Francais

“We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world”

The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.

It is also necessary in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others—even our enemies—is a denial of our common humanity. We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion.

We therefore call upon all men and women ~ to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion ~ to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate ~ to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures ~ to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity ~ to cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings—even those regarded as enemies.

We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensible to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community.

www.charterofcompassion.org

 

Muslim Presence would like to wish you all a very spiritual  Eid Mumbarak-Blessed Festival.

We say goodbye to this month of love, compassion, generosity, brotherhood and forgiveness and we say hello to new beginnings.

We thank God for having given us the will, strength and the endurance to observe this fast and obey His commandment. 

Allah says in Sura al-Baqarah, ayat 185: “You shall complete the number (of days) and you may glorify God for His guiding you, and that you may be thankful.”

The day of Eid is meant for remembering Allah. The Holy Prophet (SAW) says: “Give beauty to your Eid by doing takbir”. It is said that the Prophet (SAW) himself used to come out of his home on the day of Eid, reciitng the takbir and glorifying Allah in a loud voice

In the words of our Holy Prophet Muhammad, “ “May Allah accept from us and from you.” (Related by Ahmad.)

Artwork entitled:   Shahadah / Declaration of Faith

Contemporary far eastern influenced abstract painting with Shahadah written in Kufi style. The red circle represents the one-ness and everlasting attribute of God and the five textured layers in the red, represent the five pillars of Islam. The textured black at the top represents chaos outside of the faith. True belief in the shahadah and practising the pillars of Islam, brings your soul out of the darkness and into the light of Islam. Shahadah translates:  ‘There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger Of God.’  Mixed media on canvas
50 x 70 cm
 

 

Most of the classical religious teachings regarding the month of Ramadan insist on the rules being respected as well as the deep spiritual dimension of this month of fast, privations, worship and meditation. While thinking about it more closely, one realizes that this month marries apparently contradictory requirements which, nevertheless, together constitute the universe of faith.

To ponder over these different dimensions is the responsibility of each conscience, each woman, each man and each community of faith, wherever they are. We can never emphasise enough the importance of this “return to oneself” required during this period of fast.

Ramadan is a month of abrupt changes; this is true here more than anywhere else. At the heart of our consumer society, where we are used to easy access to goods and possessions and where we are driven by the marked individualism of our daily lives, this month requires from everyone that we come back to the centre and the meaning of our life.

At the Centre there is God and one’s heart, as the Qur’an reminds us: “…and know that [the knowledge of] God lies between the human being and his heart.” At the Centre, everyone is asked to take up again a dialogue with The Most-High and The Most-Close.. a dialogue of intimacy, of sincerity, of love. To fast is to seek.. with lucidity, patience and confidence.. justice and peace with oneself. The month of Ramadan is the “month of the Meaning”.. why this life? What about God in my life? What about my mother and my father.. still alive or already gone? What about my children? My family? My spiritual community? Why this universe and this humanity? What meaning have I given to my daily life? What meaning am I able to be consistent with? The Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him) had warned “Some people only gain from their fast the fact that they are hungry and thirsty.” He was speaking of those who fast as mechanically as they eat. They deprive themselves from eating with the same unawareness and the same thoughtlessness as they are used to eating and drinking. In fact, they transform it into a cultural tradition, a fashionable celebration, even a month of banquets and “Ramadan nights”. A fast of extreme alienation.. a fast of counter-Meaning.

As this month invites us towards the deep horizons of introspection and meaning, it reminds us of the importance of detail, precision and discipline in our practice. The precise starting day of Ramadan that must be rigorously found; the precise hour before dawn on which one must stop eating; the prayers to be performed “at determined moments”; the exact time of the break of fast.

At the very time of our profound meditation with God and in our own self, one could have thought that it was possible to immerse oneself into one’s feelings because this quest for meaning is so deep that it should be allowed to bypass the details of rules and schedules. But the actual experience of Ramadan teaches us the opposite: no profound spirituality, no true quest of meaning without discipline and rigor as to the management of rules to be respected and time to be mastered.

The month of Ramadan marries the depth of the meaning and the precision of the form. There exists an “intelligence of the fast” that arises from the very reality of this marriage between the content and the form: to fast with one’s body is a school for the exercise of the mind. The abrupt changes implied by the fast is an invitation to a transformation and a profound reform of oneself and one’s life that can only occur through a rigorous intellectual introspection (muraqaba).

To achieve the ultimate goal of the fast our faith requires a demanding, lucid, sincere, and honest mind capable of sane self-criticism. Everyone should be able to do that for oneself, before God, within one’s solitude as well as within one’s commitment among one’s fellow human beings. It is a question of mastering one’s emotions, to face up to oneself and to take the right decisions as to the transformation of one’s life in order to come closer to the Centre and the Meaning.

Muslims of today need more than ever to reconcile themselves with the school of profound spirituality along with the exercise of rigorous and critical intelligence. Particularly in the West. At a time where fear is all around, where suspicion is widespread, where the Muslims are tempted by the obsession to have to defend themselves and to prove constantly their innocence, the month of Ramadan calls them to their dignity as well as to their responsibilities.

It is urgent that they learn to master their emotions, to go beyond their fears and doubts and come back to the essential with confidence and assurance. It is imperative too that they make it a rule for themselves to be rigorous and upright in the assessment of their conduct, individually and collectively: self-criticism and collective introspection are of the essence at every step, to achieve a true transformation within Muslim communities and societies.

Instead of blaming “those who dominate”, “the Other”, “the West”, etc. it is necessary to make ours the teaching of the month of Ramadan: you are, indeed, what you do of yourself. What are we doing of ourselves today? What are our contributions within the fields of education, social justice and liberty? What are we doing to promote the dignity of women, children or to protect the rights of the poor and the marginalised people in our societies? What kind of models of profound, intelligent and active spirituality do we offer today to the people around us? What have we done with our universal message of justice and peace? What have we done with our message of individual responsibility, of human brotherhood and love? All these questions are in our hearts and minds.. and there is only one response inspired by the Qur’an and nurtured by the month of Ramadan: God will change nothing for the good if you change nothing.

