Ways
of
Being

You know,

since we've been thinking about the Deen,

and how the way we are affects the way we think about our own lives

as well as everyone else's,

and vice versa,

how the way we think affects the way we are,

we've considered all sorts of different aspects of our ways of being,

but probably not a lot that most people don't think about to a certain extent anyway.

There's those aspects that engender good relationships with others in society,

like tolerance and respect,

feeling compassion

and showing loving concern,

gentleness of nature and trustworthiness.

Clearly most people would agree that these are attributes that are good to have.

We like other people when they have them,

and might therefore guess

that those people would probably like to see those attributes in us.

Then there are those aspects that help us to have

a good personal life experience ourselves,

like patience and perseverance,

industriousness and independence,

humility and courage.

And then there's those aspects of our ways of being

that lie beneath the rest and sustain them,

those aspects that are the basis of a good personal relationship with God,

namely gratitude, Hamd,

and trust, Tawakkul.

Now nobody's saying that these things just come easily,

even though because we are all different some people find some things easier than others.

But we all have to deal with the things that make the good way of life difficult,

those parts of ourself that spring from ignorance

and negative emotions,

such as greed,

jealousy and anger,

pride, conceit, and ingratitude.

Nobody likes those aspects of other people.

We don't like them in others

and they don't like them in us,

but they're part of human nature

so we all have to deal with them if we are to avoid

the bad personal life experience that always goes along with them.

Bad for society and bad for ourselves,

both in this life and even more important in the next.

So it shouldn't be all that surprising to find

that what we're dealing with on this level are familiar topics of conversation in life,

arising in the sort of situations that might be found in any TV soap-opera.

of course, in the soaps, as the fictional plots unfold

there will be all sorts of other moral situations to consider,

just as there will be in our own lives.

Life goes on,

and Al-Hamdulillah the Deen is there

to help us understand and enjoy the experience.

Do we need Perseverance to get Peace?

Can fearing God be good?

What's wrong with not believing?