Putting in the effort

Its been a packed couple of months and its amazing how time flies by, and how any persons' life moves through various transitions and phases without even noticing it has. We all go through the childhood phase, teenage phase, slightly mature and mature phase without noticing the difference unless we actually think about it; its natural, things develop and people move on. But sometimes when you sit all alone and remember how things were in the past you start to think how good things were "back then" and how you miss the "good old days" when it was "back then" you were probably thinking "when the hell will this end!!?"

Nikos Kazantzakis (I'm dying to read his books, unfortunately I live in an isolated bubble, i.e. Syria) puts it "While experiencing happiness, we have difficulty in being conscious of it. Only when the happiness is past and we look back on it we do suddenly realize — sometimes with astonishment — how happy we had been".

As you grow you start to see your first dreams die off, and a person starts to become more 'realistic'. You leave your dreams of being an astronaut, an astronomer, a president and go for that realistic stuff; accounting, finance, engineering or even the military. Some of us will grow and accomplish our childhood dreams, others won't. Sometimes I wonder how come I didn't end up doing what I always wanted to do, and why right now I'm doing something completely different.

But I think I figured it out, and that it all comes down to one thing: Effort. In order to accomplish what you want you have to do something about it. Nothing comes without effort. This reminds me of the story of Maryam (Mary) in the Quran where it says:

"And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm-tree: she cried (in her anguish): "Ah! would that I had died before this! Would that I had been a thing forgotten and out of sight!" (23) But (a voice) cried to her from beneath the (palm-tree): "Grieve not! for thy Lord hath provided a rivulet beneath thee; (24) "And shake towards thyself the trunk of the palm-tree: it will let fall fresh ripe dates upon thee.(25)"

How many of us have shaken a palm tree before and dates fell from it? It is very difficult especially if it is a women giving birth as well. Although God is more than capable of making those dates fall from the tree without Mary having to shake the tree, God almighty is trying to show us here that without any sort of effort, even if you are thinking of doing the right thing, nothing will happen. If you sit around praying to God for things to happen, and then do nothing about it, believe it or not, nothing will happen.

Which reminds me of the shiekh/imam at my local mosque. I've heard people (non-muslim) talk about this before, how imams at mosques pray for the destruction/humiliation/suffering of other people (non-muslims) and pray that God makes the muslims victorious over their enemies, and then we wonder why non-muslims think muslims are all terrorists.

I want to show two points here, 1) that shiekh is doing exactly what I was talking about earlier, he stands at the minbar (pulpit in the mosque where the imam stands to deliver sermons) praying/supplicating for things to happen, and then he goes back home and sleeps, or what ever he does.

2) That when people at the time of the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) used to come up to the prophet and tell him to pray for the defeat and destruction of the enemies of Islam, the prophet would pray that they are guided to Islam and not for them to be destroyed. Why does that Imam, and many others, don't follow the sunnah (teachings derived from the actions and sayings of the Prophet) of the Prophet? Why do they do what the prophet didn't do?

We are a frustrated people, us Arabs and muslims, from the years of injustice and persecution that has been placed upon us, and our inability to defend ourselves, but will more talk and no action ever do us any good; has it ever done any good?