The power we give away

Let’s talk about the power we give away, shall we?

When we wake up, shower, and prepare to leave the house for the office how long does it take us to prepare? Does it seem like a hustle to get the right outfit? Why?

Is the reason why it takes so long to get ready because we are doing it for the higher power above?

Or is the real reason because we care about the reactions of the people on the streets, who in reality could care less about what we wear?

Do we waste time and money on tons of make-up for what people will see and say, people that are living for the hustle, always wondering where the next buck will come from and if by chance they notice you, they will only afford you a glance and then go back to their business? Don’t get me wrong, you can doll up all you want, just do it with the right intention, which to me can only be for self-satisfaction and for the pleasure of God.

How many times have you removed that book you have been meaning to read from your bag and just read it on the bus, and just mind your own business without a thought of what humanity will think?

How many pictures have we edited to post? Why? Is our reality so bad that you have to go to these pains?

Does it sit down well in our guts that we have to be perfect for a stranger on the other side of the world? Does it make us cringe?

Or are we happy to be ‘perfect’ for someone that could watch us starve on the streets given a different scenario?

How many times have we taken a picture and let our messy background show because this is actually what is real? How about the picture of our messy self because this is the real us sometimes?

What do we have in mind when we post these pictures? Is it to show off to people who don’t matter for opinions and validations? Don’t we know ourselves enough to not need this kind of approval from people who know nothing about us, to leave our power in other’s hands? Or is the intention to inspire someone or to simply claim our space? Post away on social media, but just remember that intentions matter a lot.

Do these mental chains scare you? Like they do me?

This power we give away.

How are we free if we have to give away this much power to people we don’t know or people who will never know us as we do ourselves? Why are we stuck on these kinds of mentalities when we could be so free in our own minds as long as we hurt no one?

How about we live our lives free of the need to care what humanity will think. My dream is to be the Muslima that could get her little mat spread out in a little corner of a busy market place and pray, blocking the whole world out and letting the wonderer wander away and lose a few minutes of their life on things that don’t concern them. This is what I consider to be freedom!

How superficial have we gotten in an attempt to seem like we are “cool” in the eyes of humanity?

The other day I saw a video where a little girl was crying, and in an attempt to make her stop her dad took out his phone and told her to smile for a picture and alas she actually smiled! It was as if it wasn’t her crying just a few minutes earlier. This shows the mental conditioning we have, where we are taught to smile even if we are falling apart on the inside for what people will see and say, so we put forward this façade for people. Never mind our tear-drenched pillows back at home, this little girl in the video knows you can’t cry in the picture, so she fakes a smile because that’s what she has learned in the few years she has been around on this earth.

What if she was taught to just be herself, and that it’s okay to cry and be all grumpy in the picture her dad is taking, because that’s what she truly feels and no one is so important that she’s got to pretend to smile when all she wants to do is cry her eyes out.

Where is the hope when we start this early to fake it? When we start this early to stage-manage our own realities because we consider then so “un-cool”, where is the hope?

As the old saying goes, “no plow stops for the dying man”, life will go on no matter what happens to you, and if this is the reality of life how about we learn to put things in perspective? We always catch ourselves in the middle of doing things with the intention of seeking validations from anyone other than Allah [s.w] and our own selves. People will talk no matter what we do, so how about we do something to please God and the self, and then let them waste time on talk while we get to grow and live the life they can only dream of because they lack the courage to do so.

They say that life is but a moment, so make it a moment of true freedom, both mentally and physically. This is by no means easy, but practice and relentlessness will take us a long way in getting our final results and let us pass these lessons to those young ones coming after us.

Let’s move past these mental tethers of seeking approval, validation, and acceptance.

Let’s not claim freedom yet, just because physically we can go to the moon. Let’s instead take the concept of freedom to the next level.

Ask yourself, are you mentally free? 

I wish you and all believers true freedom in our journey here on earth.