When the time is right!

“Stronger than all the combined armies of the world is an idea whose time has come”. Profound as it may seem, these words of wisdom is timeless and is not tuned to a fact of ideas being big or small, menial or profound. Its sprouting is just when the time is right.

In the case of this flu epidemic that is raging through Maldives and our neighbors, it's such a moment to advocate for “prevention is better than cure”. Surely we have to deal with the part of the cure but it's a time to reflect and renew our commitment to prevention. For us to be aware that being healthy is everybody’s business. And everyone can participate and be effective. Not just to leave it to the physician or the health worker.

Our health system proved it unequivocally in the past and there is no reason why our health system can't make it happen again -- now in this present circumstances to institute a responsible system of prevention and awareness that will be sustainable even after this horrible event is a memory.

It requires us to be serious and make the commitment to attack the causes of ill health. In this given situation, it is the dirty and unhygienic personal habits. We need to know how this H1N1 germ (the virus or bacteria relating to other diseases also) gets into our bodies. How it is transmitted (yes, believe me, it's not rocket science), and then how to prevent getting sick.

The germ gets into us through microscopic droplets of body fluid that come out of the infected person when he/she coughs or sneezes. Someone else 5 or 6 feet directly from this sick or infected person may easily inhale the droplets that momentarily abound. Once these and the virus riding in it gets into our body we say we are infected. But the disease these cause does not manifest in fevers and similar coughs and body aches etc for about 3 or 4 days. This time-space is called the incubation period of the germ. That amount of time is needed for the germ to multiply and become a veritable force to the defense forces of the body we call ‘antibodies’. Since this new entry enemy has not been witnessed by the body’s present defence forces ever, it takes some time for them to build the skills needed to challenge the alien forces. Often the alien germ is much faster in this proliferation than the body forces be skilled. So we get sick because our forces lose are on the retreat - at least for the next few days. If we don't get the help of a treatment of some sort the alien forces will advance further and create havoc in the body. The temperature would rise, the body aches will begin, and the discomfort of a war going on inside of us become apparent by our disoriented state of being. Some people whose energy reserves are good can withstand till help arrives. Others with “less body immunity” dont have it that easy. Their inner organs a hurt and take longer to recover or even sometimes die to the enemy’s lethal barrage.

Secondary infections - those that the virus causes indirectrly, results in opportunities for ambient bacteria to attack also, and we have secondary infections that we deal with the use of  antibiotics. But we don't have to wait for this to happen. If we take remedial action such as taking panadol or such for lowering the fever and pain, do mouth-and-throat gargling regularly and inhale steam three times a day to disloge and expel the phlem that collects along our trachea and affect the air-sacs of our lungs (which can lead to pneumonia), we are perhaps in good flow of preventive action. However, advise of a doctor is wise to have because they may know more tricks on how to reduce our pain and shorten our suffering.

Yet, the main opportunity we must seek to deal with situations of impending disease is to take measures for not allowing the germ to enter the body. Besides the sure-fire way of inhaling the germs from another person’s immediate spewing droplets, there are three ways  the germ can get into our body. One is through our eyes as when we rub our eyes with contaminated hands. The other is through the insides of our nostrils as when we poke our infected fingers into it for dislodging bits of dried snot or relieve an itch. And the third is by soiled fingers entering the mouth as when we bite our nails or wipe our mouth with bare palm of our hands and when we eat without washing our hands and so on.

The sure fire way to protect is therefore to frequently and regularly wash our hands especially when we come home or to office or wherever after being out in the daily world; establish sanitary habits to prevent entry of germ through these above mentioned portals of entry to the body from soiled hands; and then to exercise conscious concern about coughing and sneezing in public. Please dont cough and sneeze without covering your mouth and nose - not with your bare hands but with a hanky or tissue. You can also sneeze or cough into your shirt sleeve or the upper arm or even into the inner crook of your elbow.

And this is a wonderful time also for the health authorities to strike when the iron is hot: to advocate and enforce measures on no spitting and no smoking in public. These behaviours have inherent dangers that need a much longer and deeper discussion. Just please believe me and other health professionals when they say it's dangerous. Much more danger than benefit to you. You will not look cool when it is time to close your eyes before your time.

