OSTm

Character and loyalty

2012-09-23T05:10:00.003-07:00

“To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day,

thou canst not then be false to any man”

William Shakespeare

During the practice of self-observation, we are hit to some facts about who we are. Facts that lead us to question our behaviors and most the important thing is, to question our abilities and reactions toward our environment. That is how we can discover the quality of our character and the integrity of our loyalty.

About the character:

“Reputation is a shadow, Character is a tree.”

Abraham Lincoln

There are certain characteristics that make a person successful. First is having a strong believe in him-self, and being determined enough to reach his goals. That’s because failure is nothing but a second chance for him, to have a wider, better vision, and to be more creative. That’s mainly because character is made of truthfulness and loyalty.

About Loyalty:

“For loyalty is made of affinity, and one trends to be loyal to that with which whom one identifies oneself.”

For fact, a person is always loyal to something. Dishonest people are loyal to their apparent greatness; Money, Fame...etc. Honest people are loyal to nobler feelings; Truthfulness, modesty, generosity …etc. Yet, to have a better understanding of the integrity of a loyalty and of its rightfulness, the question to be asked is not how much are we loyal, but to whom.

My advice:

Your choices are your own. Even if someone can take your life, they can't force you to make a choice that you believe is wrong

Purpose

2012-09-22T07:33:00.000-07:00

“It’s not enough to be busy… the question is: What are we busy about?”

Henry David Thoreau

Dear reader,

We can spend decades theorizing about the importance of time, and success; speaking about the glories and achievements of those who had a purpose in their lives. We can as well look at the past and feel sorry for ourselves, betrayed by a lot of people, and left down by the dearest ones. But all this doesn’t generate but lousiness and sadness, and no one will remember you for being the saddest man for his past, because your sadness does no good to you or to the community. In fact your smile is an achievement that you can be remembered for, because it brings a shade of lightness to the ambiguity and the complexity of life.

Where are you going in life?

Are you busy doing the things that get you there?

Dear friend, let’s not fool ourselves. Everyone wants to live in a nice home, have a beautiful someone to spend his life time with, have a nice car, and enough money in his bank account. Everyone hates war, and dream of a peaceful world. Everyone wants to be blessed and be remembered for the sweet loving caring someone. But this like I said, “Everyone’s dream!”, this doesn’t make you any different of anyone on earth! What may make the difference is what have you done in order to achieve your goals, and for which purpose have you been working all your life to reach.

I don’t know if you have ever asked yourself any of these questions, but I know that having a purpose in life is very important to build you character. Because once you have a purpose in your life, what will other people think goes away.

The worst scenarios that can happen to someone with a strong believe, and a strategy in his life, is to fail achieving one of his goals, yet this person never settles down for less than reaching his purpose. Because life is not about how many years you spend eating drinking breathing and going to the toilet. Life is more about how you affect other people’s lives, that’s why it’s worth living.

Can Anger become an addiction?

2012-09-21T07:40:00.003-07:00

I am not an authority on the psychology or physiology, but because I’ve used to be an addicted man to sadness, I’ve decided to share with you how I made it out, through what I could learn from some books.

We have mostly associated the word addiction to alcohol, or drugs. Yet this is not always the case. Anyone can get addicted to a bad mental state, like Sadness, Fear or Anger.

How and why?

In order to understand this kind of addiction, we will have to primarily, pattern the steps of its happening and locate its sources.

1) Psychologically:

Anger, Sadness or Fear, can be a result of an outside motive, like failure to measure up to the society’s standers, can be generating a feeling of doubt self-worth, evoking an angry response.

2) Physiologically:

Nero-peptides are the means by which all cells in the body communicate with each other, through the receptor-sites during different emotional states.

The chemical addiction is when the drugs sub-sensitizes the receptor cells in the body, and push it to crave for more of the drug to achieve a high. Being a chronic victim of a bad emotion makes the cell receptors feed on Nero-peptides generated by “Fear, Anger or Sadness” emotion, generating self-pity to get the usual response of sympathy garnered from others.

3) The cure:

The cure is by not feeding the cells with the drug or emotions they expect. So that when The newly created cell do not depend solely on the chemicals generated by anger emotions

Everyone should understand that:

You are 100% responsible for how you feel, and that no one can make you feel good or bad, without your permission.

Emotions out of control destroy lives.

