You think I'm scared...

 

A breeze with a thousand words

My eyes are weakened by tears

And my bare scalp; a mere spectacle

The feel of ink on paper

The disposition of a forlorn poet...

Lost in the times I thought we shared

Found in the hope that it isn’t over after all

The wind carries far sounds to my inquisitive ears

A million reasons for the oppressed to take up arms

The man who stands up to the oppressor is like a bird...

Like the hawk I’ve always loved

Or like the cold blooded black beauty that caressed my foot.

I’m a man wandering in the emptiness of my heart.

I’m torn in between the fleeting and the eternal

Let the soil in my mother’s garden decide...

As much as there is hope, there is fear;

Hope begets fear.

If I grow my beard it’s because I belong; the expected gong!

The obstinate desire to be amongst those foremost in faith

So let’s take a third look at why we are here.

It’s cold,

The clouds look heavy,

No stars to wonder at,

A heart filled with faith,

And the hope that my fear

Leads me back to you...

If you thought Jenin was the only reason to cry

Then Arakaan and Gujarat

Are just two more out of hundreds...

Again the Zionists blind us with dust...

Those who sit and watch passively are like the cattle

That tread the footpaths of the Fouta Djallon...

The darkness of my heart,

And the light in the horizon.

I’ve walked the thousandth mile,

And still I wonder when I shall reach

The standards set by the man who split the moon

Allah knows best...

I’m just a slave who ended with a period.

Or two..

 so you thought i got scared after the third period...

The way we look at life

The way we look at life affects the impact we have on society. If let’s say we decide to see the incessant power cuts as a way to reduce the cost of living or we see the inadequate job openings as a reason to create our own jobs then you would realize that complaining about certain harsh truths of society becomes useless and a total waste of time. Problems are nature’s way of telling us that nothing is ever complete and the vacuum exists because it’s our task to fill the void.

One morning as I walked to the bus station I noticed a woman walking down the street selling some items. I was struck by a thought; the money she makes from her sales in a whole week wouldn’t be up to what someone spends on a bottle of water at a high class restaurant/hotel. Society is split into different levels with regards to the amount of wealth a person possesses. Those at the base do the most menial jobs for paltry sums. I remember seeing a man tottering beneath a huge bag of rice somewhere in Conakry (Guinea). I felt bad immediately after my late cousin, Fatima (May Allah accept her soul), told me how much he was going to be paid for his pain. Why do the rich hoard it all and totally ignore those below? I always ask myself why someone would want to own a private jet when there are people who don’t even have food to eat. Isn’t there a social structure to make the distribution of wealth even?

Islam does have a solution to the uneven distribution of wealth; the Zakat system and the countless Quran verses and Hadiths that order the believers to give to charity. The Bible equally orders Christians to give alms. It's the same in all religions. It’s sad that what we have today is a dysfunctional generation who have no care for society, a generation that beautifies the body as the soul wallows in puddles and dumps of  filth, a generation that would rather spend huge sums of money on the latest gadgets than take a second look at a beggar. Does life have to be all about what we should do to be comfortable or it should factor in those who may need us to be comfortable too? More often than not people would rather spend on themselves than spend on someone else. I know beggars will always be on the streets no matter how many times we drop coins in their calabashes but isn’t it great that you helped feed a man instead of spending hundreds on clothes you might probably wear just twice?

Maybe if we thought about death often we won’t think twice about giving out our excess money to those who need it most. Has it ever occurred to you that you could be dead the minute after you refuse to give that street beggar some of your money? That ghc100 you had in your pocket will probably be stolen by the mortuary men or the benevolent men who remove your lifeless body from the car’s wreckage. What happened to altruism?

Below is an extract from one of Yacine M. Diallo’s Facebook updates;

“...I don’t disregard wealth, stability, and recognition – I just choose to have at the top of my list Personal development, Moral duties, Faithful beliefs and altruism.”

The world needs people who think of humanity as a whole body, people who view their existence as part of the bigger picture, people who recognise the society’s need for their support and not people who thrive on being egoistic and selfish. Anyone who doesn’t think of others is an awfully pathetic member of the society. If you can’t help society’s underprivileged then the best you can do is sympathize with them and not treat them like animals because they don’t wear your kinda clothes, drive your kinda car or even smell the way you smell. On countless occasions I’ve seen supposedly wealthy people stare at supposedly poor people with disgust in their eyes. But can we really tell who is poor from who is rich? Or does it even matter how society defines rich and poor? Life on this earth encompasses an insignificant duration if compared to the afterlife. Someone lived a 100 years on earth, cool! But he died about 3,000 years ago. A hundred years on earth, 3,000 years and counting in the afterlife/grave. Now I think we all agree that the true rich man is the man who has earned Allah’s mercy and is in the bliss of the afterlife, even though people on the earth used to look down on him because he didn’t have money.

The way we look at life is indeed the key to living a life of true success and fulfilment. Always remember that you are assured one thing, and that is your near death.