Who Are These People?

The picture that I’ve posted was taken by me on my way to my grandmother’s house last Friday. Three lanes, the cars in the left two lanes are patiently waiting for their traffic light to turn green, while the right lane (the one I was now patiently waiting in) is meant for cars turning right, and there is NO traffic light. Instead, the driver of the white SUV decides that he cannot wait in the long lane of traffic that wants to go straight ahead, and would rather move ahead in the right lane, and at the very last minute push his way between the two lanes, thus blocking everyone from moving anywhere! I see this sort of thing happen on a daily basis while I drive in Bahrain, and honestly it never ceases to amaze me how self-centered people can be. What makes anyone think that their time is more precious that everyone else’s?

Another day I am driving down the road, when, out of nowhere, a McDonald’s bag filled with garbage lands right in front of me. The lady in the car in front of me decides that she cannot wait to throw it in a garbage can, but instead uses the road as her personal waste disposal. Is it just me? Or is something seriously wrong with this picture?

I sit with my sister and listen to her complain of all the accounts receivable that have not been paid for years. People take their goods, use them, enjoy them, and somehow forget to pay for them!

I ask myself, “Who are these people?”
And I answer myself, “These are the people I share my country with. The people I share my identity with. But most importantly, these are the people I share my beautiful religion with.”
What happened to us Muslims? What happened that transformed us from a religion of “WE” to a religion of “I”? And the saddest part is that people seem to be in a trance of oblivion, without even the slightest realization that how you treat others IS an important part of our religion.

I once heard someone say that we live in a time of two extremes. We have those who perform every prescribed act of worship perfectly, from prayer, to fasting to Hajj etc… and somehow forgot their manners, and how to treat others. On the other extreme there are those who forgot Allah SWT and all the acts of worship, yet strive to be good to others, thus leading a highly ethical and moral life. And the truth is that neither of these two extremes is the true Islam, because they are not mutually exclusive. One can perform every act of worship, and still be extremely ethical and moral at the same time, and that is the magic of Islam. It is a doctrine for living a complete life, in all its aspects. Ethics and morals weren’t invented by the West; they were put forth by God. What is heartbreaking is that at some point we taught others, and have now forgotten them ourselves.

ِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

وَعِبَادُ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلَّذِينَ يَمۡشُونَ عَلَى ٱلۡأَرۡضِ هَوۡنً۬ا وَإِذَا خَاطَبَهُمُ ٱلۡجَـٰهِلُونَ قَالُواْ سَلَـٰمً۬ا

(63) سُوۡرَةُ الفُرقان

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

And the (faithful) slaves of the Most Gracious (Allâh) are those who walk on the earth in humility and sedateness, and when the foolish address them (with bad words) they reply back with mild words of gentleness.

Al-Furqan(63)