Mirza Yawar Baig – Juma Khutba We Need Perspective
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AI: Transcript ©
The number one
requirement
for problem solving, any kind of problem, whether
you are lost in a desert or a
jungle,
whether it's a physical problem,
whether it's a psychological
problem, whether it is a spiritual problem, whether
it is a mental problem,
whether it's a problem in your career or
in your family or your marriage or your
or how you're raising your children,
whether it's a problem in your, in in
your academics when you are studying,
any kind of problem.
The first
and most critical
requirement
is perspective.
Perspective.
Perspective is the ability to hold 2 pictures
simultaneously
in your mind,
where you are
and where you want to be.
Where you are and where you want to
be.
Without this,
it is impossible
to find direction or to give directions.
If I call you and say,
I'm coming to you,
give me directions.
What is the first thing you will ask
me?
You will ask me, where are you?
Because the directions
you give me
have meaning only
if you give those directions from where I
am to where you are.
In this case,
you know where you are, but you don't
know where I am, so it is not
possible to give directions.
Now if I tell you where I am,
then you can give me directions. And that
ability to hold
2 pictures,
where you are and where you want to
be is called perspective.
Physically, mentally, or spiritually,
as I mentioned, we need awareness of where
we are, and where we need to be,
to be able to chart out a roadmap
for development.
Only with perspective can we say what investment
we need to make
to reach our destination.
That is why we need
the 3 skills that I mentioned in my
last khutba reflection,
introspection,
and abstract conceptualisation.
These are critical life skills which must be
learnt.
All of them need
an attention span
longer than that of a monkey
or a goldfish,
which is the average duration
of
the most popular
of
social media,
TikTok
and YouTube shorts.
So either
pick the most successful
monkey or goldfish you know as your role
model, or develop the ability
to focus attention
and to stay on something worthwhile
long enough
to achieve that goal.
It is our life,
it is our call,
because it is our akhirah.
Perspective.
Our species, Homo Sapiens, have been on earth
for about 300000 years, but when did civilization
begin?
Interesting. In 2020,
in an article in Forbes,
Remi Blumenfeld
writes,
years ago the anthropologist
Margaret Mead was asked by a student
what she considered to be the first sign
of civilization
in a culture.
The student expected
Mead to talk about clay pots and tools
for hunting,
grinding stones, or religious artefacts, but no.
Mead said that the first evidence of civilization
was a 15,000
year old
healed,
fractured
femur
at an archaeological site.
The femur is the longest bone in the
body which connects
the knee to the hip.
In the wild,
a broken femur
is a sure death sentence.
If the animal,
in this case the human being, breaks the
femur,
then he cannot walk.
He cannot run. He cannot escape
predators. He cannot find food. He cannot hunt
or gather
and he just has to wait for some
predator
to find him
to die.
A broken femur that healed
is evidence that somebody had taken time to
stay with the one who fell,
bound up the wound, carried the person to
safety
and tended the person through recovery.
Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization
starts.
Looking at our current state of what we
like to call civilization,
where we have not only legitimised
but sanctified
fulfilling of personal desires, and where the highest
ROI, return on investment,
is in endless war and human life and
suffering has no value at all.
I wonder
what Margaret Mead would have said,
If caring for someone is the mark of
civilization,
what would you call the deliberate
annihilation
of people?
Passing over centuries like you pass over days,
we come to about 5000 years ago, when
we find the first writing.
Mesopotamian
cuneiform
script
invented in Sumer,
present day Iraq,
circa
3,200
BCE.
And this can be traced
to the present day alphabet.
Writing is crucial because that is what distinguishes
us from animals
and enables us to build on the work
of previous generations.
All creatures have languages. They communicate. They have
life experiences.
They remember
some of them for a long time, even
teach some of them to their offspring, but
none of them have the critical tool
to transcend the time and generational
barrier
so that their experience can be recalled,
relived
and learned from.
That tool is writing.
In the 300000
years that our species have existed on earth,
we only know what happened to them from
about 5000 years ago.
That is why reading is so important. When
we read, we see that all success has
been the result
of collaboration
and mutual consideration.
Our modern society, especially here in America, as
well as all over the world, however, is
primarily
based on individualism.