“Instead of quoting anonymous sources in the media, let’s start dialoguing with each other not only with those of similar cultural, ethnic or language ties, but through brotherhood, love and compassion”

 

A while back, I was participating in a seminar on the topic of Citizenship, Identity and Belonging with Tariq Ramadan as the guest speaker.  

Noticing a man furiously writing, I soon realized he was the new Imam of the main mosque, Imam Khaled Abdul-Hamid Syed.  

 Not bad, I thought.

 It was a Friday right before his Khutba and he had taken time to come.

It was obvious that this Imam was very pro-active, engaged with the community and youth and women friendly – a rare and valuable commodity in this community. 

His Friday sermons were soulful and almost entirely in English.  

It came as a surprise, soon after the seminar, to see a large full-blown picture of the Imam on the front page of the Ottawa Citizen. 

Apparently, the newspaper had received an email sent by a young person complaining about the Imam.

It quickly became apparent with subsequent stories that the Citizen tried to squeeze every drop out of the story and that this was not just about a need to have a “homegrown” imam.

The real scoop here was more about the mosque establishment, internal political dynamics, semi-transparent decision making and personality politics. 

Unfortunately, the new Imam was caught in the crossfire and unprepared to deal with the internal politics and the meanness that sometimes finds its way into religious institutions. 

In a nutshell, this whole incident was unbecoming of a religious Centre.   

 The Media

It would be tempting to lay the entire blame on the Ottawa Citizen for this polemic.

They do, however, have a fundamental responsibility to properly check out their sources.

Many  individuals have confirmed that the “Sarah Ahmed” who sent the original email to the Ottawa Citizen was not a “young Muslim”, but actually an individual from the mosque administration who hid her identity. 

The Ottawa Citizen was aware of this fact but never came clean. 

If they had, it would have provided more context to the story and would have been fairer.

They would have upheld their journalistic integrity. 

Unfortunately, this willful omission will only continue to reinforce the perception that the Citizen is biased towards Muslims and that they love to magnify controversial stories about Muslims because it probably sells more papers, especially in an economic downturn in which Canwest News is having financial difficulties.

 The Establishment

The Imam had a steep learning curve upon arriving in Ottawa.

He had to familiarize himself with an entirely new culture, work on improving his English, and get up to speed on the various factions within the Mosque Board and the community. 

Normally, the Board’s responsibility should have been to mentor and counsel the new Imam. 

Instead, the Imam found himself in a completely foreign environment with the media hounding him down – a classic example of a smear campaign where the Imam was collateral damage of a war among various factions within the mosque.    

Imam Khalid is one of the few individuals who came out of this situation untarnished.

Using his Creator and his faith to guide him through this difficult test, he was a role model of patience, courage and forgiveness – a living example to his community of how to behave under duress.

In the thick of it, he carried on doing what he was sent here to do – serving the Ottawa Muslim community and, through it, confirmed that he was meant to be our Imam.

Now that the dust has finally settled, it is time for us to reflect as a community on what

happened. 

We all share in the responsibility of contributing to a peaceful, harmonious and just community. 

Instead of quoting anonymous sources in the media, let’s start dialoguing with each other not only with those of similar cultural, ethnic or language ties, but through brotherhood, love and compassion.

It is the least we can do for our precious Masjid, our Imam, our community and ourselves.

Artwork entitled, “The Ottawa Citizen misses the boat.”

“If you  really want to look cool walking through the mosque parking lot in the dark, at least bring a bed sheet and wrap it around yourself when its time to pray”

The other night I was getting ready with the family for Taraweeh prayer, the Ramadan evening prayer at the mosque.  

Inside, I walked in to the usual myriad of shoes littered around and near the shelves. God willing, one day we’ll get it right and get the shoes on the shelves and lined up neatly, I know it!

Going to the mosque can be quite a peaceful experience.  I went in and started to pray my sunnah,  sitting quietly with my sons and reflecting.

 In the line ahead of me there were a couple brothers I did not know. One immediately caught my attention because of the somewhat bright colour he was wearing. Well I thought, “at least I won’t get lost in the dark”. There is always a bright side to every situation.

Nothing really prepared me for this slight interruption in the peace of this Ramadan night.

 As the brother in front of us started to pray, you could see that his shirt and undershirt came out and well unfortunately it was quite the site.  Lets just say, if you’ve heard of the stereotype of the plumber under the sink…you’ll get the picture.

So here I am, with my two sons, and ahead of me is a brother praying…and his private area is not covered.  Maybe I could have ignored it.  But then his prayer is not being accepted i thought.  I can’t leave him to pray like that all night.  Leave it to me to find a solution. 

 Trying to find a tactful way to deal with this one was not easy. Still, Allah does not give us a burden more than we can bear.  I can do it, I thought. We finished the Isha prayer and waited.

 Ahead of him, the other stylishly brightly colored bro was praying. When he went into his bowing position,  up went his shirt and out came his underwear….great!

 I am not just talking to the ridiculous style of having a bit of your underwear showing over the top of your pants because its cool like that OR you cant afford a proper belt OR your pants are too big.

So what to do…what would you do?  A Quick- problem-solve….

Well, at least the underwear bro was covered…not that I liked seeing his underwear…but whatever, I could close my eyes.

But maybe his prayer would not be accepted because he was not dressed properly.

I have to do something I thought.  

So as we sat waiting, I kept trying to bend and lean a bit to catch his eyes as he looked around. I felt a bit like Mr. Bean each time he turned.  I would lean forward, trying not to be overly conspicuous, because I didn’t want him to feel bad.

I mean who goes to mosque thinking I am going to go “plumber style” today? Apologies to all my plumber friends out there. 

Leaning forward, I would begin to make some eye and mouth gestures…hoping he would not think I had some type of disability. But I could not for the life of me catch his attention.

Soon, I was distracted by some high-school guys sitting next to us talking…when I heard them mention the word “crack”, I had the feeling that they weren’t talking about the recent drug bust in Toronto.

While sitting, a brother made a few announcements to the congregation, one in which he lamented and pleaded with people to cross the road at the lights…”we care about you and your safety.. (Nice I thought) and then he ended “but if you j-walk and get hit by a car, the mosque wont be held responsible.” Ok, I could say a few things about that but I still had to get this bro to cover up before time ran out because the Taraweeh was coming up fast.

Eye, mouth, leaning all kinds of gestures, nothing worked.

