A Family in Baghdad

Wednesday, December 10th., 2008


Peace be upon you…
Today is the third day of Al-Adhaa Feast, which is the big feast for Muslims; the Feast of Hij and Sacrifice; and these are rituals mentioned in the Holy Quran, in connection with "Ibraheem"; the Father of Phrophets, may he be blessed; when he saw in his dream that he was sacrificing his son. He believed in that vision, and moved on to sacrifice his son, "Ismail", but God blessed their obedience and redeemed "Ismail" with a great sacrifice. This is the idea of sacrificing cattle in this feast…
All the Feast's rituals are worshiping to praise God and thank Him for the blessings He bestowed on us. And the sweetest thing in the Feast are these exclamations: Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar, La Ilaha Illa Allah, Allahu Akbar, wa Lilaahi Al- Hamd… (= God is great, God is great, God is great, there is no god but God, God is great, and praise be to Him) in a collective voice from the pilgrims in Mecca or the people praying in the mosques near our house wherever we were in an Arab-Muslim city...
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When I was young, I used to think that the feast is only for new cloths, candy, and visiting relatives or the funfair . And until a short time ago I kept thinking that the feast is only for worldly rituals, like tidying the house, buying chocolates and sweets, going to the hairdressers to have my hair cut and dressed, and buying new clothes for the whole family…

now, I smile at my naivety; I used not to comprehend the spiritual meaning of such occasions, and what is the spiritual meaning of such rituals..
Now, for me, I have come to see the feasts as occasions to ask for God's forgiveness, to praise God and thank Him for His blessings; countless, innumerable…they are occasions to move nearer to God, to feel the happiness of this nearness, and to feel the warmth in that nearness… I do not care much now for chocolates, or for visiting the beauty saloon, the new clothes; or for visiting people, for the gossip, the empty talk about the world, the gains and embellishments of life, or this or that gossip about this or that person… I see that my heart is empty from these stories, and busy with other, distant matters; matters that not all the people around me comprehend…
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I sometimes think with myself and wonder: how do people change? How do the way they think and evaluate things around them, change? Sometimes, a certain shock can cause a change in the mind and direction…and sometimes, a slow, persistent walk towards a certain direction can confirm the wish to keep going in that direction, and that conviction increases day by day…
These questions cross my mind when I meet people from my generation; men or women, who became fathers and mothers now, I watch the way they think and how they guide their children. When the mother is unaware of who she is, unaware of her identity, or of her attitude towards life and death? What is her stance from truth and lies? What is her stance from the people around her, and how do she evaluate them; according to what?
When the mother or the father is lost in that way, how can they raise a new, conscious generation, a generation with an identity, with principals and values? When the parents are without anchor stones, what shall they teach their children?
It is really a sad thing… when I see young men and women in University, whose culture is silly, who have no culture beyond that of the Mobile phone, who babble and chat all day and night, as the communication companies encourage them to join in a free calling program all night long, from 12 midnight till 7 in the morning. Is this logical? Aren't people supposed to sleep and rest between midnight and 7 in the morning? Or is it to charm these young and teenaged people and lure them with these offers that would spoil their manners? Where is the censorship of parents?
And the sad thing is that the capitalism that dominates the thinking of these companies is a capitalism that seeks greedy profits and without morals , rather, they destroy the morals of societies in order to reap more profits…
There are also the satellite channels and what they offer their audience, especially the young people; movies, serials, songs, entertainment, silly things, and talk about love and passion, as if life has nothing more than love, passion, entertainment, and the waste of time… unfortunately, I mean- a whole generation grew up on this corruption, and the useless loss of time and energies… it is a long time until a young man or woman grows up, graduates from university, finds a job opportunity, then gets into the reality of life; the daily struggle to live and survive. Then they start turning into reality-percipient creatures, and each one of them would start looking for a life-partner with whom to continue the march. But until now, the young people aren't mature enough to be qualified to create a successful future; you cannot guarantee yet that they got rid of the silliness and the shallow thinking… and the choice in most cases comes based on naïve specifications; like the outside shape and form, and how much properties the other person owns… with the passage of time, these marriages or relations face strong tests, and crises that might break them…
All this I see in my daily work with the women organization I work with presently…many divorce cases between young men and women who are not yet thirty, and this is a sad thing, and their children wail and cry when they come in for the monthly meetings program, (when the father or the mother meet the children, according to the judge's rule after divorce). And I am completely certain that these young mothers and fathers have a problem or crisis in the lack of perception and understanding when they decided to get married, and what are the specifications of the sought partner? And certainly their parents bear a portion of this failure, because this generation was raised in a loss and emptiness in mind, like the poet says, whose poem we used to read in the Modern Literature books when we were young, and he says:
I came, I know not where from…
Nor where to shall I go….