Interesting articles to read:

http://www.laughterremedy.com/article_pdfs/Emotion-The%20Key%20to%20Mind%27s%20Influence.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermittent_explosive_disorder

Success

2012-09-19T12:51:00.000-07:00

All my life, I have been asking myself what makes any of the people I’ve known successful, why do I keep failing, and does any of these people even know that I exist, or am I just another guy on the planet, with nothing special … Frustrated of the fact that so far I am with no job, no income, and most important is that I was left for years with no answers.

The truth to be told, I spent my life giving promises, and false hopes to my folks about a tomorrow that I fully know, may never come. Worst, I’ve convinced myself of these lies, and kept wasting time, money and energy on useless matters, shallow matters actually. While I had the answer in front of my eyes all this time, I kept blaming the wrong people, and made a drama out of my life.

Lately, I’ve tried something a brother of mine had told me about. I started to make sheets, and time tables, and started to schedule objectives to achieve, and the means of achieving them; I started to feel ok, and to make a purpose of my life. Somehow I feel successful, maybe because I finally understood that there are who are away misfortune than me, and that still time for me to make difference in my life and correct some of my mistakes. Maybe being successful after all is being reconsolidated with yourself first.

My advice to you dear reader is, don’t quit on yourself, don’t let yourself down, and fight with all the strength that you’ve got, fight your daily wars against temptations, so that you can be free to live with dignity. That way you will be happy, and successful. Everyday wining a new battle will make you confident of yourself, and proud of whom you are and be proud of your values, and most important, be a teachable someone.

Modesty is a priceless currency; make sure that you have it on you wherever you are. Faith in ALLAH is a powerful weapon that you can win your battles with. Mercy is a wonderful attitude, which makes you closer to others. You don’t need a fictional Utopia to live with your principles; you just need to look around you, and to take enough time to understand your needs. These are the components of success.

Please take care of yourself, because there is who cares about you ^^

Feeling sad.

2012-09-16T07:16:00.004-07:00

I spent some time on YouTube watching Iraqi children crying their dead parents, and saw some other kids of the same age in the USA, crying when they saw their fathers back from IRAQ or AFGHANISTAN. All these tears and paranoiac expectations; all this terror and anger, should come to an end. Because we are tiered of all this; tired of lousy governments, tired of terror, tired of hanger, tired of expecting miracles to happen, tired of spending life time waiting, and being nothing but an audience, and consumers of what’s left over on the table of other nations.

I believe, that every one of us has the ability to understand the world correctly, and to look for answers, yet few of us try it, maybe because we don’t know what’s behind the scene, and who is really ruling us. Is it our need to survive? Or is it just because we want to be accepted, in this modern society? Do we live to satisfy ourselves or to be what the others want us to be? Thousands of questions can be asked, yet few are to be answered.

I feel scared and angry when I see kids’ tears, because I believe that no kid should have a bad childhood, no kid should witness war, and no kid should sleep hungry or be deprived from his right to learn science and art. When ALLAH created the world, he didn’t give any one the right of use alone. This EARTH belongs to him, and it’s for us to harvest and live on with respect for each other’s rights. That’s why an American has the right to live just like a fellow Somali, a Muslim like a Jew like a Christian, like an Atheist, all together respectfully.

When I saw the American embassy in Libya on fire, I felled sad and angry because this was not a fair thing to do nor a respectful nor a faithful thing. This was terrorism and a stupid act of violence, toward someone we gave the permission to be on our land. Protesting against the unfairness of the system can be done in other more civilized ways, more ISLAMIC ways. More like reasonable ways. Killing and destruction is not one of them. No matter what the motive was, no matter what the reasons were, murder is a crime to be punished for.

I feel sad in this world because we left the ULAMAA, and the right path, to follow a bunch of ignorants who spent for one reason or another, a life time sentence, living in caves, running from the real world, and the real challenges to create chaos and anarchy; I see them no more than puppets with arms and grenades.

The Rise and Fall of Nations

2012-09-11T14:50:00.000-07:00

“Like anything else on earth, nations have to follow a natural cycle of eminence and decadence.”

Ibn Khaldoun, the Muqaddimah.

Life ways change from time to another, from a nation to another, even from a tribe to another. So are the believes and the habits; but the morally right and wrong, are doomed to be the same for the eternity, because they are what makes the common sense, for the hall human kind. No one can say that killing or stealing is good.

I have spent sometimes thinking about what makes, states and nations fall, and why does not any of them take a lesson of what happened to the previous ones? Rome has fallen after centuries of glory, so are the recent emprises, but why? Is it because of one man’s fault? Because when you think of it, Nero is not the only one to be blamed for burning Rome! The rest of the population was dead? To have a better understanding, and get some answers, I spent sometimes reading Al Muqaddimah du grand Ibn Khaldoun, May ALLAH rest his soul.