Finally, it was time to pray, we all stood up and there I was wildly gesturing with my head, eyes.  I did everything short of pointing to his pants and saying “Hey,  pull it up”.

Miraculously, as the lines started moving forward a space right next to the brother opened up. So, I did what any good guy would do. I jumped into the space and while we were being sorted out (you know straightening the lines and giving the uncles time to do the chorus of belching) I quickly whispered to him, “Bro, you might want to pull your shirt down. ”

“Why?” he asked…

“Umm, your back is all exposed and stuff.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that you know, you’re kind of exposed?”

“Huh?

“Tuck in your shirt”

He looked at me as if I was more than just slightly neurotic.

And after all of that, he didn’t seem to be bothered….either that or he didn’t speak English.

Well, at least I prayed next to him for the rest of the night so my eyes were no longer assaulted.

I think he got it, because each time we would bow,  I could feel him pulling his shirt down since I was right next to him.

So why am I telling this story you ask?  There really is a point

Public Service Announcement-brothers: when you go to pray, please remember you’re in a public space and just please for the love of everyone else, wear clothes that cover your private areas (awrah).  

If you  really want to look cool walking through the mosque parking lot in the dark, at least bring a bed sheet and wrap it around yourself when its time to pray.  This way, you can have your two minutes of looking cool and the rest of us won’ t get whiplash trying to tell you t

“When we do good deeds, we’re rewarded by a dopamine pulse. It’s clear that helping others, even at low thresholds of several hours of volunteerism a week, creates mood elevation.”

Kate Hanni, 48, a real estate broker in Napa, California, is living proof—emphasis on living. On June 21, 2006, she was lured to a million-dollar home by a man who’d posed as a home buyer, then attacked her when she arrived. For 25 minutes he beat, stabbed, and tortured her, then left her on the floor to die. “My hair was torn out,” Kate says. “The skin on my hands and knees was gone. But worst of all, so was my dignity and my sense of safety in the world.”

Kate’s physical injuries healed over time, but the psychic damage she suffered was lasting and profound. “After six months of intensive therapy,” she says, “I was still afraid to be alone. If no one else was home, I had a panic attack every time I opened my own front door.”

In December of that year, Kate and her husband and sons were en route to a family vacation when their plane was stranded on the tarmac for nine hours, leaving them and their fellow passengers without food, water, or working toilets. “Being trapped on that plane triggered the victimized feeling I’d had since the assault,” Kate says. “All of a sudden I thought, ‘Enough is enough.’ Within weeks Kate launched a website, flyersrights.com, to spearhead the swelling movement for airline passengers’ rights. Within months she’d quit her job and become the executive director of the Coalition for an Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights—appearing on national TV, being interviewed by every major newspaper in the U.S.

“When I took on this issue,” Kate says, “I’d tried everything therapy had to offer, but I was still a prisoner of my fears. Then I was invited to fly to New York to appear on Good Morning America. Either I was going to face my fears and go, or I was going to miss an opportunity to spread the word.” “I went,” she says. “And I forgot to be afraid. Since then, my terror has been gone.” Kate exhales a long, jagged breath. “Taking on this cause has done me more good than any therapy ever could.”

Volunteer for health

Kate Hanni’s experience illustrates what doctors and psychotherapists have long observed, and scientists can now explain. People who give to others give healthier, happier lives to themselves.

Whether a person has experienced a life-altering trauma like Kate’s, or suffers from anxiety and/or depression, or is grappling with a garden-variety case of the blues, research shows that those who take “the activism cure” find personal healing in their efforts to heal the world.

The first major study to observe this phenomenon began in 1986, when the National Institute on Aging undertook an ambitious long-term research project. The Americans’ Changing Lives Studies divided 3,617 respondents into two groups: those who did volunteer work and those who didn’t. The researchers surveyed each member of the two groups in 1986, 1989, 1994, and 2006, comparing their levels of happiness, life satisfaction, self-esteem, sense of control over life, physical health, and depression.

“People who were in better physical and mental health were more likely to volunteer,” reported the study’s leader, Peggy Thoits, a Vanderbilt University sociologist. “And conversely, volunteer work was good for both mental and physical health. People of all ages who volunteered were happier and experienced better physical health and less depression.”

Building on that study, researchers Marc Musick and John Wilson at the University of Texas used the same data but focused in on mental health. They, too, found that over time, volunteering lowered depression. “Some of the protection came from the social integration of volunteering,” Musick found. “Volunteer work improves access to social and psychological resources, which are known to counter negative moods.”

Is the “activism cure” all in our heads, or does it work on our bodies, too? Dr. Paul Arnstein of Boston College evaluated the effects of volunteering on chronic pain—and found that volunteering reduced pain and disability. The participants named “making a connection” and having “a sense of purpose” as the sources of their improved health. When they were polled again several months later, the participants reported that their well-being had continued to improve. “The narrow thinking that medications are the only way to control persistent pain,” Dr. Arnstein concluded, “has resulted in a lot of suffering.”

Researchers have discovered a physiological basis for the warm glow that often seems to accompany giving. “The benefits of giving back are definitely biological,” says bioethicist Stephen G. Post, co-author of Why Good Things Happen to Good People. “Contemporary neuroscience has confirmed the connection between the physiological and psychological. We know now that the stress response, hormones, and even the immune system are impacted by, and impact, the pathways in the brain. MRI studies of the participants’ brains revealed that making a donation activated the mesolimbic pathway—the brain’s reward center.”

Citing the findings of an ongoing study sponsored by the National Institute on Mental Health, Post reports, “The mesolimbic pathway of the emotional part of the brain releases feel-good chemicals, triggering a feeling of physical energy. Thirteen percent of people also report alleviation of physical pain. So there really is joy in giving.”

Chief among those chemicals is dopamine, the hormone and neurotransmitter that plays important roles in motor activity, learning, motivation, sleep, attention, and mood. Dopamine reinforces the human urge to do whatever feels good—for better and for worse. On the upside, dopamine encourages us to hang out with people who are nice to us, savor a great meal, head for the hammock on a hot summer day, and do nice things for others.

