A moment of reflection, not down the wind.

 

"An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself." (1)

Albert Camus, Carnets, 1935–42 (1962)

Learning and questioning are keys to knowledge. When we are faced with flippant, painful and bitter prospects of existence in life, our critical awareness, even if it comes belated, should urgently begin to "watch our minds" (Albert Camus) as we seek to learn step by step from people, life and time. Our critical awareness is going to help us make up our minds and at the same time energize our hearts so that a certain good conduct and a certain good descipline in our lives are finally established. 

It is to be hoped that the expected result, based upon this attitude, this preference, coupled strongly with arduous work, not mere talk, is such that we start opening our eyes, awakening ourselves and becoming aware of the necessity to look for the way out. We begin to carefully and sustainably refuse to be manipulated and deceived. When this is understood, there is no need to remind ourselves afterward that the "sheep spirit" and the "cheap optimism" we used to deploy and cherish and the "comfort zone" we used to valorize must thus vanish without any sort of guilt or regret from our part. A good, classy, graceful, skillful but not arrogant life is ahead of us soon enough.  

- Chokri Omri

(1) Oxford Essential Quotations (4 ed.), edited by Susan Ratcliffe and published by Oxford University (2016).

Once Upon A Forgotten School Of life, a moment of reflection.

 

A moment of reflection

(( Do not let the will play gardener to your soul Unless you are sure It is wiser than your soul’s nature. // E. L. Masters )) 

He had given us life so long before we set foot here. He carefully sifted for us by dint of love and wisdom the finest and most qualified of men among us and named them prophets and gave each a shared mission to awaken us and patiently teach us wisdom and good life lessons and sustainably help us all the way in order to get ready to sit for an exam they had already sat for and succeeded in and got rewarded for eternally. 

We must never forget that God has endowed our bodies, hearts and souls with life and bestowed strength to us so that we resist human ignorance, hateful weakness and cheap living but also and more importantly so that we insist on learning more and continue to love life more, hate the enemies of it well and forgive those who do not know as we move on. God alone is pulling the sky over our heads with no need of pillars as we see it. He then offered us the earth and beautified it and ordered it to serve us with many a tree, flower and fruit, to name but few, hence making it, observe the seasons and cycles of nature, look like a vivid carpet on which we walk, work and explore. To give but one example of God's creation, let us not fail to observe the cycles of life of a butterfly. There is in them a great secret waiting for us to fathom. Good life long learners are going to blush with a feeling of eternal indebtedness. In the meantime, what have we done to ourselves? 

Human beings, save a few among us but perhaps away from what we say and do, are sneering, mocking and looking down on one another. Horrendous atrocities and crimes are being inflicted on God's creation. If they are hidden and forgotten, they are written. How faulty, ignorant and deprived then are those of us who do not perceive. How impoverished and wretched are those who do not seek strength and wealth from the One who created them with His own Hands and gave them health and life when others are giving sickness and death. How dangerous and hurtful to their own selves are those who do not remember. If memory serves only those who forget, what do ignorance, refusal to learn and oblivion serve?

The Ayah/Verse 61 from Surat/Chapter of The Bees has it that: 

If Allāh were to punish people ‘immediately’ for their wrongdoing, He would not have left a single living being on earth. But He delays them for an appointed term. And when their time arrives, they cannot delay it for a moment nor could they advance it.

Dearest Reader, Keep Reading.