Monday, December 8, 2014

A Primer on Freedom for the Muslim World

The Contemptuous Mirror
Michael abdul-Nür
al-Hiwär al-Mutamaddin 
Issue 4468
May 30, 2014

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"I am a cheap citizen." Credit goes to 'Muna'

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We search for the truth, and we don't realize that our existence is the truth that precedes all of truth. We search for the truth without paying its price; and this proves that we do not look for it, but we look for what tickles our ears. How do we look for the truth without knowing that the beginning of knowing it, is in the freedom to look for it? 

Freedom is man's opportunity to decide his fate and choose his limits. Freedom is the natural way of suffering the self, and knowing it, and disciplining it, and choosing its bounds - it is man's opportunity to create himself by himself. Man cannot grow without freedom, and any claim to growth without freedom is growth in savagery and ferocity. And due to our failure in searching for the truth, despair has led us to the delusion that truth does not exist, or simply, that truth is not searching for truth. 

Therefore, our society gathers together for the sake of violence towards the evangelists of freedom, because we consider fleeing from freedom as freedom itself. But the real opponent to truth, is not deviation, but violence. Therefore, our fear of freedom affirms our slavery, even though it were under the garment of religion.  

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The fear of freedom is the fear of life. We claim to have love for life, and at the same time, we refuse to abandon childhood, which deceives us with its definition of fear as being life itself, and of true life as being the uninterrupted waiting for death.

We praise and give strength to those who support and cheer for fleeing away from life and for shelling ourselves within ourselves. But they themselves plunder us and steal from our existence in life. How do we not see that freedom is the real limit on the human soul; and those who do not entrust humans with it, do not consider the human anything besides an available battery from which to obtain their personal needs? They delude us by implying that virtue is blind obedience to those who preceded us, and the beforehand resignation to failure in confronting life.

But without freedom, there is no real virtue. Without freedom, there is no responsibility. Our fear of freedom has advanced to such a degree that it has become a definition for religious piety. We look for virtue without education, and we found it in our fear of freedom – we found it in not advancing and in deprecating education. And if they do not invite you to exit the cocoon, they will kill you under the pretext of helping you.

How can we be satisfied with the life of isolation and hiding, and call it freedom? What is the difference between the alive and ignorant and the dead and gone? Why do we fear baring ourselves in front of the light of freedom? Are we afraid of seeing our true selves? We now treat freedom as an enemy, because it exposes our nakedness, and shows our faults, and exits us from our boxes. 

This fear for the self is unnatural stability, and is nothing but self-hatred. Healthy love of the self calls us to face freedom and not to fear from it. Truly, this is the mirror that we flee from is the one that shows us our reality, and without it, we grow in the dark to become monsters that hate freedom and deem it obscene. And without it, we will not see the sun of peace and stability and progress.

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We want goodness in conduct, and we do not understand that goodness in conduct begins with goodness in will, which leads to goodness in conduct. We have renounced the inside, and we have become addicted to the outside, which has led to a society overwhelmed by appearances and deceiving masks. Now, we have struggle to please others, in an atmosphere of fake perfection, renouncing our need for human simplicity and its free existence. Our upbringing has forced us to revolve around ourselves, and to adapt to problems, and to never search for more than just the existent. 

Is the meaning of life in complacency? And is its meaning, the pathological fear for the self? The fear of freedom does not produce virtue, and does not confirm its existence, instead, it delays human growth. How can we claim success without examination or proof? Does our fear of freedom expose our fear of life? These are those who claim to virtue, because they were not fortuned with the opportunity to lack in virtue. And there are righteous people in the darkness of their diseased societies. 

The fear of freedom is evidence of the failure of society in facing life. Why do we fear taking the risk of life under the pretext of the fear of death? Is not dwelling in the peace of slavery true death? How true were the words of Helen Keller! “Security is only a myth. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”

What a delusion, that delusion which alleges that virtue is the fear of freedom! Are we, by the naivety that assesses the righteousness of one by reason of his words and not of his actions, in the light? We affirm by that assessment our fear of freedom! The chatterers exceed in talk about freedom, with no proof.

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This mentality has made us live our lives in search of success without effort or trial; and it has led us to lay the blame on others, just as failure becomes inevitable in the realization of this success, that is, to flee from confronting ourselves and from realizing that our greed is the reason for this searching. Our greed in life without responsibility is the cause of our failure in realizing success, as individuals and as a society. For this reason, the other-blamers are abundant in our societies.

Such people are those who do not entrust us with freedom. They do not believe in it, and they do not want life for us, except for the sake of their own benefit. Because, a society without freedom finds its pleasure in following others, and its individuals are treated as herds without identity, except of what they have in property.



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"Accept the truth from whatever source it comes."
-Maimonides, Jewish theologian

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