Sunday, November 30, 2008

pride?

Hello children, I finally decided to update this thing and I had been meaning to do so for a while now… my alibi had been that I have no time and I still don’t. I have a final tomorrow but I’m at the ‘idontgiveas---‘ point. As of late nothing exciting has been going on in my life besides thanksgiving break… and the amount of food I have consumed over the past 4 days. On Friday Sam, some friends from his church and I played some football which was pretty fun albeit we only had 5 people. I made a sick one-handed catch, I don’t understand how I did it though – probably divine intervention cause I’ve had butterfingers all my life. Then on Saturday I played again –except with some ol’ folk from the Idara- the majority of them being 35ish. Saturday’s game was one of the most fun games I’ve ever played in. On the second play I caught an interception on the left side of the field and I started running toward the right as the blocks were setting up and then as I was about to be nabbed my brother came up from behind and yelled for me to lateral… I hit him up with the ball and blocked a guy. My brother ended up making to the endzone and we got the first score… as I turn around and start walking back I discovered one of the dinosaurs on the ground moaning in pain. I was about to start laughing my butt off because we had joked about someone getting hurt- but then as I approached I realized there was blood all over his shirt and that he was actually hurt but the nose was the least of his problems… long story short- he dislocated his shoulder and he ended up being alright. –still funny as hell.

Now on to the real topic of today’s entry: pride.

I always thought pride was a good thing from way back in the day. Everyone has it at one point or another – taking pride in “being right” or being a part of a specific group. While I think its good to know your roots, I feel we often allow these materialistic traits to define us as beings. We get so caught up in being black/white, shia/sunni,, Indian/Pakistani, etc. that we forget that we are only given these materialistic traits in order to grow as spiritual beings on this earth. The more we take pride in such things the less objective we become, the less growth we will achieve. We become so caught up in day-to-day things to stay inline with our materialistic traits that we lose touch with our true selves.

I have, and I’m sure all 5 of the people reading this blog have had an occasion where they were caught in an argument and KNEW that they were wrong, but still continued to argue simply because they couldn’t be wrong. This is your pride at its best controlling you.

Pride also is the basis of racism; first the oppressors believe they are inherently superior to the oppressed because of their pride in their own history. This pride then leads the oppressors down a series of extreme actions all based on their divine superiority. Allah brought you here, and he will take you away, what makes you possibly think that you can judge His creation?

In the end – who are we to take pride in anything at all, God made us and in the end all of these materialistic things-along with our body will be nothing but dust. You are not you, you are just a spirit.

Now I strive to be done with my pride everyday but as with many other things in life, it’s a day-to-day struggle that you must work at in small victories.
That’s about all I have to say right now – let me know what you all think!

p.s. I'll leave you with some U2 lovin'

If you want to kiss the sky, better learn how to kneel. On your knees boy!
-U2 –mysterious ways

3 comments:

nikki.j said...

only took you a month to update, eh? haha just messin
i agree with you on pride.. it always goes back to mr. ego

ps.
1) i like how i started the ps trend
2) you suck at football so dont get excited
3) i could beat you at football
4) way to be reflective =)

Sonia Siddiqui said...

UMMMM

I am one of the five people that read your blog. And and anddd I'm sure you saw this coming, but I disagree with you on some points.

First, I do agree too much pride is in fact bad. These differences (shia/sunni, indian/paki, black/white) shouldn't control us, though sadly many do in fact find that they do.

However, who are we not to have pride in what we do? It's a blessing, and it should be acknowledged. You do good in a class? Awesome, be happy, be proud, but channel that positively, to either help, or what have you.

There's that one quote Mandela used back in the day..

"It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.
It is not just in some; it is in everyone.

And, as we let our own light shine, we consciously give
other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our fear,
our presence automatically liberates others."

There's a difference between being egotistical, and being grateful. You'll find pride in both areas, just varying degrees of it.

:) Sonia

Akbar said...

I feel what your talking about is more so confidence as opposed pride. One doesn't need to have pride to be happy because of whats around oneself. The real point behind this is that you don't really need anything to be happy besides your self. If you are able to derive your happiness from your inner, divine self that God has instilled in everyone of us, then you are way beyond this. If your happiness is based on your surroundings then with every light of happiness their is a seed of unhappiness. Shining our light and being positive and happy has nothing to do with pride, one can be self confident and do the same. Another important thing to note is that fear has nothing to do with having no pride. The reason in letting go of one's pride is the overall love for the creation as opposed to the fear of having one's pride broken. It's because we let go of our pride that were able to accept people completely regardless if we absolutely disagree with them 100%.
With that said...
YOUR WRONG, I'm RIGHT! lol jk
good thoughts and thanks for sharing your thoughts home girls.