Our concern in this life should not be about our life expectancy (how many years we want to live), but about our health expectancy (how productive and healthy these years will be). Therefore, prevention is always a wiser strategy than cure. All the hospitals in the world cannot make us healthy if we don’t take responsible steps to keep away from behaviours that make us sick.  

Readying for being a good parent or guardian

A good young person is the resource of a good society. A nation of good youth will form the great nations of tomorrow.  But how do we make this happen?

The beginning is always the home.  And thus parents have the brunt of the responsibility to make this happen.

A person’s goodness is defined by one’s character.  And the salient feature of good character is the mix of the right manners one possesses.  Personal hygiene, helpfulness, humility, love, patience, forgiveness, thankfulness and gratitude, ability to control anger, honesty, integrity, reliability, responsibility, kindness, sharing, and selflessness all combine to generate the best of character.

The pervasiveness of social disruption and lawlessness in society maybe quite rightly attributed to a lack of people of good character in a community or even society as a whole. Such a community is developed over time over generations; the result of successive generations doing their part to continue and enhance those values, mores, and sensibilities society sees necessary for its harmony. For closed communities this is relatively easier to maintain this than for those that are buffeted with external influences. This is why in modern societies, with the fast pace of change streaming from outside, it so difficult to keep old culture and creed sustained. Old values are constantly challenged and without the right social structure to explain the pros and cons of the consequences of accepting these, society soon develops the inevitable cracks.

Sadly what many of our newly modernizing societies find more attractive and lap up the fastest are those that seem most fashionable, not those that are developmentally useful. The clothes, the music, the conveyances, the infrastructure and sadly even the decadent stuff of gambling, drinking, sex and pornography, the use of narcotic substances and those values too that mark a break from the age-old timeless attitudes of caring and compassion for the young and the old, and those of helpfulness and gratitude. It is as if we have come to define development by the vestiges of the fringe behaviors that now plague the very industrialized nations that have given birth to the idea of capitalism, modernization and materialism.

While every global society is cracking on these fronts, in Maldives too, we see this same epidemic taking hold. Our extended family that has been the fountain that refreshed and energized successive generations with values and skills that keep a society together has been torn apart with the advent of the nuclear family (to jive with the norms of the materialistic lifestyle) leaving children to learn values from their peers or ayahs, rather than from responsible parents. Every generation witnesses a bit more of this erosion and our social fabric tearing ever more.

How can this process be halted? Can it ever? Will society reinvent itself as a whole new entity where morality has no place in it? Will we be controlled by alien forces and governed through the power of technology and its likes? Will parenthood as a nurturing force survive? Will it be deemed useless by the fact that parenting would also be transformed into a technical in-vitro process? What a world that would be!

To avoid the above and to be human in the ways that we were supposed to be as Allah SWA ordained us to be, we need to begin a process of personalized change right away. We have to begin thinking from the hollow life of a future we want to avoid, and fill it with the vibrancy of human life, as it should be lived

The question of caring for our children and instilling in them the character to live and succeed in this worldly life and the Hereafter must begin even before two people get married. This is because, nurturing a child with the right Islamic values and leaving behind a good human being who will remember and cherish the memories of parents and contribute to the good of society must have good role models.  That is the role of the parent.  For this, it is essential that we pick the right spouse. Just like having good fruits from a healthy and strong tree, we need the strength of character in parents too.

Islam teaches us that there are four criteria in selecting a spouse; beauty, wealth, family background, and righteousness. While most of us tend to gravitate towards beauty or attractiveness as the first criteria for selecting a spouse, Islam says that the quality of righteousness is the most paramount. This is because even as the other three qualities may dwindle or be taken away by the passage of time, true righteousness will always remain and be a beacon for our children and grandchildren. It can only rub off on the children and society will benefit in this world and in the Hereafter. To select or not select such a spouse is our test in this world, for what we do will constitute the merit of demerit that Allah will account for on the day of Reckoning. Just remember that the Shaithaan is always there to lead us down the garden path, and sadly, we only become aware of this when we are deep in the jungle of chaos.

