August 11, 2012
The “Fear God” Phenomenon

Disclaimer: This article represents my thoughts and my thoughts only.

The following post is a manifestation of my personal understanding of the phenomenon that human kind should “Fear God”; what this means, and how this benefits the individual as well as the collective society. My understanding of this conviction evolved over a long period of time, where I had no real answer to the question; why should we fear the All-Loving Lord?
I will narrate the experiences and conversations that I’ve had in this journey of small understanding and how/why I linked them together, coming to a new level of understanding in the relationship between me and my Lord.

The catalyst in this journey happened at a local youth club. I was discussing some theology and spirituality with an elderly woman, her complexion was a lighter shade of the ‘black’ skin colour - I can not remember where she was from but her tied dreads gives me the impression that she was Caribbean. I also can not remember how we got to this point in the conversation; we were speaking about love of the source of life when she stated that “Everything is Fear”. When I asked her what this meant she went on to explain that she was referring to sin, all evil derives from fear – A man will steal due to fear of being without that which he stole, whether fear of a lack of money, or fear of missing out on some particular thing. A man may fall in love with a particular habit such as gambling drinking, sexual acts etc, and his fear will arise when faced with the possibility of being away from that which he loves. In this way, love and fear can go hand in hand, but I will get back to this point later.
 The statement that “everything is fear” can therefore be applied to almost, if not every act which is considered a ‘sin’. These sins such as gambling, stealing, drinking, adultery etc are all things which cause difficulty in the society, such as poverty, breaking up of families, as well as restlessness and lack of content in the individual that has fell in love with these acts, especially when we realise that we are never fulfilled enough, nor do our satisfactions last long enough. Therefore they affect our happiness overall in this life in a negative way, speaking in the long term scale, regardless of whether we believe in the hereafter or not. For this reason we may agree that it is better for us and those around us to stay away from them, and we may agree that fear is the main cause of evil or difficulty in our world.

Here I began to remember that in the Islamic Holy Book, the Qur’an, God repeatedly tells man that we must stay away from that which he has prohibited, there is that which we think is good for us but destroys us, and vice versa, we are also repeatedly told to ‘Fear God’. My understanding still hadn’t reached the point it needed to, as I was still of the impression that fear is a bad thing, but I believe it did when I was listening to a lecture in the mosque. A thing about me, which may be both good and bad, is that SOMETIMES when I hear something profound it triggers a stream of thoughts that cause me to delve into my own world, hence at times forgetting a lot of what was said before and also missing a lot that comes after it, I believe its from the extra attention I pay to peoples words that causes this, so don’t worry I’m always listening, promise.
ANYWAYS, the sheikh (Islamic Scholar) happened to be talking about why it is recommended that we should fear God – either it was the point he was leading up to all along, or the point where I went into my own little world but he said this – “a man that does not fear God fears everything else, and a man that fears God, fears nothing else.” It’s kind of similar to the saying – “He who can bow down to his Lord, can stand up to anything”. I remembered all that the woman had said to me about the root cause of evil and sin, and then I realised that the fear of poverty, boredom, isolation, illness, and all things bad, will be completely destroyed if you fear God, if you have trust in your Lords will for you, and his care for you. Most of all, if you truly LOVE your Lord, your only fear will arise from the possibility of being away from him, rather than being away from gambling, drugs, so on and so forth. This is where I will bring back the point of fear and love going hand in hand, especially when we are talking about worshipping our Creator. “Fear God” does not mean to say that we shouldn’t steal, lie or cheat only because we do not want to be punished, too many of us fall into this trap, and too many tell each other to “Fear God”, maybe not realising that this really means, to love God. This way, that which distances you from him, you will naturally distance yourself from, and the sins that destroy the happiness in our society.

In the supplication known as ‘Dua Kumayl’, Imam Ali (AS) says that, should he be condemned to punishment, the fire of Hell will not be that which pains him; rather, it will be separation from that which he loves – his Lord. This is where true love is found, the only love, the only desire that will last forever and more, the only good fear that exists derives from separation from the beloved, and all of the fears that destroy our society will be removed from within us. Therefore, it is only good for you and those around you that you fear your Lord, and nothing else, and the fear, should only be the symptom of love. Love for your Lord.