“When we do good deeds,” Post says, “we’re rewarded by a dopamine pulse. Giving a donation or volunteering in a food bank tweaks the same source of pleasure that lights up when we eat or have sex. It’s clear that helping others, even at low thresholds of several hours of volunteerism a week, creates mood elevation.”

On the downside, dopamine has been implicated in addiction, serving as a flashing neon “pleasure” sign that keeps the addict coming back for more. But addicts, too, can benefit from giving back. “Alcoholics who work the 12th step of Alcoholics Anonymous, bringing the message to other addicts have twice the recovery rate of those who don’t,” says Post.

Who needs heroin, when volunteering can give you what researchers call “the helper’s high”? Based on brain scans of his research subjects, National Institutes of Health cognitive neuroscientist Jordan Grafman reports, “Those brain structures that are activated when you get a reward are the same ones that are activated when you give. In fact, they’re activated more when you give.”

The resilience factor

If you or anyone you know has ever gone through a hard time—in other words, if you or anyone you know is human—you’ve undoubtedly observed that people respond as differently to adversity as they do to flavors of ice cream. Some sail through with confident, optimistic flags unfurled. Others facing a similar situation spend weeks, months, or years flailing in the quicksand of despair.

Experts call this variable the “resilience factor.” Endless research dollars have been spent attempting to unlock its mysteries in hopes of allowing more of us to sail and fewer of us to get stuck in the muck. It’s still not clear what combination of genetics, upbringing, and circumstance makes one person more resilient than the next. But most experts agree that feeling powerless doesn’t help—and that feeling competent and in control does. That’s why Jerilyn Ross, president and CEO of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America, is a proponent of the activism cure.

“When we give back, it shifts the focus outside ourselves,” Ross says. “It creates a sense of satisfaction that increases endorphins and therefore, a sense of well-being. When we’re feeling down, the instinct is often to vent to friends. It’s good to have a support system, but if that’s all there is, it’s hard to get distance from what’s bothering you. Doing things for other people, thinking about other people, is like giving your brain a break from despair.”

Something greater than you

Kate Hanni turned to activism in response to one of the harshest blows that life has to offer. The activist cure works for her. But can activism also help ordinary people deal with the ordinary challenges that render so many of us so unhappy, unsettled, and unglued these days?

Stephen Post is certain that it can. Citing the findings of the Musick-Wilson study, he says, “Even volunteering for two or three hours a week has been found to lower situational depression. One can’t expect this in severe cases, but it doesn’t take a whole lot of activity to create an emotional shift in people who are mildly depressed.”

Chia Hamilton is a case in point. In 2005, she was newly retired from 25 years as a human resources coordinator. She’d looked forward to retirement with great anticipation, but once she’d read all the books on her nightstand, taught herself some new computer programs, and turned her front yard into a prolific vegetable garden, she found herself facing days that suddenly felt long and empty, wondering what she’d do with the rest of her life.

A creeping depression started to infiltrate her normally upbeat temperament. Friends were worried about her. She was worried about herself. And then one day while she was grocery shopping, a notice on the bulletin board caught her eye. A few weeks later, Chia was sitting with a roomful of inmates at San Quentin Prison, facilitating a conflict resolution workshop. For the next six years, Chia traveled the country, bringing the mission of nonviolent communication to hundreds of prisoners.

At age 63, 45 years after she finished high school, Chia decided to go to college and get her degree. “My whole life, I’d never known what I wanted to do,” she says. “Volunteering helped me uncover who I was and gave me the confidence to figure it out—and go get it.”

Maybe someday, physicians and psychiatrists will write prescriptions for charitable donations and citizen action instead of scrips for pills and psychotherapy. But for now, women like Kate Hanni and Chia Hamilton will go on prescribing activism for themselves—and offering sustenance to others in the process.

“Helping others is the best medicine for anyone who has been traumatized,” Kate Hanni says. “I got to face my fears much more effectively than I would have if I’d stayed at home and kept going to therapy. Activism gets you out of yourself and into action. It makes you feel like you’re part of something greater than you.”

For Kate, it’s more than a feeling. Two years ago she was a traumatized victim, unable to work, sleep, eat, or be alone, even in her own home. Today she’s the spokesperson for the national movement of outraged air travelers, named one of the nation’s 25 Most Influential Executive Women in Travel by Forbes in 2008. Once too terrified to travel, Kate has organized events in every major city, founded a rock group called the Toasted Heads (whose signature tune is a version of “We Gotta Get Outta This Place,” suitable for singing while stranded on a plane), and stormed the halls of Congress on a regular basis.

“This cause gave me a purpose for living that’s so exciting,” Kate says. “I wake up and jump out of bed to get started every day. I’ve never felt better.”

Kate pauses. When she speaks again, her voice is somber. “And it wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for the horrifying events of the past.”

Source: The Greater Good Magazine

As a professor of Islamic jurisprudence in Baghdad ’s Nizamiyyah College, Al-Ghazzali was considered one of the leading minds of his day. All his life he had aimed to know ‘the deep reality of things’, and his mental powers had led him to eminence. But at the very peak of his career he began to have doubts that his powers of reasoning had really led him to truth.

As he tells it in his autobiography, The Deliverance From Error, Ghazzali had a kind of spiritual crisis in which he was no longer sure of what he knew, and his thinking ran along the following lines: He observed that the evidence of one’s senses could often be wrong, overtaken by some higher order of truth. Although, for instance, a star in the sky appears tiny, mathematics proves that the object is in fact much larger than the earth. Similarly, during a dream we could see and feel fantastic things, but on waking we realize they have no basis in reality. He wondered: might it not be the case then that the reasoning we use to structure and explain our day to day reality might also seem like an illusion seen from some higher state of wakefulness? Ghazzali remembered that Sufi mystics, for instance, claimed their higher states of consciousness made reasoning worthless.

In the midst of his dark night of the soul, Ghazzali had an experience that would change him forever. A blaze of light seemed to pierce through to his heart, and in an instant the ‘well-ordered arguments’ that had that had been his basis in reality thus far became insignificant next to his direct experience of divine truth. Yet this epiphany was clearly not enough to sustain him, and he began an exhaustive program of private reading and study to discover the school of philosophy, religion or mysticism that would best correspond to the truth he had been witness to. This study evolved into his monumental The Revival of the Religious Sciences, which progressively debunked every school of philosophical learning except for Sufism, which in his eyes provided the route to direct experience of God that Islam had lost sight of.

