Who are You who never leaves me?
What are You that sets me free?
Where are You that you’re always here?
Why do You love me, wipe my every tear?
You’re my protector when I’m lost and alone.
You’re the strength I don’t have on my own.
You’re my heart as it beats,
You’re the one that my soul meets.
You loved me when I laughed at You,
Loved me when I cursed You, too.
You loved me when I pushed You away,
You love me and You’re here to stay.
You’re the one I run to first,
The one whom I bring every hurt.
The one who can make me smile,
Even when it’s hurt for a while.
You’re the light in my eyes,
You’re the one who helps me rise,
Rise above the fear and pain,
Gently lifting all my strain.
You’re my confident and my friend,
The one who’ll see me to the end.
You’re the one really who knows me,
Your acceptance sets me free.
You died so that I need not,
You so love me, and for what?
I could live a thousand years,
And never deserve Your pain and tears.
Yet You suffered so that I may rest,
You took me and made me blessed.
You are the purpose of my life,
The direction I look to in all strife.
You are the reason for my joy,
You will let nothing destroy
The life you’ve helped me build,
Now what was empty has been filled.
You are the one I long to see,
To my hope, You are the key.
No doubt I’ll again let You down,
But you will never let me drown,
In regret or fear, anything but love,
Heavenly, sent from above.
And when, at the end of my days,
I come and fix You with my gaze,
There’s only one thing I want to do –
Say ‘Thank you, and I love you.’
Friday, 11 December 2015
Islam - The Beauty of the Beliefs
I saw a
quote on Facebook the other day, saying that it is the duty of those of us with
religious privilege to stand up to condemnation of other religions and say ‘not
on our watch’. It went on to say that it is not enough to quietly not believe
slander about others; we need to stand up to it. This really resonated with me,
so I decided to take it one step further.
I particularly
want to address all the negative stuff that is going around about Islam at the moment.
I am not Muslim, and I don’t know much about the religion, so I have endeavoured
to do thorough research on it, but please forgive me if I make mistakes; I am
open to corrections from people who know more than me.
Firstly, I looked
up the major beliefs of Islam. Here is what I found:
·
They believe in one true God, called Allah
·
Their Holy Book is the Quran
·
They believe on prophets as the messengers of
Allah, and in angels
·
They believe in salvation and punishment after
death
·
They believe that Allah knows all and sees all,
and that nothing happens against His will
Take a good
look at these beliefs. I can’t find anything violent or offensive here. Can you?
These are actually pretty standard beliefs – most religions have similar ones. So
if you’re going to have a problem with these, keep in mind that you then should
have a problem with about 90% of all religious people in the world – and good
luck carrying around a grudge that big! I certainly don’t envy you.
Now, let’s
look at the morals of Islam:
·
Islam holds its believes to strict moral
standards; they believe that all actions should be to the glory of Allah, hence
they must follow His laws and morals exactly
·
They believe that worshipping Allah is very
important
·
They believe strongly in charity. Zakat is a compulsory charity that all Muslims who
are financially stable must pay according to the Quran
·
They believe not only in acting morally
themselves, but to have a positive impact on their community, helping others to
act morally as well
·
They warn against becoming attached to material
things; that it is what is in your heart that really matters
·
They believe in honesty and sincerity, even when
honesty is not in the individual’s own interest
·
This is important: they do not believe in
compulsion of religion. Islam states that the truth of Allah is self-evident,
and that people should come to it without being forced. Quran 2:256 – Sahih
International: There shall be no compulsion in [acceptance of] the
religion. The right course has become clear from the wrong. So whoever
disbelieves in Taghut and believes in Allah has grasped the most trustworthy
handhold with no break in it. And Allah is Hearing and Knowing
Now I don’t
know about you, but those seem like pretty good morals to me. Most of these
morals are ones that are commonly held up as admirable ones today. Other people
worship different Gods, or don’t worship at all, but the morals of honesty,
charity and free will are universal. The point I am trying to make here is that
Islam is not a bad religion. They have
beautiful, peaceful beliefs. If everyone lived by the morals of Islam, the
world would be a much better place.
Unfortunately,
not all Muslims live by their own moral code, but that is not because there is
a problem with the religion. Not all Christians live by their moral codes,
either. Vlad the Impaler was a Christian; some of his more gruesome habits were
roasting infants and feeding them to their mothers, and impaling his enemies on
sticks in his dining hall and eating among the corpses. The Jews have been at
war over Israel for thousands of years. Atheists and agnostics commit terrible
crimes just as much as anyone else.