And whatever good ye do, (be sure) Allah knoweth it. And take a provision (With you) for the journey, but the best of provisions is right conduct. So fear me, O you who are wise. Qur’an 2:197

5:43pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZjCWmvRCXmpl
(Notes: 3)
  
July 30, 2012
"It’s nice to be important, but it’s far more important to be nice."

— Nature of Existence  (via braceletofnoor)

11:06pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZjCWmvQQc1vv
(Notes: 43)
  
July 30, 2012
All I Have

This is an anger sourced from love.
 
This is a fire born in oceans of pain,
This is that exact co-ordinate the origin of change, the result of an exponential line of faith where the asymptote lies dimensions away…
 
This is where hope finds a way, this is where every atom combines to multiply its weight but how long do we wait? How long do we pray for the sun to dawn and sing songs of freedom that resonate in every single ray, echo upon Jenin and whistle into Gaza where children can be children I mean, children that play. If we only knew of our strength we would rise up and tear down the wall, tear through the cage, our hearts will cry tears full of rage, every soul will scream Free Palestine until its voice slowly fades and those tears form the rain that falls where the crops of emancipation find life, and are born once again.

This is the command of the slave, this is where the empire becomes remains and the natives remain in the nest of the dove, and insha’Allah the freedom shall come don’t you EVER get it wrong, not every soldier has a gun, he who calls for peace is a soldier at once, and takes to the streets with a keffiyeh in the name of ALL keffiyehs ever covered in blood, in the name of the crying mother and in memory of her son, in memory of the martyr who is re-born above and in the name of his daughter who misses fathers hugs. In the name of every human being disabled by a bomb and every prisoner who spoke against the zionist in the name of God.

In their name, in their name stand up and hold your fist in the sky above whichever land you are on, when will we truly realise that we are all one? that for every oppressed heart that has stopped a part of us has gone, for every palestinian we lose we’ve given consent to the loss, because he who sees and stays silent or turns a blind eye is he who aided the violence and is just as guilty of the crime.


So these are our songs of freedom


For today we give our words, and tomorrow… we give our lives.

10:08pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZjCWmvQQMUIO
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: poetry palestine activism ibrahim sincere free 
May 2, 2012
Sooncome!

Sooncome!

2:05pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZjCWmvKkPjCh
(Notes: 5)
  
April 23, 2012
Unchained

Firstly, may God purify and preserve a genuine, righteous intention behind my words.

free·dom/ˈfrēdəm/
Noun:
The power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.
Absence of subjection to foreign domination or despotic government.


If this is what freedom means, how much freedom do we really have? Which factors are hindering our freedom and how can we overcome our lack of the Noun?

The method to achieve this ‘freedom’, is simply in reverse order to the definition; in order to become free, we must first give ourselves the power to think, then speak, and then ACT.
 We are of course, restricted in all three of these mediums, and I aim to cover some different reasons as to why and how I believe this is.

Bound by a social class system, the poor are bombarded with false hopes, lies, and are made to believe that they are not good enough until they become like those who are ‘rich’. They are told that they can achieve that which in actual fact are systematically restricted from achieving.  In our world, false, over-value is given to pieces of paper; we are told how much it is worth. False value is then given to products and we are told through the media, how much it is worth, in relation to the false value of the paper, and how little we are, if we do not own enough of either.  Those who do own either are then painted as the “successful” members of society, the happy members. The owners of the false valued material. Why then do we spend our lives trying to live the lifestyles of these people? There are people who propagate these lifestyles and do not know they are feeding into the system, and there are most certainly those that know.

The truth is, the “upper classes” are being made richer via investments into our people, they then share the returns between each other, why do we hold our arms up and beg to get a drip of what is rightfully ours? We must retrieve it by force if it is not given to us, in the words of the great Malcolm X, it has to be either the ballot or the bullet.

Nobody said don’t become wealthy, no. Become wealthy, and re-circulate your wealth in order to help those who are not being helped, give aid, give employment, and most importantly, give education. The school system only reinforces the social classes, those “rich kids” from the public schools are not smarter than any other child, and we are only taught to believe that. They are able to afford a ‘better’ education, which is in fact not a better education; it is simply a system which does not tell a child he or she is not smart enough to read at a certain level.

