Over the years I have closely observed an acute realism in the thinking of many of the Maldivians I have come across.
Such realism is a natural response to all of the corruption and tyranny that has been perpetrated by those who are supposed to be grand and noble.
This realism often leads to a profound suspicion about the motives of others. At times, it takes on an Islamic face. In a sigh of despair many proclaim, nothing can be done, it is Allah’s Will.
An observed manifestation of this acute realism in some is extreme narcissistic power hunger and personal corruption. Many reason, well, there is no way to escape corruption, if I am not corrupt I will get done over by the corrupt guy.
Despite this realism, leaders are still worshipped by some Maldivians although everyone knows the rhetoric and the cult nature of Maldivian political life is based on a whole lot of lies.
Leaders with absolute power get high on the power trip of being worshipped, no doubt knowing that it is only out of fear and selfish ambition that the people are worshipping them. To save one’s skin, or to promote one’s own self, one worships the leader publically.
So taking all this into account, the question arises… Why should one pursue justice when one is intelligent enough to know that we human beings are all corrupt and can never be anything but?
Human nature is selfish, self-deceptive and prone to corruption. Justice and goodness are defined by the powerful, surely there is no such thing as a real right and wrong, there is only ‘will to power…’
This was posed by Thrasymachus to Socrates in Plato’s Republic, and has been debated ever since.
There is a reward for pursuing truth, compassion and justice, not in a conventional economic sense, and not in a this worldly sense. The seekers of good in this life are normally tortured, rejected, and suffer for it.
The evidence that there is a reward comes from those who have suffered and/or died struggling for truth, compassion and justice when they knew they would never see it. The death and suffering of all the martyr’s for love and justice in human history proves that what they have, what they feel, is something much, something far deeper than what can be realized in this life. It is evidence that they have something, know something that is worth dying for.
This something is a hope rooted in an experience of a reality deeper than death. It is a profound sense of the sanctity of humanity which cannot possibly or logically come from this world.
It is awakened through both pain and love. It is the reality which this word justice is founded on.
Yes, justice is real, and it is not relative or subjective. It is the reward and punishment due for ones level of respect for the sanctity of humanity.
The need for justice is innate, and it is the greatest proof of the existence of a Supreme Being there is. Justice is frustrated in this world, and yet we still desire it and believe in it though we know we can never get it on this earth. The fact that this need for justice we have survives even though it is obvious that we will never get justice on this earth proves that this need must come from a source deeper and more powerful than what we can see in this world.
There is an inbuilt, a subconscious homesickness in each one of us for a home we do not know, for perfection and a humanity we have never experienced. This a-priori longing for the unknown is evidence that something outside of that which we perceive has reached down to us and put in our hearts a hunger for that which is existant only in the afterlife. It is the sense of the Divine which is the knowing of the unknown.
Where else would this persistant hunger for justice and perfection come from seems we cannot possibly get it from this world? What would motivate us to struggle for the sanctity of humanity knowing that on this Earth we will never realize it, if the knowledge of this perfection were not somehow built into our unconscious minds as the way the Divine makes us long for the Divine?
Do we crave for a food we have never tasted? So why do we crave for justice when we have never tasted that? Our taste for justice could not possibly have come from this earth, so where does this taste for justice come from if it is not somehow innate, an inbuilt sense of hope which whilst obviously not derived from this earth must only come from beyond it.
It does not help to deny the existence of the Creator in the name of Justice as so many have done. (Marxist’s… just to name the most common group…) Indeed, the existence of a Divine Creator and in an afterlife is the only possible and plausible hope for justice there is.
This is because, whilst some may get justice on this earth, it is painfully apparent that no matter how idealistic and disciplined the seekers of justice or the constitutionally ordained deliverers of justice are, human nature is such that there will always be injustice no matter how hard we work to ensure that this is not the case.
The socialist experiments proved this. I am here in a so called just and civilised society (Australia) and there is still rampant injustice and racism everywhere, even though we had been struggling to eradicate injustice and human rights oppression for over a hundred years.