The Rise and Fall of Nations

The reasons of the rise and fall of nations are similar for the Muslims and the Non-Muslims. The exposure to the theoretical and practical dynamics of the world has helped Ibn Khaldoun in coming out with strict criteria for historical judgments.

Like many of the contemporized scholars, Ibn Khaldoun had opposed the ways of teaching at his age, the ‘should-be’ style of teachings, since in Islam everyone has the right to express his insides and the right to be treated like anyone else; with Respect Love, and Care. The prophet MOHAMED Peace be up on him, his family, companions and his followers till the end of times, have said: "The blood of a Muslim may not be legally split other than in one of three [instances] : the married person who commits adultery; a life for a life; and one who forsakes his religion and abandons the community." A king, a Caliph is just like any other citizen, no matter what his color is, his blood, money and honor is to be defended and protected.

This is nothing like an ideal world, of Plato or Aristotle. This is what the religion of Islam had been working to establish, not to theorize about. For that, Ibn Khaldoun had to spend years studying, to have a concrete knowledge about the mechanics of the real world, so that he doesn’t land into the world of utopias and wishful thinking, leading to definite decadence.

What was the key of the nation’s success?

Who is the responsible for the fall?

The Keys:

He said that “the character of a nation can only be judged by the collective morality, and the presence of noble characteristics in the individuals may not reflect the societal ethics”, and observed that the world-wide establishment of the Muslims was due to their character and more importantly, their conviction with their character.

When everyone in the nation enjoy the glory and eminence of being independent in his approach towards knowledge and thinking, and that’s what led to the progress of knowledge and inventions in both natural sciences like biology, chemistry, and astronomy and in social sciences like history or philosophy. Their independent thoughts helped their respective dynasties to flourish and establish their authority and supremacy over other nations.

Anyone can preach, and give talks about the importance of faith, or the importance of knowledge, but few are the people who can stand against the whole tribe or family to defend their right to think, or believe, even if they are ready to die for it but yet can’t hold long against the masses or the state power, because they lack courage and character.

The basic reason of constant political failure of the nations is when they stop accepting the new elements brought by life. The diversity of thinking should never be considered as a problem but a corner stone of mercy and cohabitation between all races and all ethnicities. ALLAH the almighty said about this matter: "And those who have responded to their Lord, and they hold the contact-method, and their affairs are conducted by mutual consultation among themselves, and from our provisions to them they give".

Change never comes overnight: no matter how much democracy a nation can allow, how strong the characters are build, how knowledgeable we may become, and how much social justice we may establish, even then we will have to wait; have to persevere to prove ourselves deserving the bless of السكينة the Nirvana.

Conclusion:

“Verily never will Allah change the condition of a people until they change it themselves”

Verses of Surah AL-RAD (THE THUNDER)

If the people accept the anarchy, the dictatorships, the ignorance and the illiteracy, there should be nobody to be blamed by them.

Thoughts

2012-09-10T07:25:00.000-07:00

السلام عليكم،

Life can teach you many things, but still, you can't make use of all what you learn.

In life, you can't expect to beloved by everyone, or take anyone's being there for you but القهار. The only one, who will never let you down, even when you are a worthless mere someone like me.

To earn your rights in life, and I mean by that, to earn people's respect, there will be a price to be paid; you most certainly can't expect to earn love, or take it for granted from any one on earth, because love can change at any point to hate, envy or treachery. That's why you will have to bank on the respect. Therefor you should be very patient, but not easy; you should be fair, but not a cold hearted beast.

Know that people, are masses of emotions, walking around of you, and that they are aware of all what surround them, but unable to interact correctly because of the fear. Your role is to set a model of courage and honesty, by releasing your good will toward them for Allah's sakes, without compromising your principles.

Face the world as a Muslim, a truthful someone, with an open heart. A person, like anyone else but, who uses his power for the good. Someone who doesn't need to manipulate anyone, or force them to do anything they don't want to do. You'll have to face criticism, questioning your motivations, your insides and maybe go further more to question your mental status. You'll be called bad names, maybe harmed in so many ways, but you have to remain confident of your cause and what you are fighting for.

This is how, you will never be scared again or intimidated by predators. You will illuminate the world, with the shining light of courage. That way your life will not be wasted. That way you'll change the world.