April 07, 2008
Of Human Bondage
Section: WRITINGS | 133 reads
Whose Slave Are You Anyway?
So, in this sense, “slave” implies extreme dependence and lack of full autonomy on the part of humanity, which I think is a fairly defensible proposition.
No matter how you look at it, human life is a jumble of multiple dependencies – some more serious and more stark than some others; some more real than some others. The most complete and real of these dependencies of course is the total and utter dependence of the created on the creator, the made on the maker, the designed on the designer and the invented on the inventor.
Unless it is Herr Frankenstein who plays the “creator” in which case he himself ends up being at the mercy of the monster that he crafts with body parts stolen from corpses.
Allahu Akbar, how the truth comes out from sources you least suspect: Didn’t somebody sing “Everybody Is Somebody’s Slave“? Or was it fool? What is the difference?
While human abuse of their fellow humans as slaves may have given the expression slave a bad aura, when applied to characterize the relationship of human bondage and beholdenness to God Almighty, it is apt nevertheless and actually elevating.
Be No One’s Slave but God’s
I guess what I am trying to say is this: While a human being should not be a slave to anything or anyone, with God it is different and unavoidable.
Provided of course people believe in God in the first place, which they have a perfect right not to, if they so choose. A right given to them by God Almighty himself.
Islam came into this world – and the Qur’an came into this world – to guarantee people – all people – that right: the right to say “No!” to God himself.
Say “No!” to God? Who but God himself can grant that right to anyone?
That is the kind of “slavery” we are talking about when we talk about people being God Almighty’s slaves.
Who other than God – which individual, group, party, organization, society, business, employer or government – grants you the inherent right to be a rebel against them?
Why Is the 21st Century So Special?
As for the demands of the 21st Century being somehow different from the demands of the 20th Century – and I presume all the other centuries before that – I mean people saying that we should not be talking about “slaves” and “masters” and all that kind of stuff in the 21st Century, well that is a different matter. And for all practical purposes irrelevant.
For, what is so sacred or special about the boundary line of that particular midnight – the midnight that separates the 20th from the 21st Century – that what was permissible in the former suddenly becomes unacceptable in the latter?
Huh?
Explain that to me. Don’t give me your tired clichés and your meaningless mumbo jumbo, religious or secular, give me the plain truth. And give it to me in the simplest and most direct and straightforward language. Don’t sell me snake oil in the name of religion or politics.
I can smell snake oil from a mile.
What I am saying is, how is the 21st Century all of a sudden more civilized and more perfect in every way than the 20th Century.
Some people can perhaps even build a fairly plausible case of how the 21st Century thus far has been a step backward for humanity in some ways. I am not saying it is, but it is altogether possible to mount such an argument with some degree of plausibility.
So, to argue that it is superstitious and backward for people to regard themselves as “slaves” of God in the 21st Century is little more than silly if not outright foolish and disingenuous.
The fact is every one and every thing is God Almighty’s slave: yesterday, today and tomorrow.
END
© 2008 Syed Husain Pasha
Dr. Pasha is an educator and scholar of exceptional
talent, training and experience. He can be reached at DrSyedPasha [at]
AOL [dot] com or www.IslamicSolutions.com.
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