So if you think Mohammed Anni Nasheed or any other leader can give everybody justice, you will soon be bitterly disappointed. Or if you really believe you can bring justice for everyone, you are either naïve or dangerously deluded.
Indeed, many leaders have held this belief. Due to our human need to feel self important, this belief does not cease in the face of obvious injustice. It does become a delusion. Once a delusion forms, many others form. It leads to schizophrenic paranoia and tyranny. The only way this dangerous delusion can be broken is through humility. Yet sadly, humility is never the thing that propels people into power.
Also, and this is the hard part, this inner hope I speak of is deepened by personal suffering. Suffering without this hope becomes selfishness, bitterness, moral despair, depression or rage. It often brings hunger for blood or hunger for God like status. Yet suffering, if fused with this hope, gives inner strength, compassion, spiritual power, maturity and wisdom.
There is a reward for struggling for humanity, even though it can never be completely realized on this earth. There is also a punishment for exploiting and belittling humanity in the pursuit of personal power.
At the end of all the reward and punishment however, I believe that the source of this hope I speak of is also Merciful beyond what we humans could ever comprehend. We are all as corrupt as each other; we are all hypocrites, all of us human beings. For every good we do we will also do as much bad. It is only through the Mercy of this hope that we have any right to experience the reward for following it because, we all deserve as much punishment as we do reward.
May we strive to awaken this hope in one another through compassion…
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This is quite deep.
Yet I ask myself, 'humility' being itself a man-made virtue based on assumptions and abstractions, can it only manifest in those who identify this state of mind as a virtue, in the first place?
Philosophers and poets can best explain our constant drive to seek truth. Science can provide the method of verification.
On the other hand, religious authorities tend to reach for black and white options, and standards they preach can never be achieved on earth.
Perhaps a bridge can be built between faith and reason, and then we can stop being always hypocritical?
Thank you..
*clap *clap *clap
Is this about Ibrahim Husen Zaki and Nazaki Zaki...
And Minivan, I have found that whenever I comment anything regarding Zaki somehow your filtering system blocks the comment...
If you are trying to promote responsible journalism better post these comments..
Thank you for your interest in our moderation policy. Accusations of criminal offences against named individuals by anonymous commentators contravenes both Maldivian defamation law and article 6 of our commenting guidelines. -Minivan News team
@sanskrit, you said: "Yet I ask myself, ‘humility’ being itself a man-made virtue based on assumptions and abstractions, can it only manifest in those who identify this state of mind as a virtue, in the first place?"
wow!!!
where the **** have you been all my life, great teacher...
seriously, that was one hell of a umm... copernican revolution to me...
for real... please let me know what other thoughts you have seriously, minivan, could you send my email address to sanskrit...
this is what i am talking about!
One of the symptoms: watching/advocating DhiTV while adamantly opposed to ONE.
humility is just admitting we are wrong when we are wrong and stuggling to make it right,
but thats also true, we can wear a badge with pride which says how humble we are...
maybe, it is like this, we could see humility not as a virtue, but as a practical necessity, so that having it is practical nothing special or virtuous... like, is wearing shoes if walking on broken glass a virtue? no, just sensible
Muslims constantly strive to remember and practice Islamic virtues, and put them into practice throughout their daily lives. Among these great Islamic virtues are submission to Allah, self-restraint, discipline, sacrifice, patience, brotherhood, generosity, and humility.
In English, the word "humility" comes from the Latin root word which means "ground."
Humility, or being humble, means that one is modest, submissive and respectful, not proud and arrogant. You lower yourself to the ground, not elevate yourself above others.
In prayer, Muslims prostrate themselves to the ground, acknowledging human beings' lowliness and humility before the Lord of the Worlds.
@sanskrit: seriously though, your reasonable thinking is very important. It strikes me as the kind of humanism needed to inspire freedom from irrational religious fear.
I am sure a thinker like you must have a blog? Send me a link, would love to follow it. If not, if you could seriously put your thoughts into a blog.
I am actually happy to have stumbled on your thoughts, and I actually do hope we could be in contact and share more.
