Human beings! What a interesting species we are. We seem to only learn with pain. And not just any pain. We allow ourselves to reach a point where we really suffer, before we change…but we do, we eventually change, but after what! What a shame….
Why, why do we do this? interesting!
They say, If you go through this life and suffer a lot, “Well, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”…well, im still here… But, I would add,
“Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger…and hopefully purer! Cause… It would all be pointless otherwise! Wouldn’t it? All that suffering, all that pain!
The alternative of course is either “death or insanity”, or you allow the hurt and suffering to transform who you are into something so negative, hopeless and angry. And you know what…what’s the point?
You can’t be happy if you feel like that, and neither can your family, your kids. And if you’re not happy and negative, your family will automatically be unhappy and negative and so on and so on…WHY???
And if we’re angry or sad or unhappy all the time, surely we are being negative and surely, since this universe is made up of energy, which is a proven fact that we all know, well, then logic tells you that…negative attracts negative attracts negative…and positive attracts positive.
You don’t have to be a scientist to understand the concept. Just look at your life, and think logically. Logic is an amazing thing. And I’m not being condescending in any way. It’s the truth. We aren’t very logical a lot of the time. We are mostly reactive. We react to situations before actually thinking about it. Mostly, we are beings that function on how things that come to us make us feel. So we REACT by getting angry, losing our temper, start to cry, start to laugh.
So we are Reactive beings, which is fine, but at least react without creating a negative situation, or having to go back and say, I’m sorry. Because being sorry is one thing, but it doesn’t fix what is already broken. Or bring back what is lost, it only brings forgiveness. And while forgiveness is an important thing, it’s still only comes after doing something negative and you have to go through the whole process and then finally, Then, after much pain and anguish, hopefully, you get forgiveness, and don’t you think that this whole process is a waste of time, and energy, a lot of energy?
How different the situation might have turned out if only you acted in the correct manner in the first place.
And why go through all that just to have to end up saying. I’m sorry! Heard the saying, “rather be safe than sorry! Well!
We should learn from our mistakes. Don’t we learn, don’t we see the pattern, if only we did!
If only we paid attention to ourselves and our behavior, if only we watched ourselves constantly to make sure we never act in a negative manner, no matter what, never be angry, try not to be too sad and rather to replace these feelings with acceptance, patience and learning.
That’s the reason I chose Islam! I had a million questions that were never really answered, like a confirmation on why we are here.
How can I be happy no matter what? How can I be positive, and what or who can teach me this ability? And the biggest question of all!!!
What is the TRUTH?
So if I really don’t know, shouldn’t we at least try to stay positive until we do know? What have you got to loose…being negative…oh ok! That can’t be too bad!
And not positive like hey hey look I’m so happy and my life is so great. I’m making so much money or I have so much stuff…NO, these things only give you the illusion of happiness and peace, and once they’re gone, so is the happiness, and soon afterwards, the peace goes out the window.
I mean, positive in every way, in a REAL way. Positive in outlook, positive in attitude, positive in reaction, positive in intention, positive thoughts, positive actions and so on and so forth. Positive in EVERY WAY! Or doesn’t that make sense? It does now!
Self-control! A massive benefit.
Someone once told me…
“You can be love you can be light. You do not have to be your plight.”
Something that I thought back then was really beautiful and all, but really not realistic. Especially living in this hectic world we live in these days. Maybe in a fairy tale or in a dream somewhere, but certainly this could not be achieved in reality!
Just imagine if you could manage your feelings, not in a negative way, but to turn your situation into a positive one. How much happier we would be, how much more at peace. No more fighting, no more turmoil…just peace…And isn’t that what we are all searching for anyway? PEACE!
Isn’t that the voice that is always crying out from all over the world? Isn’t this word: PEACE”, always present on a demonstration poster, no matter what the cause or injustice? Isn’t it always the symbol made by the fingers of some poor soul on the television being filmed in a war torn country.
Today…I know this is achievable. I know this to be true. It is possible! You don't have to get all huffed and lost and broken when troubling times comes your way. They come to us all sometime or another, in one way or another, especially these days. Death, famine, suffering, broken hearts through relationships gone bad, war, senseless killing, poverty….and it goes on and on and on…
And as I said before, that’s the reason I chose Islam!
It was the only, belief system that taught me how to move towards a path of eliminating negativity step by step and actually experiencing the result, a lasting effect. Not an effect that lasts while times are hard and you’re still suffering and slightly in shock, but one that stays with you forever…but the key…maintenance
One that you use to eliminate other bad or negative behavioral patterns.
So? What have I found to be the result? Well, I learnt that being humble is better than being confrontational. I learned that being calm is more effective than being angry. I learnt that gratitude is more beautiful and less painful than being angry about how things turn out. Things happen all the time, sometimes good, sometimes bad, and other times…really bad.
Are we gonna get depressed and angry so that things just keep spiraling in a negative circle? Or, are we gonna be patient and use the experience as a humbling experience to change everything in yourself to just be as pure as positive as possible during the nasty times we face in this life.
Cause as I said before, these times can either break you or make you stronger in character and purer in soul.
