slip-sliding away…..

Over the next while, I’ll be publishing pieces of my book – Let it Flow – on this blog. If you like what you read, please consider purchasing the full book. The details are at the end of this post.

---

One Year On

One year on, and back in this meeting room.
Same subject, different people.

People spend ages at this place:
years…decades…some even a quarter of a century (and more).

There’s stability in the workings here:
exam times; orientation; start of the year; summer school –

each year, the process – the events – remain the same;
yet the faces change.

Every three or four years, a generation leaves:
graduates, completing their metamorphosis;
matric caterpillars now grown to fledgling butterflies,
ready to spread their wings.

Out there, in the “real world”, they’ll find themselves
away from the comfort of being with their own kind – their own generation.

Not quite dust in the wind, but they are to be dispersed
among the grown-ups.

Some will remain here: honours, master’s, further studies.
Delaying the inevitable migration from the cocoon.

Others will prolong the stay further: studying here, to working here –
never leaving the comforts of their palace on the hill;
this prestigious palace of knowledge and academic excellence.

Would I remain content to stay in this zone of comfort?

The job stability, the people, the comfort of annual repetition;
the beauty all around, as well as the beautiful people –
many of whom I must strive to avoid,
for a glance can be a poisoned arrow of the devil;
and what the eyes enjoy, the heart desires.

The abundance of the young and gorgeous is clear as day:
always there, like the mountain in the near distance –
towering over this place of social and academic congregation.

But the struggle is easier when the heart,
and, very importantly,
the mind,
accepts the Guidance.

When – after and through experience – the self truly understands
WHY we are advised to guard our gaze and modesty.

A natural security system
against the temptation all around,
and especially apparent in a place such as this –
a real-life fashion show, where many show off their precious forms –

somehow no longer precious to them, it seems;
no longer sacred – as it was created to be.

Instead, they become like mannequins:
on display for all to see.
(And finding many admiring window-shoppers.)

What drives such a loss of self-respect?
Such delusions
that the shell is the treasure,
while the pearl inside is of no importance.

Perhaps it’s a reflection of modern society at large:
a world blinded by the superficial glitz,
encouraging their lusts and gorging on that which was once so special –
but is now seen as mere pastime.

Perhaps that’s the society we live in – the image that is evident.

But it does not represent the people:
the individuals;
all of us, collectively, making up this population.

But is our image of our collective self –
that of ‘society’ –
really a reflection of who we truly are and want to be?

Or is it a fraud?
A nonsensical picture of the world,
fed to us by the forces that pervade
our media-heavy world of information overload.

When will we be rid of these deceptions?
Free to reconnect – without pollution –
to the Truth of our very existence and purpose of being.

Is revolution – pure and uncorrupted, free from all covert forces –
really possible in the world today?

It starts with the individual,
but when the individuals – these enlightened members of humanity –
unite to try to bring about change,
are the forces of evil and ignorance too strong?

Can we really change the world?
Or are we waiting for our new heroes?
Our new revolutionaries?
Malcolm, Dr King, Ali, Mandela…all historical figures to us now.
But have their struggles really come to an end?

Some would say “yes”,
but does the essence of what they fought for –
what they gave, and gave, and struggled –
sacrificed for –
is the essence of their enemy still here?
just disguised in a different form, for a different time?

2006 to 7.
Then comes 8, 9, 10,
and on and on and on
until the world ends;
or this ‘society’ disintegrates –
self-destructs,
for destruction is the result when such perverted seeds have been planted
and watered all these years.

The hope, though, is unbreakable.
In the end, the victory will be for the righteous.

So, what is left for us is to correct our own selves,
and remain steadfast,
and know that the world is but a station of tests:
challenges and hardships,
but also joys and comforts.

In all of these – good and bad – the enduring thread
is that it IS a test.

And as we travel through life,
we gather the deeds that we’ll take with us beyond this realm.

The question is:
after it’s all over,
how will we fare in the Final Exam?

 

---

 

Date written: January 2007

Background:

I worked at a university during this time, and as a staff member, you witness the constant cycle of human progression as new students arrive, while others leave. It’s a stable system that grinds on, decade after decade, as generations of youth pass through – each undergoing a personal metamorphosis from their sheltered, school-age selves, to young adults that face a very different world once they leave the safety of the institution.

Being in that environment also presented me with a constant struggle: I was a young man – single and in search of marriage – always surrounded by the many beautiful young women there. Prior to this, the Islamic injunction of ‘lowering the gaze’ (i.e. not staring at that which will unnecessarily excite you) was theoretical to me. But over these particular years, experience taught me the reality of it:

When you look at something attractive over and over again, your desire simply grows and grows. It’s self-inflicted torture, because you can’t lawfully do anything about that desire (assuming you save yourself for marriage). The struggle is intensified by the evident lack of modesty in choice of clothing – no doubt inspired by this world’s focus on the external. It’s concentrated and magnified in a university environment, where the young and gorgeous gather for their daily sojourn on campus. So it’s a real and necessary struggle to discipline your eyes, and one that I grew to truly understand and appreciate in my years there.

The piece wraps up with reflections on societal change – something which really begins with changes within each individual. While the world can sometimes seem like it’s on a one-way road to complete moral degeneration, there’s always hope. There’s comfort in the fact that evil – which seems to triumph at times – will ultimately never defeat the good. So, we shouldn’t be deceived by the glitz and glamour of worldly pleasures, but instead remember that this life is a series of tests, and – to quote a famous movie – what we do in this life echoes in eternity.

Our deeds are all that we take forward into the next life. So we have to traverse the roads of this world – these inevitable tests of good and bad – putting forward our best efforts. If we do that, God-willing, we’ll be pleased with the ultimate outcome when we reach Final Judgement.

 

---

 

The full book – Let it Flow – is available electronically via Amazon Kindle, Google Play Books, Apple Books, Kobo, and more. A print edition is available in South Africa via direct order.

If you’d like to see more, click the image below for a comprehensive sample: