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Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint."
KUWAITI VIEW ON "TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE"
A week ago, a beloved Kuwaiti columnist, Shamael Al-Sharikh, began to write about the similarities among spiritualism in Islam, Judaism and other faiths.
Shamael Al-Sharikh discussed the similarities by referring to the book by Mitch Albom, TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE.
http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=NjE3Nzc1MTA2
Unlike in the horrible sieges in Mumbai this past week, which have found many simultaneous deaths, Albom looks at a single death of a single person to indicate how we all need to approach death and life. (Albom tells of the journey to death with Morrie Schwartz who is dying of Lou Gehrig's disease.)
Shamael Al-Sharikh's article was entitled, "Tuesdays with Morrie: A Simple Spiritual Guide to Death". In the writing about the Jewish sociology professor, Morrie Schwartz, Al-Sharikh writes that for her one realization was "One such realization is that 'Love is the only rational act,' and it means that with love, one sends out positivity and it bounces from others back to her. It is rational to love others, because they will love you back. It is the only way to ensure that we will be remembered after we're gone, because the ones who loved us will think of us and keep our memory alive. Love, therefore, is the only rational act."
As a guide to death and life, Morrie's life and journey towards death taught readers, like Muslim Al-Sharikh, "If you're trying to show off for people at the top, forget it. They will look down at you anyhow. And if you're trying to show off for people at the bottom, forget it. They will only envy you. Status will get you nowhere. Only an open heart will allow you to float equally between everyone."
I share Al-Sharikh's musings because I feel too many in the West or from non-Islamic background fail to understand the utilitarianism (and at the same time spirituality) of Islam and other faiths.
Al-Sharikh writes, "As for living, another realization which, admittedly, is rooted in Islamic spirituality, is to 'Know you're going to die and... be prepared for it at any time... Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.' Once we know that we have only a few days left, we learn to really appreciate the essentials in life, and we soon realize that the individual essentials we need are not all that complicated. The day-to-day drudge stops being about acquiring wealth, seeking fame, or being a member of haute society."
Such a focus is the starting point, I believe, for fixing our ailing world. If we cannot see that "how we live" eventually either affects how others live &/or die (as well as how we die), we cannot expect to progress as species on this earth.
This means that awareness and education of our children and of others (even of our enemy's kids) is the appropriate response to crimes and terror.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (who was shot to death 40 years ago this year) had stated for all of us to remember-even in our times of sorrow:
"Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends. And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.' I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
"I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!"