The intensity of the work left Ghazzali with a nervous breakdown and a speech problem that made him unable to continue giving lectures. Leaving behind his family and colleagues, he resigned his post and began over a decade as a wandering Sufi mystic in Syria, only to return to teaching many years later.

The Alchemy

In time, Ghazzali’s attempt to revive his religion was fully recognized, and he was given the peculiar title Hujjat-el-Islam, or ‘The Proof of Islam’. What Aquinas became for medieval Christendom, so Ghazzali was to the Islam of the early Middle Ages, except that Ghazzali’s ideas were also influential in Europe, where he was known as ‘Algazel’.

Though a theological heavyweight, one of his wiser acts was to make an abridgment of The Revival of Religious Sciences that could reach a wider audience. The result was The Alchemy of Happiness (in Arabic Kimiya’-yi sa’adat). The first four chapters follow the hadiths, or sayings of Muhammad, in making a case for the impossibility of true happiness without a close relationship to God. Though now relatively obscure in the West, it has for nine centuries remained one of the great inspirational tracts of Islam.

Ghazzali begins the book by stating the four elements in the metamorphosis that turns an average person ‘from an animal into an angel’. They include:

• Knowledge of self
• Knowledge of God
• Knowledge of the world as it really is
• Knowledge of the next world as it really is

Knowledge of self

Ghazzali draws attention to the simple fact that until we know something about ourselves we cannot fulfill our potential.

The key to knowledge of the self is the heart – not the physical heart but the one given us by God, which ‘has come into this world as a traveler visits a foreign country.and will presently return to its native land’. To lose our heart in the things and concerns of this world is to forget our real cosmic origins, whereas knowledge of the heart as given by God provides a true awareness of who we are as God created us.

When people allow their passions to take over, Ghazzali says, it is as if ‘one who should hand over an angel to the power of a dog’. Whereas if a person restrains themselves from worldly excesses and thinks more about God, they begin to get very intuitive, to gain knowledge that would never come to them simply through the senses. Just as by polishing iron it can be made into a mirror, so a mind conditioned by discipline can eliminate its mental and spiritual rust and be shined up to truly reflect divine light.

Humans delight in using the faculties which we have been given, Ghazzali points out, such that anger delights in taking vengeance, the eye delights in seeing beauty, and the ear in hearing music. If, therefore, the highest faculty of human beings is the location of truth, then we must delight in its discovery. The lustful and the gluttonous think that they are getting the most enjoyment out of life by satisfying their appetites, but they cannot know the much greater delights that come with knowledge of the self and of God. Saints and mystics are ecstatic for a reason.

Knowledge of God

Ghazzali refers to a line in the Koran: “Does it not occur to man that there was a time when he was nothing?” Yet he notes that many refuse to look for the real cause that brought them into creation. He likens a physicist to an ant crawling across a piece of paper which, seeing letters being written on to it, believes they are the work of a pen alone. A person suffering from depression will be told a different cause for his ailment, depending on who he sees; the physician and the astrologer will find different causes. It does not occur to them that God may have given the man the illness for a reason, and caused the conditions that led to his dissatisfaction with the normal pleasures with life, in the hope that it would draw him closer to God. There is always a real cause behind the apparent ones, and that real cause is God’s.

Many do not care for the idea that every person is called to account when they die, but Ghazzali says these people are like one who does not take their medicine because they believe the doctor does not care whether they do or not. The issue is not the worry of the doctor, but the fact that a person will self-destruct by their own disobedience. In the same way, God appreciates our worship, but if we do not worship often it does not mean that God will waste away, but that we will forget who we are, that is, spiritual beings who have been asked to take on a human life.

Final word

Though a hard core mystic who experienced spiritual mysteries first hand, Ghazzali’s influence came from the fact that could make a case for the existence of God that employed reason alone. While he may have been called ‘The Proof of Islam’, his writing in fact builds a watertight case for the truth of any religion, and as a tool for the winning over of a doubter or lapsed believer, The Alchemy of Happiness is hard to beat.

There are other factors that make this 900 year-old book influential still: A title that carries a great promise; the book’s basis in the authority of Muhammad’s sayings in the Koran; and its short length, compared to the weighty tome it was abridged from. And as Claud Field noted in his classic 1909 translation (the one we use here), the power of Ghazzali’s writing lay in his brilliance with the use of allegories that anyone could understand.

But the larger message of The Alchemy of Happiness, whether you are Muslim or not, is that genuine happiness comes from the knowledge that we are creations of God, and have therefore been made for a purpose. Peace comes from knowing that we are merely ‘travellers in a foreign land’, and will before long return to an eternal paradise.

Source

Humans are contesting creatures. We fight all orders, commands and guidance as it comes for our benefit.

God has given us a mind to choose freely, to think and to question, yet our primary way of response to this blessing is dispute. When we are commanded to submit our beings to Allah the Lord of the Universe we ask why? When the answer is given, because He has created you so as to worship Him, we again ask, why? When the response is given, so that we may know Him, we refuse submission and our relationship with Him is suspended.Who in this life is able to live without knowing Him? Allah almighty, rabbul alamin.

In our superficial understanding of this life, we constantly look for approval from the outside world, we look for acceptance, we are needy creatures by design. But our neediness is misunderstood in the life of this world. I know this first hand. My life was one of neediness, great neediness I confess to this. However, it may not need be a confession because it is an innate response to our Creator, rabbul alamin, ar rahman ir rahim, albeit misplaced. Yes, needy for approval from others, needing to be wanted and loved at all moments in life, forgetting love for oneself.

The soul is an enigmatic thing, it makes you believe that that which you seek for yourself you will get it from others, yet it knows that it can only come from the Creator of His creation. And so we contest. We refuse His existence, we fight hard not to believe in Him. But sooner or later, our lives lack meaning, they come to a standstill, our temporal goals are met, and we stand still. Our dialogues become silent, the world around us seems to disappear and we are faced with Ourselves. When that moment comes, fear penetrates the soul. This fear is accompanied with a feeling of being lost and desperate, without purpose, without end. Our sufferings seem unbearable and the only solace we seem to find is in sleep, an alternate version of death. Yet sleep, like death it comes when the mind is uneasy, or the soul is lost, is plagued with the same feelings as in our waking hours. And so we fear death, yet somewhere something tells us that death is a release to our pains and sorrows, but another half strongly disagrees with this strange logic.