Do you see
the pattern here? There are crazy and evil people all over the world. Some of
them use religion as an excuse for their insanity, others don’t. I promise you,
if religion didn’t exist, there would still be evil people in the world, they’d
just find another excuse for it.
Now let’s
talk about ISIS. ISIS has undoubtedly done very bad things, and I would not
like to be friends with anyone who supports them. But here’s a secret you may
not know: most Muslims are even angrier at ISIS than you are! They’re dragging
the name of Islam through the mud, helping to slander a beautiful and peaceful
religion.
I am a
Christian. I am not ashamed to say it, even though Christians have done
terrible things in the past. No one thinks I am evil because the Crusades
happened; they realise that Christianity is at heart a good religion, there
have just been some people who have misused it. So what do we not use that same
logic for Islam? It is absolutely hypocritical to think that Islam is bad because
of some very loud extremists. Whatever your beliefs are, I can guarantee you
that somewhere in history, someone with your exact beliefs has done something
unspeakably terrible.
The hysteria
about ISIS is understandable; many people have been killed tragically. Should we
be angry? Yes, of course we should! But we should be angry with ISIS, the actual culprits. Don’t misuse
your anger and direct it at others because some crazy people are using their
beliefs as an excuse for murder. You wouldn’t like it if people said you are a
bad person because some terrorists are misusing your beliefs, so don’t do it to
other people!
The morals
and laws of Islam are directly against ISIS. If Islam as a religion were to disappear
today, do you think the ISIS members would suddenly become good, peaceful
people? I don’t – people who are committed to hate are committed to hate, not
to a religion that preaches love and charity.
I looked up
some statistics, and the highest number I’ve seen for the total number of
people killed by ISIS is 200 000. Did you know that 1.5 million people are
killed by HIV/AIDS every year? So get
off your high horse – if you really want to help prevent deaths, it would be
more effective for you to educate people about AIDS than go after ISIS. Not that
ISIS shouldn’t be gone after, but please, stop blaming Islam for this. ISIS
does not follow the principles of Islam; they shouldn’t even get to call
themselves Muslim.
Many belief
systems believe that everything happens for a reason. Maybe ISIS was meant to
happen to teach us a crucial lesson: we are all human and all equal; which God
we worship, or if we worship at all, doesn’t matter. What matters is that we
share the same moral values, and that we unite against those whose values
oppose ours, no matter which religion they choose.
You cannot
fight hate with hate. You can only fight it with love. So let’s stop with the
anger and focus on solving the problem, but not losing our own humanity along
the way. I am a Christian. My family are atheists. One of my colleagues at work
is Muslim. A few generations back my family was Jewish. It doesn’t matter. We’re
all human, and if we can’t unite in love, there’s no hope for any of us.
Sources
Friday, 1 May 2015
International Harry Potter Day 2015
Happy international Harry
Potter day! May the Dark Arts never defeat you, and you lives be full of magic!
:) In honour of the occasion I’ve written a little piece on the Hogwarts Houses
for people who don’t know much about them, or for people who don’t understand
them properly, due to the fact they haven’t read the books enough times. I know
all real fans understand perfectly, but feel free to share with your
less-educated peers.
Hufflepuff
Quality 1: hard working
Quality 2: loyal
Quality 3: honest
Quality 4: patient
Incorrect negative stereotype:
stupid
Correct negative stereotype: weak
(personalities)
Ravenclaw
Quality 1: intelligent
Quality 2: love of learning
Quality 3: creative
Quality 4: witty
Incorrect negative stereotype:
none (assumption is correct)
Correct negative stereotype: arrogance
Gryffindor
Quality 1: brave
Quality 2: daring
Quality 3: bold
Quality 4: chivalrous
Incorrect negative stereotype:
none (assumption is correct)
Correct negative stereotype: reckless
/ attention seeking
Slytherin
Quality 1: ambitious
Quality 2: resourceful
Quality 3: determined
Quality 4: cunning (in a good
way or a bad way, depending on the person)
Incorrect negative stereotype:
evil
Correct negative stereotype: selfish
/ prejudiced
Qualities
Applies to all members of
house, though house members can have qualities from other houses, too. People
are placed in the house they have the most in common with. Example: someone can
be hard working, but they won't be placed in Hufflepuff if they are more
intelligent and creative than they are hard working (they go to Ravenclaw).
