectively destroy a relationship that is supposed to be sacred? Is all this worth the psychological satisfaction of maintaining the grudge? We need to see the forest for the trees.

Have a Big Heart. Don't be pretty, be magnanimous. Cast aside the little issues, and open a space in your heart for others. Life is short enough as it is to be dedicated to personality clashes and squabbles. Work on exercising your muscles of mercy every now and then to ensure you can focus on more important matters.


The Jews, post-Holocaust, had a collective mantra of 'Never to Forgive, Never to Forget'. The idea is that some crimes are unforgivable, which may well be the case. But it made little sense for their next generations to imbibe such a mantra and the coldness behind it. Ultimately, our ability to transcend our grudges depends on our level of forgiveness. We have to recognize that this modern world has the extraordinary ability to inspire dislike in others at the drop of a hat. Moral equivalents of speeding tickets suddenly become unpardonable offenses. We can't take our relationships for granted like that.

To be the better person, we have to let the grudge go.