Then comes parenting. Just as with the “garbage-in-garbage-out” adage, when we have “value-in”, we will have “value-out”. Good parents will bring up good children. So, Parents! You have twelve years only to mould your child as you like, just as the baker has time with the dough to mould before he puts it into the oven to bake the bread or whatever. Just like the bread or whatever once baked, our children once into teenage will not be ours to mould anymore. They will have their own ways to deal with what confronts them from then on. As is said in Islam, from then on we can only be our child’s friend – no more the mentor. Other metaphors people use to describe this process of change is that of the cocoon and the butterfly, or the potters clay and the finished jar. Once transformed for good or bad, we cease to be in control of the result. Unaware parents will lose this golden chance and the hurt will be theirs for life. Let’s pass our test of this world and bring up this child as the amaanaath (the trust) that it is from Allah SWA. Yes, we don’t own our children. They have been given to us to test us of that trust. We have to return them to Allah.

All is not lost however. Within the compassionate Design of Allah SWA, he has not left us hopeless. We, as aware individuals, still have means to mould our character over time; we have the choice to cut our path. And there are many ways. With some sense to guide us, we can actively reflect on our character and seek to find the glaring chinks and patch these up. The best way is by finding a peaceful moment in the day or night (as after prayer or meditation) to reflect on our behaviour and our attitudes that please of displease those we live with. How do we measure up to those attributes mentioned at the beginning of this write-up. Where are we failing? In addition, do we harbour hatefulness, resentment, jealousy, envy, or arrogance? We can be truthful to our selves in this personal reverie, because no one will know except you. This revelation will be the beginning of self-transforming. Self suggestion, mental imagery, and prayer and supplication and all such methods will help our subconscious mind to begin remoulding our old self-image to a new one. It may take a while, but change will happen when we are committed and dedicated. Begin in the name of Allah and the conviction of hope that He will surely deliver for us (inshaaAllah).

Supplement this with the following also. Don’t waste your time! Young people think that just because they are young, they have time. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring. Remember that the idle mind is the playground of the Devil. Do something productive and selfless; activities that will benefit others rather than just you. Every moment lost is lost time in this world as we travel towards our death which is inevitable. What lies from there on is the Hereafter and we need to collect the good from this world that will help us in that dimension. Do some kind of social service, join an NGO, learn a trade or skill, learn a new language, or perform the blessed task of memorising the Quran – at least some parts of it. And please shun bad friends. They do so much damage that we don’t even know, but Shaithan, with his clever design, draws such people to us to make us slip from the Path. Negative and opinionated people don’t allow you to grow in your spirit; Those friends who show off and do acts of pseudo-courage (like defacing property, breaking social rules and laws, and doing the things that Allah prohibited) will inevitably lead you onto the lap of Shaithan and get trapped.

Lastly but most important, please share everything with Allah and make Him your Walee. Never lose hope that Allah will answer your prayers. Be mindful of the ways Allah talks to us through “aha” moments. We will miss these if we are not mindful. Following that Path of Allah will not fail you. Believe in this truth!

The loneliness of severed connection

The birth and death of human beings are defining moments that move the dynamic of life. When a person dies there is one less connection in this world. But yes as another is born, the potential for another connection is also created. That is the balance of harmony in the world and in the universe too for as one celestial body is created another is sent into destruction.

While this overall balance is set in nature, at the level of us humans another dynamic happens; that of ups and downs. We are formed in the womb with the connection of the umbilical chord as the security bond which at birth is severed and we become an ‘independent” entity. As we grow up we seek our security and our success in life through the connections we forge, as we re-seek that umbilical connection. At whatever stage in our life, our success depends on making connections which perhaps peak in our youth to middle age as we go through the trials and travails of our life.

Every action in life has a link to someone else or something that is a living bond from which we derive our life force and our confidence. Our importance is measured by the numbers of human connections we have been able to muster and the degree of control we can have over these. There are also those fortunate naturals who have a knack for drawing connections to them even without trying - just by their mere attitude of personality.

Making connections and maintaining them are two factors that demand our daily engagement. Some researchers attest that we spend 99 percent of our time working on our image and making connections to keep up that image.  “Third places’ such as coffee shops, cinemas, picnic locations, parks, holhuashi, clubs and gyms and the internet, all contribute to this bonding and sustaining these relationships. And we pay - sometimes quite exorbitant amounts - to keep this life-force sources in operation. They can be liberally inclusive as in the case of public places or staunchly exclusive as in the case of private clubs and such inwardly directed alliances depending on how one wants to be identified with a stratified community.  Keeping our contacts alive is what makes us happy, confident and assured of our place in society. That is why we cherish and are often drowned in the attraction of the facebook, twitter, instagram and other connecting devices. A mere ‘like’ makes our day! We have friends galore - yes, even a cyber connection is a connection. When we forfeit this life force, we are considered reclusive and -  like it or not - soon forgotten even though we exist as alive.