So we cry. We contest and we cry. But our crying softens our hearts and opens the windows of our souls. Our crying is a tunnel of dialogue, where our pains and fears are most intense and are heard out loud. Ar rahman ir raheem… The answer comes. Submit. How can I submit my being to something I do not know nor understand, yet suddenly I feel need for? The window of submission opens and light floods. Submission without challenge. Because once we contest, the light is lost. Answers follow, yet the initial step must be done from the soul and the heart. These are our gateways to light, but when we block them with dispute, they are darkened and we remain in a state of loss. Something must be given to gain, and this is our disputing nature as human beings.

There is no need to forget reason; there is no need to dismiss logic. No. But they come next. And so it is that Allah warns us of this harmful human insistence, on numerous accounts in His revelation. The story of the Qiblah is one which is particularly relevant as it was a test for the believers in the realm of ultimate submission without contest.

The Muslims during the time of revelation were the ultimate example of submission. Submission one gives only to the Creator of the universe. The direction of the sacred ritual of prayer from the time of the Jews was Jerusalem. The Qiblah of the Muslims however, to separate themselves from the Jews was the sacred Ka’aba in Mecca. The true test in submission was when Allah commanded the Muslims to change their Qiblah to the direction of the Jews, Jerusalem. It was for a period of 16 ½ months that the Muslims were now praying to the Holy city of Jerusalem.

Which of those Muslims asked why they could not pray to the Holy city of Makkah? Who withstood the taunting of the Jews as they ridiculed Allah’s command to pray to Jerusalem? Which one of us would readily follow this new revelation without immediate understanding? Yet Allah tells us in His revelation that there is wisdom in all commands which He decrees.

“To Allah belong the East and the West: He guideth whom He will to a Way that is straight” 2:142

Who will be guided by Allah to the way that is straight? He who contests immediately or he who follows without doubt that there is wisdom within?

“And We appointed the Qiblah to which thou wast used, only to test those who followed the Messenger from those who would turn on their heels. Indeed it was momentous, except to those guided by Allah. And never would Allah make your faith of no effect. For Allah is to all people Most surely full of Kindness, Most Merciful” 2:143

A test. Which one of us lets go? Which one of us let’s go to the point that we feel the gentle touch of Allah on our lives, guiding us to the right direction and to peaceful submission? This test of the Qibla was indeed an opportunity for the believers to receive mercy and kindness from Allah. It is that which separates the muslimoon (those who are submitted) from those among us who contest. So let us ask ourselves if we would have changed the direction of our prayer, whilst in prayer, in an ardent desire to follow Allah’s commands through our beloved Prophet, peace be upon him?

That is why Allah makes our tests momentous. Situations arise in which we must make quick moral choices, choices of obedience or choices of contest. Because our reason, our logic cannot respond spontaneously, our minds require time; time to look at the full image, to gather facts and information to paint a larger picture. This cannot provide immediate result; therefore our hearts and souls must be in a state of submission, ultimate submission to our Creator in order to take those immediate measures, those acts of faith. The heart and the soul are our minds in those moments, untrained and uncultivated, surely they fail the test.

Nevertheless, Allah never orders something without wisdom within it, this we know for certain. In fact, the following verse reveals how the Qiblah was returned to the Holy center of Islam, Makkah after the testing period:

“Know well that that is the truth from their Lord, nor is Allah unmindful of what they do” 2:144
Allah is not confined to one earthly center; the Qiblah story beautifully illustrates this. Allah is neither contained in the East nor in the West of this world, as He is the Lord of the universe, He who contains all, yet nothing contains Him! It is not Allah Himself in the center of Makkah, may Allah forbid Muslims from ever believing so, no, it is unity in submission to Him, calling upon Him, that we must all face one single direction. Whether it was in the East or in the West, Allah tells us it does not matter, it is through His wisdom that he has tested the Muslims through the Qiblah and a lesson to be learned for the rest of us.

The destructive nature of those people who existed before the final revelation is clearly illustrated in this story as well, as Allah tells us:

“Even if thou wert to bring to the people of the Book all the signs (together), they would not follow thy Qiblah; nor art thou going to follow their Qiblah; nor indeed will they follow each other’s Qiblah. If thou after the knowledge hath reached thee, wert to follow their (vain) desires- then wert thou indeed (clearly) in the wrong. The people of the Book know this as they know their own sons; but some of them conceal the truth which they themselves know” 2:146-146

Who do we want to be like? We are constantly contesting and disputing as those whom Allah exposes. It is wrong to believe that this message is not to us Muslims! Beware of the trappings of our nafs! The one who is always looking at others’ faults and elevates himself in the shadow of their downfall. We are guilty first and foremost, just as we find those faults we detest in others in ourselves, the warning is one to all. Constantly arguing, despite our knowledge of the truth and our deep down understanding of the truth, we conceal it from our actions and our tongues. Why such a disconnect between our hearts and our actions? Our hearts know the truths, yet our actions act as though there is something worth fighting against. This is our submission in action.

The lines between heart and action are clear and open, never intercepted with our worldly desires to please others or even to follow others. Which one of us will past this test?

Truly wisdom comes from Allah Almighty in multi-layered forms; it is a duty upon us all to look inside our hearts and our souls before looking at others. Self- purification is a necessary life process for success in this life and the next, this message I give to myself before anyone else, for surely I am most in need of such.

Nadine Miville is a thinker, researcher, and advocate for Muslim women’s rights and currently living in Ottawa, Ontario. She has an MA in International Development Studies.

The Prophet’s Journey” (isra’) from Mecca to Jerusalem and his subsequent “Ascension” (mi’raj) to heaven are, in reality, two stages of one mystic experience, dating almost exactly one year before the exodus to Medina (cf. Ibn Sa’d I/1, 143).

According to various well-documented Traditions – extensively quoted and discussed by Ibn Kathir in his commentary on 17:1, as well as by Ibn Hajar in Fath al-Bari VII, 155 ff. – the Apostle of God, accompanied by the Angel Gabriel, found himself transported by night to the site of Solomon’s Temple at Jerusalem, where he led a congregation of many of the earlier, long since deceased prophets in prayer; some of them he afterwards encountered again in heaven.