In the words of one of my dear
friends, individualism is a philosophy,
as a philosophy draws from all corners of
the lower nafs, the lower self,
absolutely animal desires. It is hedonistic,
myopic, egotistic,
egoistic,
arrogant,
selfish,
self preserving
or masquerading
as positive elements for self realisation.
Human society is built on cooperative
control of individuals for the greater good.
No wonder that the social order has unravelled
within a couple of generations since the idea
of
individualism
went mainstream.
In the American context,
this manifests as arrogance,
which is disguised as self esteem and given
the status
of almost a religious ideology.
That feeds into the tyranny
of feelings, which super legitimizes
subjective feelings to the level that if a
person feels a certain way, that is enough
for him not only to act
according
to that feeling, but to expect
everyone else to subordinate themselves and their feelings
to his feelings, so that his feelings are
not hurt.
Ed Batista
says it very eloquently. He says, my feelings
are justified. This is the position of the
of the person today in this society. My
feelings are justified because they are my feelings.
Nothing else is required. My feelings at this
moment take precedence over all other considerations.
I have the right to express my feelings
any way I see fit.
And if I believe that you are causing
my feelings,
you are obligated
to modify
your behaviour
in order to align
with my desired
emotional state.
Now how completely insane is that?
But that's
the foundation
of
our social interaction
in society today.
This is not
this is simply not acceptable in any civilized
society, including Islam, which demands the opposite.
That is, that I must subordinate
my feelings to the feelings and needs of
others so that they are not hurt or
or disrespected
in any way. And if that means some
inconvenience
to me, then so be it.
That is what consideration means.
This is what caring and respect means.
But in a society that glorifies individualism,
caring for others is at best a secondary
matter.
So we are looking at trying to make
a 180
degree turn,
while the external environment, including in some cases,
the law of the land, is against this
turn.
What makes it even more urgent is that
whether we like it or not, this is
our problem,
as much as that of this society.
Our children are involved.
And when we grow old, this will come
to visit us in a very painful ways.
That is why we need to deal with
it now. May Allah help
help us and make it easy.
Aldous Huxley,
in his book
Brave New World, which was published in 1932,
argues that much of the anxiety that drives
modern society can be traced
to a widespread
belief in technology
as a futuristic
remedy for problems caused by disease and war.
Listen to this, the man said this in
1932, we are talking about this today in
2,024.
He said, and I repeat,
much of the argument, much of the anxiety
that drives modern society can be traced to
a widespread
belief in technology
as a futuristic remedy for problems caused by
disease and war.
Huxley felt that such a reliance was naive,
and in his book he challenges this belief
in technology
taken to its extreme.
George Orwell,
the author of another wonderful book called 1984,
he imagines a world which looks very much
like the present.
Now I recommend both these books as required
reading to understand our world.
I quote
from
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman
in 1985,
who compared Huxley
and Orwell.
And he said, what Orwell feared
were those who would ban books.
What Huxley feared was that there would be
no reason to ban a book, for there
would be no one who wanted to read
one.
Sounds familiar. Right?
Orwell feared those who would deprive us of
information. Huxley feared those who would give us
so much that we would
be reduced to passivity
and egoism.
Orwell feared
that the truth would be concealed from us.
Huxley feared that the truth
would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.
Orwell feared that we would become
a captive culture.
Huxley feared that we would become a trivial
culture.
In 1984, the book, people are controlled by
inflicting pain.
In the Brave New World, Huxley's book, they
are controlled by inflicting pleasure.
In short, Orwell feared that we
that what we hate
will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we
love
will ruin us.
This is really worth
sitting and reflecting on,
and that is why we need
what I mentioned to you.
Introspection,
reflection,
and
abstract conceptualization
to say, what do I take away from
this?
What will I start doing and what will
I stop doing thanks to this?
For us, the challenge is to draw our
people back from this abyss,
back from the edge of the cliff.
The reason these hedonistic philosophies succeed is because
they are free.
They seem to free one from all
restraints,
and they raise self indulgence to the level
of a virtue and a right.
They are very seductive and persuasive.