Yet this must all end when we have to go at long last - many a time without a sliver of a warning. As age catches up with us and the attendant failures of our physical body begins to take its toll, each of us is reminded of this time of exit. When our friends begin to disappear we feel the loneliness engulfing us. Thus, it is not difficult to understand the consequence of this pain in the much witnessed successive deaths of spouses with very little time in between, for the broken connection is excruciating to the soul which thrives on the connection of the mind, body and spirit within each of us and with others we have made and maintained connection throughout life. Like a much traversed path along a grassy plain the path is so well defined over time, that its removal is to lose the comfort of the familiar way or even reason to precipitate confusion and chaos.

Each one of us will have this inevitable moment sooner or later. There is no event in life more assured than this. So it is with this awareness that we must all do what we can while we are alive -  to improve the lot of other human beings during the time we inhabit this life moment. That is the purpose of life. We were sent here to make our human existence better for successive generations; not to dwell in selfish hedonism. In the natural flow of life unmarred by selfish desires, we all seem ready to reciprocate a good deed done to us because it feels good to share. That is the nature of life. It is about give and take in harmony. The yin and yang so well depicted by that flowing symbol.

It is as the poet says,

Through this toilsome world, alas!
Once and only once I pass;
If a kindness I may show,
If a good deed I may do
To a suffering fellow man,
Let me do it while I can.
No delay, for it is plain
I shall not pass this way again!

The immigrant creed

President Donald Trump's ban on Muslim immigrants to the USA comes as a shocker to many of us in general and to Muslims specifically. Immigration has been a phenomenon of this world from eons past. The whole of humanity has been a melting pot of genetic and cultural idiosyncrasies that have amalgamated into what we have today. Even in today's world, more so than in the past, the modalities of communication has opened national borders to immigration and intermingling as never before. Yet the biggest and most prosperous nation that we all look to as a model of development in the modernising world had squelched this flow to a drip and for some the tap had been completely closed.

Those versed in human psychology tell us that those who are in a state of anxious anticipation are those that work hardest to get ahead in life. They put their effort into overtime to make them matter in the schemes of things in the community they have been given a chance to live in. They burn the midnight lamp to study and produce and sell to pump the local economy.

In the case of USA this has been the lifeblood of the Nation from the time of the pilgrims. And the rise of national wealth and power is directly related to the hard work of the immigrant. Over time wave after wave of immigrants to this nation have provided the development dynamic that kept it on top as the world's most powerful nation and its President the most “powerful” person in the world.

And now this wall of a move to keep everyone out. A wall on immigration and a wall down south of the border. This is exclusiveness when the whole world calls for inclusiveness. These are barriers to the flow of both wealth of matter and mind when the force of globalisation calls for easing the barriers. It seems that this nation has turned upside down in a kind of jingoistic paranoia to turn history on its head. From the Machiavellian perspective, the end justifies the means and this argument may flow well with the supporters of the Republican ilk. By this measure, it would seem that the US public voted for exclusiveness; so it seems that the policies are justified to go on that track. But reality of the world being different, the most powerful nation must exemplify the behaviour they should expect from others as we create the future. It cannot be a charade played out with serious nations on doing “whatever we want whenever we want”. The prevailing pretext of protecting the US citizen from the danger of mischievous immigrants seem on a statistical scale negligible when compared to the danger to that citizen from the mischief of these very 'legal' citizens themselves. So why the fuss? Sad to say it seems that the bipolar affliction has now moved from the poor citizen (acceptable and need to be medically treated) to a whole nation (not acceptable) and needs the spade to be called a spade, and relevant treatment taken.

I pray for this nation to revert to its past wisdom and compassion of its founding fathers who invited into its portals, the world's weak, the persecuted and the downtrodden.

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Life’s journey

From the moment we are born to the moment of our death we are on this journey of life. It is interesting to note that when we board the ship we are crying (perhaps because we already know the hardship of life) and others are laughing. And when we disembark at our death, others are crying and we are laughing (if we have lived a good life).