The Ascension, in particular, is important from the viewpoint of Muslim theology inasmuch as it was in the course of this experience that the five daily prayers were explicitly instituted, by God’s ordinance, as an integral part of the Islamic Faith.

Since the Prophet himself did not leave any clear-cut explanation of this experience, Muslim thinkers – including the Prophet’s Companions – have always widely differed as to its true nature.

The great majority of the Companions believed that both the Night Journey and the Ascension were physical occurrences – in other words, that the Prophet was borne bodily to Jerusalem and then to heaven – while a minority were convinced that the experience was purely spiritual.

Among the latter we find, in particular, the name of A’ishah, the Prophet’s widow and most intimate companion of his later years, who declared emphatically that “he was transported in his spirit (bi-ruhihi), while his body did not leave its place” (cf. Tabari, Zamakhshari and Ibn Kathir in their commentaries on 17:1); the great Al-Hasan al-Basri, who belonged to the next generation, held uncompromisingly to the same view (ibid.).

As against this, the theologians who maintain that the Night Journey and the Ascension were physical experiences refer to the corresponding belief of most of the Companions – without, however, being able to point to a single Tradition to the effect that the Prophet himself described it as such. Some Muslim scholars lay stress on the words asra bi-‘abdihi (“He transported His servant by night”) occurring in 17:1, and contend that the term ‘abd (“servant”) denotes a living being in its entirety, i.e., a combination of body and soul. This interpretation, however, does not take into account the probability that the expression asra bi-‘abdihi simply refers to the human quality of the Prophet, in consonance with the many Qur’anic statements to the effect that he, like all other apostles, was but a mortal servant of God, and was not endowed with any supernatural qualities. This, to my mind, is fully brought out in the concluding words of the above verse – “verily, He alone is all-hearing, all-seeing” – following upon the statement that the Prophet was shown some of God’s symbols (min ayatina), i.e., given insight into some, but by no means all, of the ultimate truths underlying God’s creation.

The most convincing argument in favour of a spiritual interpretation of both the Night Journey and the Ascension is forthcoming from the highly allegorical descriptions found in the authentic Traditions relating to this double experience: descriptions, that is, which are so obviously symbolic that they preclude any possibility of interpreting them literally, in “physical” terms. Thus, for instance, the Apostle of God speaks of his encountering at Jerusalem, and subsequently in heaven, a number of the earlier prophets, all of whom had undoubtedly passed away a long time before. According to one Tradition (quoted by Ibn Kathir on the authority of Anas), he visited Moses in his grave, and found him praying. In another Tradition, also on the authority of Anas (cf. Fath alBari VII, 158), the Prophet describes how, on his Night Journey, he encountered an old woman, and was thereupon told by Gabriel, “This old woman is the mortal world (ad-dunya)”.

In the words of yet another Tradition, on the authority of Abu Hurayrah (ibid.), the Prophet “passed by people who were sowing and harvesting; and every time they completed their harvest, [the grain] grew up again. Gabriel said, ‘These are the fighters in God’s cause (al-mujahidun ).’ Then they passed by people whose heads were being shattered by rocks; and every time they were shattered, they became whole again. [Gabriel] said, ‘These are they whose heads were oblivious of prayer.’… Then they passed by people who were eating raw, rotten meat and throwing away cooked, wholesome meat. [Gabriel] said, ‘These are the adulterers.’”

In the best-known Tradition on the Ascension (quoted by Bukhari), the Prophet introduces his narrative with the words: “While I lay on the ground next to the Kabah [lit., "in the hijr"], lo! there came unto me an angel, and cut open my breast and took out my heart. And then a golden basin full of faith was brought unto me, and my heart was washed [therein] and was filled [with it]; then it, was restored to its place…” Since “faith” is an abstract concept, it is obvious that the Prophet himself regarded this prelude to the Ascension – and therefore the Ascension itself and, ipso facto, the Night Journey to Jerusalem – as purely spiritual experiences.

But whereas there is cogent reason to believe in a “bodily” Night Journey arid Ascension, there is, on the other hand, no reason to doubt the objective reality of this event. The early Muslim theologians, who could not be expected to possess adequate psychological knowledge, could visualize only two alternatives: either a physical happening or a dream. Since it appeared to them – and rightly so – that these wonderful occurrences would greatly lose in significance if they were relegated to the domain of mere dream, they instinctively adopted an interpretation in physical terms and passionately defended it against all contrary views, like those of A’ishah, Muawiyah or Al-Hasan al-Basri.

In the meantime, however, we have come to know that a dream-experience is not the only alternative to a physical occurrence. Modern psychical research, though still in its infancy, has demonstrably proved that not every spiritual experience (that is, an experience in which none of the known organs of man’s body has a part) must necessarily be a mere subjective manifestation of the “mind” – whatever this term may connote – but that it may, in special circumstances, be no less real or “factual” in the objective sense of this word than anything that man can experience by means of his physiological organism.

We know as yet very little about the quality of such exceptional psychic activities, and so it is well-nigh impossible to reach definite conclusions as to their nature. Nevertheless, certain observations of modern psychologists have confirmed the possibility – claimed from time immemorial by mystics of all persuasions – of a temporary “independence” of man’s spirit from his living body. In the event of such a temporary independence, the spirit or soul appears to be able freely to traverse time and space, to embrace within its insight occurrences and phenomena belonging to otherwise widely separated categories of reality, and to condense them within symbolical perceptions of great intensity, clarity and comprehensiveness.

But when it comes to communicating such “visionary” experiences (as we are constrained to call them for lack of a better term) to people who have never experienced anything of the kind, the person concerned – in this case, the Prophet – is obliged to resort to figurative expressions: and this would account for the allegorical style of all the Traditions relating to the mystic vision of the Night Journey and the Ascension.

