Tariq Ramadan – Chronicles of Ramadan #16 Elderly and disabled people

Peace be with you.

We talked about

all these people who are around us and

that we have to pay attention to who

they are and what they are doing

because our societies today

are sometimes

helping us, pushing us to neglect people around

in our environment and are around us, and

we have to pay attention

to every single,

human being on earth.

And as we talked about the poor and

we talked about the exploited people, in our

modern societies, very often, we are quick to

neglect

the people who are the eldest

among us, the elder people who are not

active. They are part of what we call

passive

citizens within the society. They are not from

the active population,

and the way we look at them is

as if because they are not bringing money,

bringing

jobs and work within the community and the

society,

they are

helpless, and they are useless.

We have to change this, and this is

the way we have to repair

our understanding of what our societies are doing

with the

elders people.

That's a very important point in our tradition

the elder people within our society.

We need to show

respect and to dignify their presence because they

may not have

knowledge coming from books, but they have the

knowledge coming from life. These life experiences that

they have

should be respected for what the it is,

and this is a way the tradition is

kept in our societies. And it's exactly the

same that we,

should do with the disabled people within our

society. It's as if because

they are disabled, and they don't have all

their capacities

as we look at it

from a so called normal viewpoint,

that we are neglecting them because, once again,

they are not part of the active population.

And we look much more about profit and

money

much more than experience and much more,

about the spiritual meaning of the realities among

us because they are sending us a message.

Not only we have to thank god, to

thank Allah for who we are with our

age, with our situation,

with our body, but at the same times

we know that after thanking God for what

we have, we need to give to them

and pay attention

about to what they are and who they

are and what they need.

This is essential in our understanding of our,

living together within our societies.

And to get rid of this

capitalistic

mindset

and to come to the spiritual mindset saying,

as soon as there is life, you should

pay respect and attention, and you should give,

and especially

towards the people who within our societies

are neglected

and sometimes

really

not

dealt with with dignity

and,

humanity.

This is the way our spiritual teaching

are telling us to be with our brothers

and sisters

in humanity, and this is the only way

for our societies

to reconcile

itself

with

what means to be

dignified as human beings. Don't forget to tell

the people you love that you love them.

Life is fragile.