While they can avoid the loss by going back to Islam. There are some constants said by the Prophet (may the prayers & peace of God be upon him) about choosing the suitable husband. He said: (let your daughters marry one with whose religion and manners you are content …)
It is very evident here what are the proper conditions to choose the husband, but a lot of people in our lives are blinded by life and the love of appearances, and lost the proper path, so they reaped failure and disappointment.
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The problem of Muslims now is that they no longer apply the rules of their religion, and that is the reason for their loss, and the reason why they give a bad impression of Islam to non-Muslims, if these decided to come and live in our societies. We are now living in non-Muslim societies, with nothing left of Islam but the outside appearance; the veil for women, and the Dishdasha (= white traditional men dress) and beard for men, that is- if they were committed to the outside garb, but as for that women who wears tight trousers and blouses, who smears her face with all the colors of make up that made her lose her beauty and innocence; well- this woman too thinks of herself as veiled, because she puts on her head a rag that doesn't belong to the set of clothes she is wearing, nor to the vulgar make-up she puts on… this woman thinks of herself as a Muslim, perhaps she tells you she reads the Quran and prays everyday. Oh, On God we rely, for He is our aid…. Certainly, there are some people who read the Quran but it goes no further than their throats, meaning- doesn't reach their hearts, so their hearts remain black, possessed by the devil, where he rests, night and day…
Islam is supposed to be deeper than these appearances, Islam is supposed to be something that penetrates the heart and changes what's in it; change the people's outlook to the world and other people; Islam is a way of life that starts since the morning when you open your eyes and say: In the name of God, and thank God who made us live again after we were dead. Then, when you go out of your house you say: In the name of God, I put my faith in God, there is no power nor strength but from God. Then, when you smile in the face of your brother or fellow worker, then, when you remove harm from people's way, then when you treat people gently, truthfully, and honestly, then when you speak and act in truth, when you do not cheat or lie in work, when you think in good faith about God and people, when you do not want to hear idle and bad talk about others, when you do not envy people, you do not hold grudges, hatred, or feel superior to people, when you do not deal in bribes and usury, when you do not cheat that who puts his faith in you, when you keep your eyes from looking at forbidden things, on to showing mercy to the poor and weak, on to being shy and polite in front of God, in public and in private,….and on,…and on….. until the evening comes, and the Muslim would put his head on his pillow, and before he closes his eyes he says: My God, I turn my face to you… if You decide to keep my soul, please forgive her and show her mercy, and if You sent her back, please preserve her with what you preserve your good worshipers…
I mean- the life of such a person has a meaning, an orientation, without loss, without worries, triviality, or a void mind… he knows his way, he knows his principals, knows his friend from foe, knows what is the purpose of his being, and knows why he became and where shall he end.
But how much is the percentage of such Muslims in our present days? God knows, but I think they are a few… the majority lives lost, aimless, they neither apply the instructions of their religion and have happiness and satisfaction, nor have they given it up completely to live by another culture, to which they belong now with complete conviction… the Muslims are lost in the middle; they might pray, fast and read the holy Quran, but they do not have a commitment to its teachings and commandments, they think religion is praying, fasting, wearing the veil, and a long beard…
And I am sure that an awakening from this unawareness will come with time, by the will of God, for Islam has returned into our lives as a major factor, in spite of so many secular people who are trying to deny its role and marginalize it… like trying to cover the face of the sun disk with a sieve, then deny its existence. But from my own experience in life, from my observation of the changes taking place in our society, I can say that Islam is growing and spreading in our societies, in the beginning, the application is still half and half, but I expect it will prevail and dominate with the passage of time.
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At the beginning of the last century, when the Turkish Ottoman Empire was defeated after a rule of four centuries in the Arab countries, that Empire became very weak, and the intellectual, military, and economic decadence has infiltrated into its body. Turkey was defeated after the World War 1, and England and France came on to inherit the Arab countries after Turkey, and of course, the idea of degrading the Turks and deforming them, and Islam with them, being the Empire's religion then; that idea was enrooted. The Secular and Communist ideas entered the Arab countries from Russia, and the Nationalist ideas came perhaps from Europe, as a reaction against the Turks and their harsh treatment of the Arabs. Bars and night clubs started appearing in the Arab-Muslim cities, a class of women dancers and artists (meaning- singers) started appearing in our societies. Men and women of the rich classes started going to attend dancing parties, and music and singing parties as a sign of being of a high-selective class, of being civilized and western-like. The call started for the women to go bare- faced and to throw away the veil, taken as a sign of backwardness and an oppression for the woman. Women entered into universities and into state jobs, they started wearing indecent clothes, but the society took all this as a sign it was going through a phase of radical change …
Islam became something of the past…even thought the constitutions formed for the Arab countries state that Islam is the religion of the state, but the truth is that Islam is no longer the main factor governing people's lives, and the evidence is the spread of liquor shops, night clubs and dancers, and these are not the features of the Islamic state… there are also the usury banks, according to the western system, and the spread of the unveiling among women, the mingling of men and women in public places, in studying and work places, and these aren't the features of the Islamic state… also the secular Parties became widely spread, its thoughts spread among people, pulling them more and more from Islam and belonging to it, or practicing it in the daily rituals. The scent of Islam remained weak, appearing in our societies in the religious occasions only, like the feasts, in fasting, Hij (=pilgrimage), and so on… rituals loved by people in most cases, rituals they do not abandon, even if they became communists!
