Sunday, December 5, 2010

Be human for God's sake

Bismillah.

Thanks to a much respected scholar friend from Iran for having left a valuable comment on my post - 'The joy of being'. He was commenting on three kinds of souls. It's my pleasure to quote him here one more time:

"According to the insightful scholars the human being fundamentally encapsulates three kinds of souls:
- the vegetative soul (consumption, growth and production)
- the animal soul (faculty of estimation (al-waahima) and its sub-faculties, faculty of desire (al-shahwa) and faculty of anger (al-ghadhab) and,
- the human soul (the theoretical and practical intellect).

What is so important for us, is to live the life of human soul. Otherwise so many do have this "life" but they do not attain the level of human beings. They are mostly busy in their plant and animal lives, observing what they eat, how they grow, what they produce, how they can satisfy their desires etc. May the Almighty enable all of us attain the human life. Aameen" - Shaykh Muhammad Khalfan

If I may reflect on this valuable point in my own simple language of faith, what am I? Am I a vege, an animal or a real human being? If I were a plant, I would just wait for my master to water me or wait for the rain. If I were an animal, ooh I imagine I would be very sensuous, always hungry and hunting for food and getting angry when feeling famish. If I were truly a human soul I should, as quoted above, I should be using both the theoretical and practical intellect. I think that makes a lot of sense. Obviously, we are smarter than plants or animals. Apart from keeping our physiques nourished with food and energy, and spending time to multiply [not me but many of you] we ought to be using our brain a lot more to justify our existence as a human being - our raison d'etre, a French phrase meaning 'reason for existence'.

And I think if we truly are optimizing our intellectual capabilities, we would not be so selfish, we would genuinely care for other people, we would contribute towards the progress of  mankind, we would give ourselves away, our time, our strength, our youth, our wealth, our ideas, our love. If we have the luxury of time, we could go visit the sick. If we happen to own a luxurious car, why not take some lonely orphans on a joyride. Surely we all have a loving heart, so let's act like we have one. Know what it takes to be human and behave like one, for god's sake!
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p/s People, I'm sorry if I'm beginning to sound blunt and candid, I think it's got something to do with turning 40. Forty is the new 20, they say! I think they are right cos I found myself spending my sunday reading InStyle magazine, Conde Nast Traveller and 'How to get from where you are to where you want to be.' Life begins at 40 perhaps, life as a human, not a plant and definitely not an animal. Na'uzubillah. God forbid cos I don't think a donkey knows that Allah gives us seven parts of the limbs so we could prostrate to Him, that we are here to make sajadah to the Creator, to worship.

“And I (Allah) created not the jinn and mankind except that they should worship Me (Alone)” - Quran Al-Dhaariyaat 51:56

4 comments:

  1. Salam,

    I found your blog while looking for info on Habib Ali whose name was mentioned in a blog which I came across through another controversial blog... long story..

    Anyway, I'm curious abt the teaching that you've been following... all the words that came out from you seem beautiful and comforting... I'm kinda lost and in search of the right guidance/path..

    Perhaps you can direct me to the right website or link or anything that's enlightening for my reference..

    Wassalam..

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  2. Salam warahmatullah,
    Dear friend,

    MashaAllah tabarakallah. Thank you for the kind words. We are nothing without du'a from our mother, our guides, the shuyukh, habaib and our sincere friends. Alhamdulillah.

    I am one who have transgressed big time and by the grace of Allah, I have had the opportunity to learn and be disciplined by several guides. InshaAllah. Anyhow, we are all 'work in progress'.

    I pray Allah will guide you to one who could take you on the path that is linked to Rasulullah s.a.w. One who would make it easy for you to do zikir and salawat. We need a real and genuine guru. We cannot rely on books or any other reading materials.

    If you happen to be in Malaysia, come listen to Shaykh Hisham Kabbani tonight. Come and see for yourself. Drop me an email and I will give you the list of venues where he is scheduled to hold sohba/lecture until 12th December. InshaAllah.

    May Allah forgive us and grant us husnul khatimah.

    Wallahu a'lam.
    E

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  3. Salam,

    Thanks so much. I gained so much from reading your blog.

    I work and live in Klang Valley fyi.. what is your email add? also any of your online chat id? there are too many things to ask.

    Salam Maal Hijrah

    "I"

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  4. Salam,

    My public email is nursufiah at gmail dot com.
    Or you could click from the link provided in this blog if you click on 'View my complete profile'.
    InshaAllah.
    I hope and I pray you are free tonight to attend a beautiful majlis with Sh Hisham in Bangsar.
    InshaAllah, bi-iznillah.

    Best wishes
    Ezza

    ReplyDelete