So what is being purer and why do I wanna be purer. Well, let’s take a look at our definition of being pure! Don’t we always describe babies as pure and innocent? Why? Well because they are just little babies, they don’t know anger or revenge or sadness or pain? They’re new…pure…clean…
So! Isn’t being pure a positive thing? Ok, so then that’s what I have to choose to be, right? Doesn’t that make sense? But how on earth do I become pure?
As a new Muslim, you hear about various things. You here how doing this achieves that and doing something else achieves another goal in reaching spiritual purity. And you want to believe it but it seems far-fetched at first. Because you wonder to yourself, could it be true? Could Islam really be the one belief system teaching me this and it’s been there all the time. The secret to life? Right in front of me, right in front of us all??? nahhhh..can’t be!
Could it hold all the answers we all have been searching for? All the secrets on how to survive or live in this life? The answers to everything?
UNTIL one day, as a Muslim does, you start practicing what this belief system teaches you. Cause if I didn’t at least try the things that so make sense to these people already practicing this religion, then how would I know, right?
They seem to be so different, so strong, so dedicated and so full of honour. Willing to die for what they believe in. Unbreakable, how? Why? Something I have never witnessed before. Where do they get this strength and courage from?
Islam teaches a very interesting concept. It’s called “Jihad” or “striving” in English. Not the jihad that so many people come to understand as suicide bombing, but striving in life, in struggle or in trying to achieve any goal or obstacle you may face. Striving, once you know what it really is, is an amazing concept in teaching yourself anything that you would like to attain, be it physical or spiritual.
For example, striving to change your negatives into positives. Striving to survive the almost impossible situations that presents themselves to us in this illusion of a life.
Now in reality achieving this is not easy, but it is possible and not cause its difficult but simple cause we are lazy beings that unless something makes as very uncomfortable or directly affects us in a bad way, we just aren’t bothered to change or adjust it. There is another saying. It says, “Anything worthwhile is worth fighting for. Well, being positive and pure is well worth the struggle. However this can only be achieved with total dedication, striving and focus. Not sometimes, all of the time.
Decide what you want to achieve, and dedicate yourself to striving to achieve that in each and every moment of your day.
But how? Well, first of all, Islam teaches you that in order to achieve purity you should pray 5 times a day. Praying in itself helps you to be positive and become pure. Everything you do has relevance.
Secondly it teaches you to read Qur’an. These two things by themselves eliminate almost 100% of the negativity. Other than that you have to become what they refer to as the watcher. Watch yourself. Watch how you react to things, to people. Watch your thoughts and your feelings. Always be aware of your situation and your reactions. And when you notice yourself saying or thinking or acting in a negative way, count to ten, step back, calm down and change how you are reacting immediately. This is where Islam teaches you to say, Bismillah Al Rahman Al Raheem. In English, this means, “In the name of The Most Beneficent the most Merciful”! Muslims learn in the Qur’an that Allah tells us before you start anything, you should start with Bismillah Al Rahman Al Raheem, because the mentioning of Gods name, blesses everything and clears your path of all negativity.
Learning this ability, the one to be able to control your behavior your reactions is called being pious. Not the action, but the power behind the ability is called piety.
It is said, he who attains piety, will have the doors of heaven opened for him. You have to take each day step by step. Don’t live day by day, live moment by moment. In this way you can learn to slowly but surely eliminate negative patterns.
Each negative pattern has to be eliminated one by one. Millions of people go down this road of why, why, why am I so negative? Why did I react like this? And they get lost for years trying to figure out why I did this, why I did that. Why does this or that activate me? Why is not important and in this incredibly vast universe we live in with its million confusing belief systems, you can be busy doing this forever.
We have all had things in our lives that affect or change us. The point is not to find out what it was; the point is to change the behavior. And once you start achieving the change, the why will come to pass anyway by default.
The past is in the past, so leave it there. If you keep going back to the past, you cannot exist in the present and if you’re not “present” you cannot be effective in your life, can YOU? And you cannot change anything.
But staying present and aware and striving for your changes will automatically answer your questions anyway.
Keep asking yourself logical questions to verify that you are going in the right direction when things don’t make sense.
This is striving, each and every moment of your life, watching yourself and always striving to be better. If it didn’t work this time, I will try again next time, and if it doesn’t work next time I will keep trying and forcing myself to act in a way that is positive, until I achieve what I’m striving for.
Soon you will notice something very interesting happening. You will notice that you are starting to automatically become more positive. One day at a time, and the striving will become easier and easier until it becomes a natural part of who you are. The point is to reprogramme yourself. We so naturally react in negative ways because of what we have learnt along the way or saw or lived. That our brains automatically act in these negative ways as a result of programming or “learnt behavior”
This applies to everything, step by step. Striving until it changes. And it will change. Depending on your intention and how hard you work on it, will depend on how quickly you change your behavior.
As a person “striving” to find the truth, you have to ask yourself a certain question. Why am I here? Where did we all come from? REALLY!
Not some theory, or some far-fetched story that can never be verified, but the TRUTH, something that shows me, WOW, this is for real, look at the FACTS! Not someone’s opinion or belief system just because they say it’s the right way.
When you set your intention on becoming better or purer and you seek for the truth, it will eventually come to you. It has to, because that’s what you have set your intentions to do and that’s what you’re striving towards. And that’s how the universe works, on energy. Thoughts, intentions, feelings, are all energy, so…even scientifically this works!
