THE CENTURY OF THE SELF AND ITS GREATEST TRAGEDY

The Eye of the Self

The Messenger of Evil

If you question your leaders of their conduct,

How will you yourself fare to be in their shoes?

Will you be the Firaun or will you be worse than the Firaun?

At least the Firaun was a generous leader, are you as generous

With the pennies that you have? Or are you deluding yourself

That when you get rich you will get kinder?

If you complain about your neighbour’s noise,

How many times have you yourself disturbed their peace?

If you question someone’s sincerity,

Why should you not question your own sincerity?

If you look down upon someone’s fall into disrepute,

How far will you yourself fall into disrepute?

If you sneer at a woman’s dress or impropriety,

Why do you not avert your eyes instead?

If you possess an envy for so-called jihad-crusade wars,

Why are you not thankful for the peace in your own land?

If you question the love a Mureed (student) has for his Murshid (master),

Is it because you possess none for anyone else but yourself?

If you think you can yourself perfectly interpret the Holy Quran,

Why did God even bother sending a Messenger when 

He could have simply sent the Holy Quran?

If you think that democracy is the way forward for Muslims,

Why do you think the Messenger stressed so much on adab (good manners) 

Above personal hak (rights)?

If you think Islam is the best religion,

Why do you feel oppressed?

Who is oppressing you but yourself?

Who is humiliating you but yourself?

The nation will receive unto it the leaders it deserves,

The nation will receive unto it the religion it deserves,

You preach insularity and introvertness,

But when the Messenger (s.a.w.s.) looked within himself

He saw God, and outside he saw the vast ocean of humanity.

What do you see when you look within yourself?

Your ego? Dressed in a religious cloth?

You speak of defending the faith.

You say speak in the Name of God,

But the truth is you do not

Even understand the

Nature of Words,

And how Words

Can be sorcery

And how Words

Can be

Mercy.

You throw your day away contemplating over the Devil’s deception,

Until you yourself become part of his deception,

You wring your heart and beat on your chest,

In righteous anger at the Devil, at the unbelievers,

At the Jews, at the Christians, at the Hindus,

But I see you there alone, standing in front of the mirror,

And the only person I see you harassing and haranguing

Is you and no one but you...

There is no evil but evil,

 And you have become the messenger of evil, o’ Man.

O’ Humanity, O’ Muslims, O' Sincerity, wake up! Wake up!

.......................................

The Dajjal (Antichrist) is only One-eyed because, in truth, it cares for no one but itself...

The Spring of Democracy in the Middle East and North Africa has become the Spring of the Self, in an Age of the Self. Insufferably selfish, we-have-all-the-answers, down-with-the-old-and-up-with-the-new political movement with a million-headed hydra of individual fears, desires and hubris. 

There are no real leaders because such leaders that they have follows the selfish self-centred whims and fancies of 'the people'. But they are not following the people, because the desires of the people are not the people themselves. But none understands this because the people sees their egos and themselves as one. 

And that is the greatest tragedy in the Century of Self (which is coincidentally the title of this amazing BBC documentary. Just like the prose, the documentary is too long, 235 minutes. But worth every second, I think.).

May we all have a conscious day today, aware of ourselves and cautious of our ego, always.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way