At this point I should like to draw the reader’s attention to the discussion of “spiritual Ascension” by one of the truly great Islamic thinkers, Ibn al-Qayyim (Zad al-Ma’ad II, 48 f.): “A’ishah and Muawiyah maintained that the [Prophet's] Night Journey was performed by his soul (bi-ruhihi), while his body did not leave its place. The same is reported to have been the view of Al-Hasan al-Basri. But it is necessary to know the difference between the saying, ‘the Night Journey took place in dream (manaman)’, and the saying, ‘it was [performed] by his soul without his body’. The difference between these two [views] is tremendous. . . , What the dreamer sees are mere reproductions (amthal) of forms already existing in his mind; and so he dreams [for example] that he ascends to heaven or is transported to Mecca or to [other] regions of the world, while [in reality] his spirit neither ascends nor is transported. . . .

“Those who have reported to us the Ascension of the Apostle of God can be divided into two groups – one group maintaining that the Ascension was in spirit and in body, and the other group maintaining that it was performed by his spirit, while his body did not leave its place. But these latter [also] do not mean to say that the Ascension took place in a dream: they merely mean that it was his soul itself which actually went on the Night Journey and ascended to heaven, and that the soul witnessed things which it [otherwise] witnessses after death [lit., mufaraqah, "separation"].

Its condition on that occasion was similar to the condition [of the soul] after death… But that which the Apostle of God experienced on his Night Journey was superior to the [ordinary] experiences of the soul after death, and, of course, was far above the dreams which one sees in sleep… As to the prophets [whom the Apostle of God met in heaven], it was but their souls which had come to dwell there after the separation from their bodies, while the soul of the Apostle of God ascended there in his lifetime.”

It is obvious that this kind of spiritual experience is not only not inferior, but on the contrary, vastly superior to anything that bodily organs could ever perform or record; and it goes without saying, as already mentioned by Ibn al-Qayyim, that it is equally superior to what we term “dream-experiences”, inasmuch as the latter have no objective existence outside the subject’s mind, whereas spiritual experiences of the kind referred to above are not less “real” (that is, objective) than anything which could be experienced “in body”.

By assuming that the Night Journey and the Ascension were spiritual and not bodily, we do not diminish the extraordinary value attaching to this experience of the Prophet.  On the contrary, it appears that the fact of his having had such an experience by far transcends any miracle of bodily ascension, for it presupposes a personality of tremendous spiritual perfection – the very thing which we expect from a true Prophet of God.

However, it is improbable that we ordinary human beings will ever be in a position fully to comprehend spiritual experiences of this kind, Our minds can only operate with elements provided by our consciousness of time and space; and everything that extends beyond this particular set of conceptions will always defy our attempts at a clear-cut definition.

In conclusion, it should be noted that the Prophet’s Night Journey from Mecca to Jerusalem, immediately preceding his Ascension was apparently meant to show that Islam is not a new doctrine but a continuation of the same divine message which was preached by the prophets of old, who had Jerusalem as their spiritual home, This view is supported by Traditions (quoted in Fath al-Bari VII, 158), according to which the Prophet, during his Night Journey, also offered prayers at Yathrib, Sinai, Bethlehem, etc. His encounters with other prophets, mentioned in this connection, symbolize the same idea. The well-known Traditions to the effect that on the occasion of his Night Journey the Prophet led a prayer in the Temple of Jerusalem, in which all other prophets ranged themselves behind him, expresses in a figurative manner the doctrine that Islam, as preached by the Prophet Muhammad, is the fulfilment and perfection of mankind’s religious development, and that Muhammad was the last and the greatest of God’s message-bearers.

Appendix from Muhamad Asad’s translation of the Holy Qu’ran, THE MESSAGE

There are events commemorating Al-Isra Al-Miraj at many local mosques tonight.

Image entitled “Dark Night Journey”

‘They sat in front of the buses.’

‘What?’

‘They stopped the traffic and sat in front of the buses!’

Hearing our manager, I knew something big was going down and heard ‘protests’ and ‘tigers’-something about a rebel group causing trouble.

Sri Lanka is one of those parts of the world that no one cares about until something serious happens.

The protests wouldn’t last that long, probably just a day or two. Did I ever get that wrong.

On my way home, our bus had to change routes in order to avoid the protestors.

I saw hundreds of individuals brandishing flags, posters and banners passing by Parliament Hill, crying out about the killing of innocent civilians and asking the Canadian government to do something about it. They were boldly blocking traffic as automobilists watched on in frustration.

As the momentum built, the protests lasted for a few weeks. The longer it went on, the more I was amazed by the determination of these people.

It wasn’t violent, but was impressive. Beating drums and holding posters up for hours at a time despite the bitter cold. I even saw some people going on hunger strikes.

One of them was eventually taken to the hospital because of breathing problems.

This all made me very intrigued to find out more about Sri Lanka. Through my research, I found out that this was a typical case of civilians caught in the crossfire between the government and a rebel group called the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Apparently, the Sri Lankan government had not been very nice to the Tamil ethnic group, comprised mostly of Hindus and Muslims.

Many Tamils feel that the LTTE is the only hope they have.

As it stands, the small Tamil population in Sri Lanka can be found crowded in a small 5 km square space where they suffer from sickness, injuries and malnutrition.

The Sri Lankan protesters were expressing outrage of their countrymen suffering. Despite the drum beats, passionate cries and poignant slogans, no politician addressed them, no one paid much attention and no one really seemed to care.

I couldn’t help but make a connection between the despair of the Sri Lankans and my own when I protested for Palestine on Parliament Hill only a few weeks prior.

Although Israel had been committing war crimes against the Palestinian people for years, the recent bombings in Gaza caught a lot of people’s attention.

Thousands marched in downtown Ottawa on two consecutive Saturdays in January to express our outrage at Israel’s actions.

Could we have done more?

As I drove by the Sri Lankan protesters and admired their determination, I couldn’t help but feel embarrassed by my community’s lack of engagement.

Most of us keep claiming that we hold Palestine in our hearts and prayers, but it just doesn’t seem to reflect in our actions the way the Sri Lankan’s compassion did.

As Muslims, do we not have a responsibility to stand against injustice, whether it is committed against our fellow Muslims or not? Do we not have a responsibility to do everything in our power to at least express our disagreement with our government’s actions or inactions?

Although it seems that the Sri Lankan protestors’ attempts were futile, they informed us about the political strife in their native country and showed us how protesting really ought to be done: with passion, compassion and determination.

Getting home late on a couple of shifts was well worth this lesson.

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