Of course, not only via education, the rich get richer in more than many ways, the government of the US noticed an abundance of ‘black’ people in certain areas, people who were becoming socially aware and empowered by their leaders, even down to the music. They were then flooded with crack, weapons and the propagation of this new form of ‘gangster’ rap, and their social development was restricted. They and the world were then made to believe it is in their nature. This is a system of ‘divide and conquer’, how mindless now are those Muslims whom are accepting funds and weaponry from the open enemies of their people? BE REAL!

There is then control, even in the country we live in, the UK, do not think the Police are trained to care, they are trained to CONTROL. Simple, we can argue all we want but they are trained to control. Also, do not be fooled by the ‘benefits’ we have access to, our governments only choose to become humanitarians when there is a ‘benefit’ for themselves. We are only given money so that we can continue to consume and invest, and continue to feed into the GDP. They are not so kind to give you free money and not expect a greater return.

I would like to emphasise however, that there is no one simple organisation which is the enemy. The only true enemy is the devil, now whether through greed or loyalty to him, others become his tools, and hence become our enemies. Our spirituality, our souls are being manipulated in ways we do not understand. Through what we hear, what we see, and how our minds are trained to react to these senses. Our souls are being distorted.

We must no longer accept this entire, so large yet so small system of mental, spiritual imprisonment.

We must demand the freedom of our bodies, minds and souls, and be willing to fight and die for it.

Mental Slavery by Ibrahim Sincere

5:37pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZjCWmvKAYVTi
(Notes: 4)
  
March 16, 2012
Rise Up.

(This post is somewhat of a pre-script to the track and video ‘Rise Up’, performed by myself, inspired by the people)

While the empire waits to see the sign of surrender, only black flags prevail abundant in the morning sky.

Firstly, may God purify and preserve a genuine, righteous intention behind my words.

In the light of the recent past it seems that the global political atmosphere is consistently gaining temperature, and of course chemically, with great heat comes rapid reactions. Different political movements are forming and evolving, and with the right contact list on Facebook, everybody is involved. The bandwagon argument is for another panel, this article aims to reach out to those with pure intentions and hopefully shed some light upon, or motivation to the reader of genuine heart, may God make us all genuine, ameen.  

The keywords here are ‘rise’ and ‘change’, it is no ‘breaking news’ that the world needs to rise and the world needs to change. Take a look at your keyboard, or your monitor, or your mobile screen, it is a solid made from millions of particles you do not see in singular form, if single every particle lost its bond with the other, the object will perish in thin air. This object is ‘change’, and you, are a particle, we are all particles, and our purpose becomes apparent through unity, through the strongest bonds between each heart, mind and soul, we form the solid compound of change. Some elements are more attractive to the eye, meaning some of us take the front seat of leadership and become the main focal point of attention, but the movement is nothing without every single person and every single bond, and you, are a person. Minus the clothes you and we all like to wear, the shows you like to watch, the dreams you like to pursue, remember, you, are a person.

This article is not going to be equipped with facts; it doesn’t always need to be. All that’s needed is for us to hear one suffer, then see, then understand, and then FEEL. However, these emotions and this process is vulnerable, this energy is fragile, be careful of the authenticity of what you see hear feel and understand, all is not what it seems. Be careful not to become all too used to seeing another human being suffer, such is the tragedy of humanity, we are all too used to it. With a heart in the right place though, God will guide whom he wishes, and God is the most merciful, most understanding, and most just.
Do not be too fast to shoot an idea or a movement down based on your naturally biased perception, and for the same reason, do not be too fast to throne the king. Pessimism leads to hatred and hatred is counter productive, it is a negative energy, so if you must, do your own thing, worry about yourself and pray for everyone, if the energy feels negative then reconfirm with your soul and withdraw yourself.

The climate is heating; significant actions are being taken simultaneously and blueprints are being drawn behind iron curtains, every action requires an equal and opposite reaction, but in the world of politics, the reactive intensity seems to multiply by day. We, namely the youth, the leaders of our generation, are now needed more than ever, to be exactly that, leaders. If not now, then when? For every moment is eligible to be entitled ‘the now’, with our hearts, minds, souls, and finally our actions, we must RISE UP.

Can’t change the world unless we change ourselves.

Yours Sincerely, I.

2:02am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZjCWmvI2zglG
(Notes: 2)
  
Filed under: ibrahim sincere blog rise up people change politics revolution arab spring iran palestine israel young london poet 
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