So how do we live a good life? How do we make that happen? We can do so by accumulating wealth and indulging in the pleasures of life with not a bit of thanks given to the provider of all this bounty. We indulge in this kind of hedonism when our eeman is low and we have no thought given to the advent of the Hereafter. Some of this group actively believes that there is no Hereafter. What we have is here and now. Still, those that believe so know they are on a journey but for them it is more a cruise ship of fun than a moment's ride to a destination.

Metaphorically, our ship of life, as is any ship, is guided by two very important groups of people; the captain of the ship and the crew of the ship. If we can imagine our body to be the ship, the captain is our conscious mind and the crew is our subconscious mind. Whatever command the captain gives the crew follows because the subconscious mind does not evaluate the command and give a feedback to challenge the captain’s command. They follow orders. Now we must know that our subconscious mind is the confluence of such commands it has received over time from the time we wore born to this time in our lives. It has defined our personality, our habits and our values and our assumptions right or wrong. So we guide our ship in this collective consciousness imbued by this historical and cumulative experience which we call our basic wisdom framework. So we are wiser than others. And yet others are more creative or compassionate or cruel or deceptive or resentful

than others; all based on how our captain has commanded the crew of our body.

But Allah is wise and so he created us not in complete hard wiring but with the ability to rewire and become different as we wish. But the change has to be based on changing the captain’s command. When the captain can be made to change the command for some length of our temporal time we can change old habits and beliefs. Our power of self will and choice is what gives the responsibility for ourselves. Yes, this world is a test and each one of us believers in a supreme being must pass the test to achieve the hereafter  Just like our achievements on our school prize giving day or the winning of trophy in game of physical endurance, Allah will handover to us our report cards on the day of judgement. Some will be enthralled in joy while others will have their share of tears. Yes, now is the time to struggle and accumulate the goodness we need for the goodness of the hereafter. We need to fill our baggage with the right kinds of goods we can use in the hereafter. This requires a conscious packing of our suitcases and baggage and make the captain give the right orders right from the beginning of our journey.

We can ask Allah to give us hidayath for in the asking is the answering. When we don't ask we don't get. That is the power of dhua or supplication. The popular book “the secret” also has distilled this spiritual wisdom when it states the law of attraction - that what we actively set out mind to wanting (asking) is when the doors of Providence opens up for us.

Metaphorically our journey is made in the ship of life. How should we make our actions most relevant while we are on this ship? Should we not carry the right goods? Should we not leave some goods behind, or leave the ship itself in good condition for others to board? That will be the benefit for society.

Looking from another angle of us actively contributing to society, firstly see that we do no harm. It's not enough just to focus on doing good, but quite as important also is about not doing harm to others. Indirectly this is also doing good but more with the other person in mind rather than just on doing good to ourselves in isolation.

Allah SWS calls on us to enjoy this world as we seek the Hereafter. But why is it that some people commit suicide? Some want to leave the ship even before time. They don't want to be with the ship. Why? Much research shows that they left because of another person's hurtful action. Otherwise no one will leave this ship by themselves through their own volition. In other words the sad act of suicide rubs off on us also when we hurt others and they are driven to this end state of a personal decision. So don't hurt others to the extent of pushing them off the ship. While we may not be doing it in awareness but in ignorance, still it is indirectly, our action. So let's not make that happen to others. When we don't engage in hurting others, we do a great service to mankind.

A story may give more emphasis. A king needed to harvest the fruits from his orchard and so he gave two pickers two empty baskets to fill. The king would not supervise the work but would just weigh the baskets at the end of the day and give them a commission for their work.   Both went to the field and had a weighty basket at the end of the day. One man was dishonest and filled weighty trash into his basket along with some fruit to top it all, and in his laziness he had only picked the low hanging ones. The other one meticulously picked the best and high hanging ones. Once the baskets were weighed the king did not give them a commission this time, but to their surprise gave the whole basket with its contents to each of them to take it as the day’s reward for work. What happened then is not hard to imagine. The lazy and deceptive one had the cry and the honest one had the bounty. 

In the same vein we must fill our baskets with the best of what we can use in the hereafter. And that is the best of deeds; not money or wealth or fame or position in this worldly society. Surah -Takasur attests to the folly of being distracted from the Akhirah in our desperate accumulation of worldly wealth.

To get Dhuniya we have to do fikr and to get Jannah we have to do zikr. May Allah allow us to partake in His Hidhayah. 

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