I get lonely for deep thinkers now that I have been out of uni for last fifteen years.
For real, Would that be ok, sanskrit?
@truth, that was beautiful.
I really felt that humility which you describe in the 2 Mosques in Vilingili and in the Old Mosques in Male'. I prayed in the very old Mosques frequently. I am really sentimental , so, your sort of talk makes my heart ache to be back in Maldives. I know there are Mosques in Australia as well, but somehow, that closenss to Allah I had in Maldives was special, Shekinah everywhere in Maldives because I went to every Mosque in Male'.
For me, this is the one thing it hurts me too much to think of about the Maldives, the ever present sense of the beautiful awareness of Allah I had when I was there, as though Allah was there in the air... If I think about it too much, I feel too much longing for it and I end up sad.
sakinah equals calmness, tranquility, sent by Allah to those in pain before battle
We are travelers here for a little while and our ultimate destination is GOD. Thus a world of differences were created to make the journey a test of faith.
We were bestowed with tools of thinking, speaking and action, given a heart to direct us and a mind to help us decide.There is no right and wrong but only that which will help us evolve. We are never alone and there is always the Divine Presence in our lives.
What you see is people at different levels of their path. Truth is innate.
People are ordinary, influenced by worldly desires. They create tragedies and sorrows. They cannot love even themselves and they mistake worldly experiences for happiness.
But the one who listens to his heart and observes the pure thought will be just and strive to bring justice to the world. They make a difference and they experience the inner joy.
When you live in your bubble, you will not see anything beyond or dare dream of anything beyond. This is what makes people despair.
Your destination will be defined with worldly gains and it is for these gains there World is at War.
Those who listens to the Truth will be driven by the state of being made of the highest values where justice and love prevails.
I DID NOT TOURTUE anybody.
I did't order the police to hang Mohamed Nasheed on a generator set for days.
I didn't order police to arrest Mohamed Nasheed at all.
All my buddies: Yamin, Tasmin, Nazim (Jangiyaa), Umar Naseer are the MOST NOBLE and TRUTHFUL people in the history of Maldives. They are not corrupt people. And they're not the people who ordered the police to brutally arrest Maldivian people and tourture them. And Umar Naseer NEVER did break the backbone (spine) of a young boy called Mahir. And Mahir can walk on his two feet without anybody/thing's help. So DO NOT talk of justice or these things.
So, my good men and women of Maldives, please DO NOT listen to those who're against us. PLEASE listen to US only. Then you will be REWARDED in the END when we come back to power again.
@Sensa: Beautiful, thankyou...
It reminds me of Al-Ghazali, a famous Muslim poet. This spiritual poetry is part of what I feel is the beautiful Dhivehi experience of Islam, and it is sad if it is being lost.
I had some Dhivehi poetry read and translated to me over the years, really really sublime and beautiful.
SOmething which I heard many times from Maldivians is the sense of the Divine all around and in nature. This 'sense of the Divine' (You said Divine Presence in our Lives) reminds me of Sufism, a mystical form of Islam.
i wud like the writer of this message to know something even deeper than what is really deep in this message...it sound very true and right when u mention humankind can never get rid of the wrong doings...let me explain..there r 2 types of wrong doings...1)intentional wrong doings motivated by greed,self pride,power and 2)unintentional wrong doings motivated by lack of maturity,education & civilization...therefore, its very simple..all the powerful,influential and invisible real leaders behind the curtain changes their new world order orchestration as below mentioned methodology we can easilly get rid of the intentional wrong doings and even can finish up the unintentional wrong doings.
1) all nations and leaders be colloborated and agree upon on one simplified rules & regulation contract.
2)when a child reaches age 15 the contract should be signed by the child which means he/she should live within the boundaries of the rules & regulation indicated on the contract and if fail to do so will be accountable and charges respectly based on the violation level.
3)before a child reaches 15 there will be another rules & regulation contract to be signed by the child parents onbehalf of the child responsible upbringing and councel the child ready enough to anderstand and obey the rules & regulation contract to be signed when the child reaches the age 15 and if the parents fail to do so will be accountable and charged immediately based on the extend of violation and doing so we will have a close to perfect monitoring system throughout the world.
