If you’ve had the misfortune of turning on the TV or doom-scrolling over the last few weeks, you might have noticed the planet slowly slipping into insanity and rolling the dice on starting World War 3.
As if it wasn’t enough to see a genocide unfold in Gaza, our politicians seem hell-bent on making sure that level of destruction stretches out as far and wide as possible.
Oh, and were you getting too comfortable with those affordable gas prices and cheap food in your local supermarket? Well, our politicians are determined to fix that too by choosing violence over diplomacy at every turn.
The way I see it hasn’t changed over the last decade or so and I wrote about it in my book, “Inside the Soul of Islam”. The problem is, a lot of people read it and thought I was just being poetic or nice.
I wasn’t.
I was literally stating exactly what I think.
There’s a little sub-chapter in the final chapter of the book titled, “How we can permanently end terrorism”. You can read the word ‘terrorist’ as ‘war-mongering politician’. It’s all the same insanity in slightly different guises.
Here’s a little excerpt from the book:
“I say this to everyone, of every faith and none:
If you want to stop terrorism, don’t be a terrorist.
Don’t terrorize yourself inside of your own mind. Don’t inflict terror on your family or friends – with terrible thoughts, words, and deeds – because of your emotional state in the moment. Don’t fall into the same trap that terrorists fall into. What you do and how you think and live may seem unconnected to the violent actions of a few hateful people, but I assure you, it is not.
Terrorism (and war) is a physical manifestation of the spiritual disease that has infected the collective consciousness of humanity.
If you want to raise the collective consciousness of humanity, raise your own level of consciousness.
If you want to heal all of the world, heal all of yourself.
If you want to create peace in all of the world, create peace in all of yourself.
If you want the world to be a more loving place, be a more loving person.
This is the spiritual path. This is the spiritual teaching of every enlightened woman and man who has ever walked the face of the Earth. And, as lovely as it sounds, we throw this spiritual truth out the moment we get scared, angry, or hateful.
Our ego kicks in and says: ‘They’re bombing people and yet you want us to be “understanding” and “peaceful,” and “spiritual”?!’ My answer is: ‘Yes – that’s exactly what I want for us. I believe that’s exactly what every founder of every religion, and the One Source of all religion, wants for us.’”
That same sneaky ego (nafs) leads us to becoming so frustrated and angry at the injustices we see, that it can lead us to acting unethically in retaliation. It can lead us to making generalisations against groups of people and taking action from a place of anger and ignorance instead of inner-peace, knowledge and enlightenment. In other words, it leads us to slowly slip into our own version of temporary insanity. And just like that, we become a part of the problem and no longer the solution.
“Wait a minute Mamoon, does that mean… are you saying we shouldn’t take action to stop these evil things?”
No, of course I’m not saying that.
I’m saying, be very vigilant over your nafs.
Observe your thoughts and feelings.
And make sure that when you take righteous action, it comes from a place of inner peace, presence and spiritual connection.
The world does not need any more insanely-angry activists.
The world needs more spiritually awakened activists.
You’re a smart person. You can figure out how to take peaceful political action for yourself.
As for the “spiritual awakening” part, this might help:
Peace, Love & Blessings.
Mamoon
