Friday, December 10, 2010

labels

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh,

bismillahirrahmanirrahim,

i hope that this post finds you in the best state of iman and taqwa, and may I also benefit from such, for somebody who lacks the qualities the most.. anyway I hope Allah will help me to articulate my thoughts in a way that will help us to understand.

for some reason(s), my mind has been wandering to the world of labelling. i think the word defines itself, so let me just get into the context of it, if I may. it's pretty inevitable that we live in a world of stereotypes and labels, people are grouped and pigeon holed into certain categories and yeah that's just the way people seem to think.

and people can be so mean about it. once the label is established, other people get into it and probably stay away from those being labelled. and this just sorts of create some kind of social enmity. i don't know, these terms are probably not legit, but take em with a pinch of salt, i'm still trying to figure out how exactly i'm going to get to my point (EDIT: well be aware that my eloquence is of shortage and what comes ahead is incredibly vague but still hoping you will get it insyaAllah).

what we know is that labels are there, just to... i don't know, so people can identify with or against. and they're inevitable, we can't help how people think. but we can help how we react to it. so many people get caught up with ready-made labels that they become afraid to discover themselves in fear of being included in these so called labels. but try to just stay away from them, when we label people, we should think of how it would be like for us to know that we are being labelled ourselves?

but far more significantly.. don't use this argument to be such a rebel either. be a standout, be against the mainstream, whatever.. but if you're just using this to convince yourself that your choices are okay, and that you are fine with the way you are... forget about everything else. and go back to basics. and what is that, you may ask? it is our relationship with Allah, our Master and we, as His slaves. if labels hinder us from improving this relationship, we might want to consider about a label He might place upon us. and if labels disguise our denial, that we don't have to be like all the other good people out there, as long as Allah knows what are in our hearts, we might want to stop finding loopholes in His words and ask for guidance to discover our true fitrah, and not the one that has been influenced by external factors, of which only ourselves can define what they are.

sorry if i have caused any offence in my choice of words, not of my intentions insyaAllah and of course if this serves as a reminder, it should only apply to me first and foremost. and if even for one split second, you may benefit from this, Alhamdulillah, it can only be claimed by Allah Azza Wajalla.

salam.