4)if the whole globe is connected and equal rules & regulation applies for all then most importantly we will all enoy an equal global wealth distribution system around the world and there wont be any filthy poor or rich people...every one can enjoy healthy nice food,nice decent comfortable home,modern facilities,decent space to move around and think spiritually and harmonously,equal opportunities in education and health care facilities,retirement,etc
5)finally when every one is happy and doing well there will be peace,tranquility,harmony and progress
6)there will only be one globally centralized media to inform every one around the world on daily basis the daily news updates on global GDP,all global government centers bodies daily performance expenditure & urgent immediate attention needed budget reconsiliation details so forth..etc
7)there will be no business bodies cause only the global government center employees will be running all the business related activities in which whatever the loss or profilt will be shared by all the people arould the world equally on daily basis with transparently generated detailed reports from the global government center media.
8)i have my own independent freedom also so its late and i am sleepy so i am going to sleep without typing any further explanation of my not really deep but simple global government center rules & regulation contract and before i go sleep let me remind u once more YES what i have just explained all r POSSIBLE so whoever is interested to lead & take incharge please you are welcome to use my system free of charge hehe cause i am not power hungry,greedy,over selfpride but guys please dont criticize me for not being able to stand up myself for the worthy cause!!! I alone cant do anything...Its a team work thingy...so i hope this thingy called cause may grow soon to bring hope,tranquility,harmony,peace or wotever u may wanna call it hehe love ya all for reading my long boring bad grammer article..."i'll b back" -by arnold terminator-
Wondering what this site is all about. It surly is not philosohpical. Is this a dating site? I am just wondering about the objectives of the site.Such thoughts and awareness comes from comments such as following by Ben Plewright
@sanskrit, you said: “Yet I ask myself, ‘humility’ being itself a man-made virtue based on assumptions and abstractions, can it only manifest in those who identify this state of mind as a virtue, in the first place?”
wow!!!
where the **** have you been all my life, great teacher…
seriously, that was one hell of a umm… copernican revolution to me…
for real… please let me know what other thoughts you have seriously, minivan, could you send my email address to sanskrit…
this is what i am talking about!
hey hey hey life is whacky and hilarious and sure are twists and turns unexpected I feel a bit like the old guy in the film the last station at the moment, see the film and you'll get my point!
the shit you at minivan must have seen huh?
you care about, try to write to help and try to do the right thing for the ppl you love and you get hung by the same ppl...
this is a paradox.
maybe it is my true initiation into maldivian culture
Who is this sanskrit or whatever? I believe I have to educate my husband Ben Plewright (Ben and sometimes Ben Abdul Rahman) aware that living in a false conciuosness is self damaging. If only Maldivian women could truly emrace morality for the sake of humanity. I am concerned and wish I could help. Minivan News, if you want to bring about social costructive change, this is not the way to go about it. This to is more like a dating site, and family distruptions happens when Maldivians gets overwhelmed and excited to get in touch with a Westerner. Please you have to believe me, I may not be able to be nationalistic and happened to live away from my mother land but I love my country and people. It is so sad............
I never ever commented here, or anywhere on any website ever, or replied to others comments or wanted to be in contact with anybody here for any other reason than to feed my mind and to share concern and encouragement. I never have tried to secretly be romantic. My romance with Maldives is a spiritual thing, not a romance in a physical sense.
I assumed sanskrit, truth and others whom I spoke too were brothers, and wanted to feed my mind with their wisdom... no false or hidden intentions...
I am deeply sorry for all the pain I have unintentionally caused
Cant resist commenting on Salma..less on Ben.
Can Salma and Ben sought their problems out in their kitchen?
This is a public platform and we communicate with each other whether it is men or women. Here we are writers and commentators. No husbands and wives story here!!!!please
Now if a writer wants to take contact, that's entirely up to him/her. It happens in other countries too. Sounds like Salma in spite of her years in a Western society, has not opened her mind. Or is it the tantrums of a jealous woman!!
meoww