When man accepts his limitations, woman accepts her limitations. But when man gives himself delusions of grandeur, women follow suit. When man submits to God, woman accept the limited designated authority of her humble father and humble husband over her, when man rebels against God, woman rebels against her husband.
In the name of God, the Merciful and Beneficial
Present-day man lives in a world that tries to deny Truth, the absolute Truth of the One God, and ultimately everything that proceeds from that. Even physical facts are denied, delusions have equality with observation, and blindness has equality with sight. In a world that denies Truth, is there such a thing as a lie, or is everything just one’s ‘perspective’?
So too with words, meanings have changed, and people can often take contradictorily understanding the same words. The ‘Euphemism’ of Freedom is used as a guise to defy and break God’s Law, the ‘Euphemism’ of self-confidence as a guise for self-centred delusional egotism and the ‘Euphemism’ of Choice to deny our inherent limitedness.
Limitedness
Indeed, God tells us in the Qur’an:
“Allah desires that He should make light your burdens, and man is created weak.”1
This verse reminds man of his essential limitedness, he cannot be anything he wishes, and what he can do is very limited. This is the reality of man, and for him to think otherwise is delusionary, a lie. Interestingly, the verse starts with the fact that despite man being weak and ultimately powerless, God wishes to help his servant, as long as he calls unto Him. When man accepts his limitations, woman accepts her limitations. But when man gives himself delusions of grandeur, women follow suit. When man submits to God, woman accept the limited designated authority of her humble father and humble husband over her, when man rebels against God, woman rebels against her husband.
We are limited and weak, and by accepting this reality and submitting to God, only then can man truly be liberated from the shackles of this existence. The Prophet sala Allahu ‘alayhi wasalam says:
“The world is a prison for the believer and a paradise for the unbeliever.“2
The believer recognises his limitations, and by fulfilling his duty to God and his responsibility to this world, he is liberated from this prison into the solace and contentment of the Hereafter. Even when our beloved Prophet Yusuf ‘alayhi asalam was wrongly incarcerated, he was in communion with his Creator, and he patiently tolerated his hardship. By contrast the unbeliever sees this world as his paradise and his freedom as defiance of God’s Laws and the Laws of Nature, when in fact he has become a slave to his constantly changing whims and desires.
In a day and age where we tell man everything is possible ‘as long as you believe’ or ‘believe in yourself’ or ‘my perception is my reality’, is it surprising that despite such delusional lies, man still identifies himself as anything he chooses.
He who submits to God, to the Truth by contrast, accepts his limitations and weaknesses and strives to fulfil his Creator’s commands to the best of his ability. Though the believer has no delusions of grandeur, he is not in any way intimidated with the world as he understands the Truth. He often repeats, ‘(There is) No power or strength except with God’, constantly recognising his Creator and calling unto Him for help.
Physical Limitation
It is ironic that modern man looks to science to provide escape from the limitations of his existence, when most scientists, themselves, are seeking to discover the laws that govern the physical reality, laws which by their nature represent limitations and define the boundaries between the possible and the impossible.
Special Relativity postulates nothing can go faster than the speed of light – identifying the limitations of everything. The formula, E = mc2 states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that entropy (disorder) will always increase. It is needless to say that you will always have the proponents and followers of Scientism saying that science will find a way to overcome and undo the very laws it is based on.
Responsibility
Modern Man knows no purpose to his existence other than trying to gratify his whims, in a perpetual loop of disappointment. Traditional (religious) man knows that life is full of trials and tribulations (like all adventure stories) and that his purpose is to be a person of Responsibility – to fulfil his duty to God and to weather the hardships and adversities of this life with patience, perseverance and gratitude.
“To be or not to be? Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them…”3
The aforementioned Hadith referring to this world being a prison for the believer allows him to recognise his limitations and work within the confines of the Creator’s Laws to establish Truth and Justice in this realm. It is the trials and deprivations of this life that paradoxically free man from the enslavement of the worldly impulses and attachments and liberates his soul to Eternity.
Responsibility is the Essence of the Human Reality, our duty to God above our whims, desires, and feelings. Ramadan, for instance, manifest this reality in man more than any other, it reminds us of man’s vocation – to be constantly dedicated to that duty through near continuous worship. Responsibility is the correct enactment of Freedom, to not succumb to the tyranny of our desires.
“Indeed, We offered the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, but they refused to bear it and they feared from it; but man bore it. Indeed, he was unjust ignorant.“4
This Trust of Responsibility is indeed a daunting task which most of creation evaded and fled, it is man’s vocation, and the consequential accountability is frightful and formidable – the Day of Judgement.
The Decay of Language
In George Orwell’s famous dystopian novel, ‘1984’, he describes of the reduction of language and the redefining of words as a mechanism used by a Totalitarian State to inhibit free thought and control people. In our age, we see the reduction of words to mechanical and physical definitions as a diabolical attempt to severe man’s relationship with his Creator and the Unseen. Even the concept of Objective Truth which, by definition, is independent of man is lost within expressions such as ‘my truth’ or ‘your truth’ or ‘my objective judgement’.
| Word | Traditional (Religious) Meaning | Modern (Secular) Understanding |
| God | Absolute Reality | Ideal mental projection |
| Reality | God and the Eternal Abode | The perishable atom and the material world |
| Man | God’s Viceregent | Most evolved animal |
| Heart | Intellect (vessel that witnesses Truth) | Mechanical pump of blood |
| Belief/Faith | Cognisance of Truth (above Reason) | Mental construct |
| Cosmology | Creation (with Purpose) | Big Bang Theory |
| Subjective/ Perception | Sub-optimal view of the Objective Reality | Personal delusion |
| Freedom | Freedom from mental attachments to transient temporal phenomena | Freedom of action to pursue desires |
| Equality | All people having the same Rights and opportunities | Sameness, loss of distinction and uniqueness |
| Choice | To choose between Truth and Falsehood, Right and Wrong, Freedom or Slavery | Choice to pursue any desires |
| Morality | Conformity to Truth | Personal inclinations or tastes |
| Intelligence | Recognising the Truth | Mathematical analysis |
Tragically, modern man with his enslavement to the machine and to his whims is in fact an oxymoron as man, by definition, is not an animal or a product of his impulses and desires, but God’s viceregent to this world, free of the shackles of this prison. Hence, true freedom (Liberty) is the liberation from the tyranny of our desires, fears, egos and idolatry.
References:
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