Our way seems to be restrictive and painful,
which in a matter of speaking it is,
but that is essential for the greater good
in this world and in the afterlife.
However,
if you have been raised
pandering to your animal instincts,
this doesn't seem attractive. And that is why
we need schools
which can catch them young before too much
damage has been done.
This is one piece
of perspective
where we are.
For the second part of the puzzle,
we need to keep our goal in mind.
What is our goal? Allah
told us what our goal is.
He said,
Allah
said which means, every soul will taste death
and you will only receive your full reward
on the day of judgement.
Whoever is spared from the fire
and is admitted into Jannah will indeed triumph,
will indeed be successful. Whereas, the life of
this world is no more
than the delusion of enjoyment.
And nothing can be clearer than this.
Allah mentioned 3 things.
Everyone will die
and will be called to account
and rewarded or punished.
2nd,
success
is to be protected from punishment and be
granted Jannah.
3.
The life of this world
is deception.
Let us begin with the first statement of
Allah
Every soul
will taste death.
Ask, does this apply to me?
When is this going to happen to me?
Sounds like a dumb question, but believe me,
it is the most important question you will
ever answer. And once you answer it, your
life ahead will be crystal clear.
If I truly believe in the core of
my being, not just intellectually,
that I can die at any time and
will have to answer to Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala, then I will remember that
at every decision point,
and will never do anything
that I know displeases Allah.
The second is to remember
that to reach a goal, we must have
a goal.
Let us ask if jannah is our goal.
Is it even on our list?
Seriously.
I sometimes do this exercise in my leadership
courses
when I teach goal setting. I ask people
to list 3 goals in order of priority.
I've never seen anyone write Jannah as a
goal.
So how can we expect
to reach a place
which is not even on our list?
This must change and right now,
the sign that jannah is our goal
and it should be our number one goal,
not just any goal.
The sign of that this is our number
one goal is
that from then on,
every decision we take
will be and must be based on whether
it brings us closer to Jannah.
It's like driving. You take the roads, the
exits, the terms that lead you to your
goal,
which you told CD or
whoever to navigate you to.
Same principle.
We can only reach the goal we aim
towards.
So let us set our goal.
We ask Allah
to navigate
us to Jannah at least 17 times a
day.
But then,
do we follow that direction
or some other?
That direction is called the sunnah.
We ask for it,
Allah gave it to us.
Let us not get deceived by anyone or
anything
and leave the Sunnah
because it is the only way to Jannah.
Lastly, Allah
warned us
that the life of this world is deception.
So we must question
everything we see or experience
and understand its reality.
That is why we have the Dua asking
Allah
to show us the reality behind things.
Alhaqq.
O Allah show us the truth.
O Allahummaarinaalhaqqakan
warzuknatkibah.
O Allah show
Allah show us the truth as true
and inspire us to follow it
and show us falsehood
as falsehood
and inspire us to stay away from it.
Today, we live in a world that excels
in deception.
And AI will lead the way
to blurring the lines between the real world
and virtual reality.
The thing to remember is, that no matter
how real
virtual reality may appear, it is not real.
This doesn't apply only to AI. It applies
to life itself.
We are sold the vision of success, the
American dream or some version of it. And
we are asked to believe
that if we achieve that,
we will be home and dry.
Social media influencers tell us what to eat,
how to dress, how to behave, what to
like, what to dislike,
how to look.
And like obedient little sheep,
we comply.
We don't stop to ask whether those
who are apparently living this dream are indeed
happy or not.
To know that is easy.
Just search for celebrity suicides,
and you will know.
In the last 5 years,
150 celebrities
committed suicide.
On the face of it,
every single one of them had achieved
that dream which you are chasing.
Yet, they committed suicide,
which is the final act of despair in
a life
when the person considers
himself or herself to be an abject failure.
That is why suicide is haram in Islam.
Because to despair in the mercy of Allah,
is Kufar.
The destination depends
on the focus.
Allah Islam came to change that focus
and to guide us to the truth
that in the end, we will pay for
what we did or chose not to do.
I remind myself and you, that when we
meet Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, we will not
be asked, what happened?
We will be asked,
what did you do?
It is for that day
that we must prepare ourselves,
and that day
must always and always and always be our
focus.