Exceptions happen when people are mis-Sorted (example: Wormtail, who wasn’t
brave, shouldn’t have been a Gryffindor)
Stereotypes
This is what people
automatically think of the house. Applies to some members of the house, but not
all; someone with one of the correct negative stereotypes will probably (though
not infallibly) be in the corresponding house. Example: if someone is arrogant,
they will probably be in Ravenclaw, but this doesn't mean all Ravenclaws are
arrogant. Exceptions are common.
Places
Hufflepuffs are the kind ones;
the loyal friends, the patient teachers… the ones you always turn to when you
have no one else.
Ravenclaws are the brilliant
ones; the scientists, the mathematicians… the cutting edge of academia all over
the world.
Slytherins are the successful
ones; the entrepreneurs, company owners… outstanding in their various fields.
Gryffindors are the heros; the
policemen, the fire fighters… always trying to save the world.
Everyone knows that Ravenclaw
and Gryffindor need no defence – the books showed them in a perfectly good
light. However, to this day, Slytherin and Hufflepuff get a whole bunch of
rubbish from ignorant people; here is what you can say to them.
Hufflepuff defence:
You’re right – we’re not the
highfliers, the ones in the spotlights. We’re the ones who fall through the
cracks. We’re the ones who do the little things that no one else has time for. You
may look down on us because we’re not as successful, smart or brave as you are,
but the world needs us.
You need us to teach those who
need help, you need us to accept those who everyone rejects, you need us to be
honest with you when everyone else shows you only lies. You need to be able to
rely on us, you need us to be loyal when you’ve been hurt and betrayed. You need
us in all the small ways. All the world sees is your splendour, but they don’t
see how close you were to failure, how you were once ready to give up and you
turned to us for help.
We are the ones who encourage
Slytherins when they are sure all their dreams will fail. We are the ones who’ll
sit with Ravenclaws for hours letting them bounce ideas off us. We are the ones
who comfort and heal the Gryffindors when they’re hurt and weary from their
struggles.
You may look down on us, but
you’ll turn to us when you need us. And when you do, we’ll be there, even if
you’ve hurt us, ignored us and abandoned us, because that’s what being a
Hufflepuff is. Maybe to the world it looks like nothing, but when you come to
us empty handed with no one else to turn to, for you, it looks like everything.
Slytherin defence
Do you like your life? Do you
like being able to flick a switch and have light? Do you like being able to
visit friends and family in other countries? Perhaps you would prefer to go and
chop up some wood every time you wanted light, to spend years on a journey to
see others in distant countries?
I think not.
Humanity has clawed itself up
from the dirt, one step at a time. Look at how our society has advanced – our technology,
medicine, increasingly equal rights for everyone, basic living conditions…
sure, there are loads of problems, but if you compare them to the problems of the
past? We’re coasting here.
We rode to where we are on the
backs of Slytherins. Slytherins are the achievers, the ones who’re always
trying to be better, bigger, always pushing for that step forward.
Sure, they may have gotten
some help from Ravenclaws, but Ravenclaws are interested in the intellectual;
it’s the Slytherins who take those findings and use them. Slytherins solve
problems; they are constantly trying to make things work better, because what
they see is bigger than what any of the rest of us can even imagine.
We could have been happy with the
first computer that fitted in a room. We could have lived with it. Slytherins were
the ones who pushed to make it better, faster, more convenient. Slytherins are
the ones who expand our economies and world trade. Slytherins are the ones we
look up to when we’re asked who we want to be like.
Perhaps you would prefer to be
living in a cave, warding the lions off with a stick and hoping you’ll survive the
winter. If you want a world like that, then take it. For me, I’d rather live in
a world where everything is constantly improved, tested, made better, ridded of
defects. I’d rather have a world with Slytherins in it. Some of the best people
you know are Slytherins, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
It’s been 17 years since
Voldemort was defeated, but Harry Potter still holds all of our hearts as it
did on that first day when we picked up book one. If you’ve read this post
right until the end, take a few minutes to do your part for Harry. Persuade someone
who hasn’t to read the books. Change a life.
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