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After that came secular and national governments, but these fell in many political mistakes, and those countries tumbled into disasters, calamities, and frustrations that led people to the feelings of disappointment, defeat, and the loss of trust in these Parties and governments… then little by little they went back to religion to hold on to it, all over again…
Praise be to God; as if He is saying to people- go and try the man-made laws, then judge if they will achieve justice, happiness and satisfaction for you… when all that didn't happen, they went back to the fort of religion seeking refuge with their maker, apologizing from him….
That is how the picture appears to me, in brief…
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My personal experience is- that I read the world' books when I was young, until I grew up and reached my mid- thirties… I read novels, books of philosophy, geography, history, arts, literature, and engineering, and finally I decided to read the books of Islamic religion… and when I got there, I realized that this is the paradise I have been looking for, I cannot describe my happiness and the self comfort I gained since then… and my journey in looking for inner happiness and satisfaction continued, and by God I never achieved that until I knew God, the Glorious, and moved closer to Him to the degree that nothing can give me comfort but thinking of him, and how to gain his affection and consent…
I mean- I make good deeds to people so that God may love me, I give mercy to the poor and weak so that God may love me and be pleased with me, I am honest in my work so that God may love me and be pleased with me, and I refuse cheating, betrayal and lying because I don’t want God to be angry with me… this is how my path became clear, and my life more happy and content…. And the war of Iraq, the trial of the occupation, and the sorrows we lived through made me stronger and more stable, thank God…I learned how to make points of strength out of the calamities and the painful experiences, not points of weakness in my life. And as they say- the blow that does not break you, can make you stronger… and thank God for every thing…the believer would not be defeated, as long as his heart is with God; a heart full of satisfaction and peace…
Like one of the Muslim scientists said, along time ago: what can my enemies do to me? My garden and my paradise are in my chest.
It makes me sad, after that, to see mothers of my generation who are still secular, fight their daughters who chose Islam as a way of life; the daughters wish to wear the veil and maintain religion and its teachings, while the father and mother threaten and warn them they will throw them out of the house…
Praise be to God… who can believe that this happening in Islamic societies? Those mothers are dazzled by the west, and see religion as a shame and retardation…
I ask God to guide these mothers to let their daughters chose the path they see suitable for them, and in harmony with their nature… we ask Him to give strength to these good daughters against the harm they are facing, to relieve their distress, and to endow them with the good husbands they deserve, Amen.
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Now, through the project by which we give services to the Iraqis here, I bought books and stories for children, the world atlas, world maps, and intelligence games… this generation of children is wronged; they grew up to mobiles and internet, but have no intellectual or cultural base… I bought them books from the Arabic and western heritage; old and known stories, so they would learn from here and there; I bought them-Snow White, Little Red Riding hood, and Pinocchio, I bought – the Old Man and the Sea, and Tom Sawyer, the story of Anter Bin Shaddad, the voyages of Ibn Batoota, and the Arab Scientists History, the Globe Encyclopedia, books about the Human Body, and the Encyclopedia of Nature, Cars, Trains, Planes, Butterflies, Flowers, and Baby Animals. I bought them the story of the king for whom a deceitful tailor made imaginary clothes, and the king moved down the streets happily while people cheered, until a child among the crowd said- but the king is naked, without clothes. I loved this story since I was a child, when I read it at school, and the essence of it is that children are pure, they say only the truth, because their nature is intact.
Next week we will present a play for children, for which I supervised all the details; the scenario, the songs, the set decoration, the costumes, the actors, the music, the lighting, and the reservation of the theater hall. Quite a tiring work, but I enjoyed it because I want it to be presented as best as can be. We intend to invite organization's representatives here, and the staff of the Iraqi Embassy for the show, and of course, hundreds of children from the various branches of the organization I work for now.
The play talks about a small village whose residents are harmonious and friendly with each other, then the witch moves in and starts spreading her poison among them, embittering their lives, and spreading animosity and hatred between them, then, the sensible among them, those who weren't affected by her black magic, agree to a way to throw her out of the village, and so their life goes back to harmony and pureness…
I loved this play; it has the smell of Iraq, the story of the Iraqi's anguish since the occupation, and I hope to God that affection really comes back to prevail in the Iraqi atmosphere, to fill Iraqi's hearts, and unite them without hatred or conflict, Amen.
Many happy returns, and- peace be upon you.