Thursday, October 30, 2008

Talking about change


Morning all,

So, giving that the elections are coming up, and people are getting more consciously aware about their social environment (hopefully!) I wanted to share this hadith of the prophet of Islam:

Abu Sa"id al-Khudri, may Allah be pleased with him, reported that the Messenger of Allah (SAW) had said: "Whoever amongst you sees anything unjust (evil), let him change it with his hand, if he is not able, then with his tongue, and if he is not even able to do so, then with his heart, and the latter is the weakest form of faith." (narrated by Muslim)

Meaning, inaction is not an option!!!! A person must strive to act in order to change the bad things in society, i.e. poverty, illiteracy rates, crime, and so on, if they cannot ACT then they need to try and change society by their words... so wield those pens (or keys?)... and well if you can't even speak out about something than you must hate injustice in your heart...

THEREFORE!!! DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!! Join some advocacy coalitions, work with your student groups, do something as an individual... DO SOMETHING!

I guess I'm a huge believer in local politics, since they are the most easily influenced by their constituents... people can influence your local politics, they need to just get together, you know collective action. Grassroots efforts, one-on-ones, these things will bring about change... you just need to do something, say something, or honestly dislike it in your heart.

It's not about politics, but about social conditions... which are deemed by politics... so change your social conditions... But anyway, the prophet isn't telling us to sit around and twiddle our thumbs, minds zoning off... but to really think about the conditions of society around us, and address the issues that need to be changed..

So do something.

-one amongst the voices



5 comments:

controlled chaos said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
controlled chaos said...

:)
That was a pretty cool hadith yo.
I don't know who it was, but I can narrow it down to a couple of people. Dang, i never thought it would bother me to not know something.

provoking invoking said...

classic.

you know.. its amazing how far out of reach the last part of that hadith really is for most of us. "hate it in your heart, which is the Weakest form of faith"

look at how apathetic people are. we don't have the energy to hate oppression and injustice in our hearts anymore.. cause "thats just the way it is what am i gonna do?" and how many times do you hear a deep conversation about the injustices in the world ending in "whatever, i dont care anymore". i know i've said it..

and then we can appreciate the Prophet (PBUH)'s suggestion of the LEAST you can do- truly hate it in your heart, if you can't change it. what a wise suggestion. because [collective] apathy is truly what prevents substantial change. and society has told us "buy stuff and be apathetic cause to each his own"

yet collective passion and feeling can lead to so much more.. so what if everyone did the LEAST they could do- just think about it and wish for better? and wouldn't that lead to supplication/invocation (duaa) and what is the power of sincere duaa? because leaders of revolution can only be born when they have a following... and those followers and supporters are simply the people that believe something in their hearts.

Snake Charmer said...

very true. change never starts from the top, but the bottom up

Artistic Logic said...

yay for mysterious post person!!!
seriously can i just know now who you are??