HEALING THE WOUNDS
Of September 11, 2001
Some dreams are so beautiful that I do not want to wake up as some
realities are worse than the nightmares.
On the evening of August 12, 1999 I entered into one such dream. I was taken to
a heaven on earth, where I met the representatives of Buddha, Krishna, Moses,
Jesus, Mohammed, and Mother Nature. For the next 5 days I lived with them, sat
with them, ate with them, and walked side by side with them. We sang together,
prayed together, cried together, laughed together, and above all, shared with
them the stories of over 5000 years of human civilization on earth, the agonies
and joys of being on earth, with their fears and tears, with a storm of trial
and tribulations, with challenges and pains of suffering and then the rainbow of
hope and the promise of new beginnings of a new life after the apparent death.
They all told me the same stories of the same illness with different
manifestations, affecting different patients at different locations and times.
The illness being that man has eliminated God from life and has become his own
God. He has lost the purpose of his life on earth and the message of God.
This in spite of the fact that due to the advancement of means of mass
communication and transportation, the earth has become a global village. People
still live in small huts of their own, afraid to open their windows to show
their own face (faith) to others, or open their doors to allow others to visit
them, or to venture out to see how others look, live, and believe in.
This apprehension of others has lead to our inclusive and exclusive behavior
when we exclude others from our own joys and blessings because of race, color,
language, ethnic origin, faith, education, economic, social, and gender
disparity.
This satanic superiority complex that "I am holier than thou", "I am right and
you are wrong", "I will go to heaven and you will go to hell", or "I am richer
than you" has divided mankind into those who have and those who have not, into
north and south, into white and colored, into the majority and minority. The
real war in the world is not between Arabs and Israeli, Hindus and Muslims,
Serbian and ethnic Albanians, but between the believers and unbelievers, between
the blind and the seeing, between the knowledgeable and ignorant, and between
love givers and hate mongers. When I as a physician remove the skin from a human
body I find that the muscles, bones, and vessels are of the same color, so why
do we fight so much about the color of the skin covering.
The fire of hatred, racism, biases, complexes and classes have burned down the
beautiful rain forest and garden of Eden. The storm is over and the rain has
stopped. The rainbow on the horizon has appeared. The dream is over and my eyes
are open. I am awake and back to earth and am now wondering what should I do.
On August 18th I will descend down from the mountain. My people at the bottom of
the mountain are impatiently waiting. They will ask me "what have you brought
down for us"?
Before I tell my people what to do, I must ask myself how I am changed now and
how will I behave differently. The change must begin with me that they can see.
I will stop calling the Jew, the Christian and Hindu as my enemy. When I meet
new Jewish people I will see in my friends, Jerome, Bary, Tamah, and Deborah. I
will love all Hindus I meet now in the same way I love Raj, Arumina and Sita. I
will respect all black people as I respect Ron and Tee. I will listen to my
fiery Imams as I listen to Fawaz, and honor all Muslim women as I honor Nahid.
All my Christian neighbors, colleagues and workers, will remind me of John, Jay,
Mary, Patrick, Don and Minerva. I will revere the wisdom of all Buddhists not
just Srivan and Kayo. I will love all native Indians and feel their pain because
of what I saw in Ernie. If I meet a so called atheist, I will see down inside
him and will not condemn him to hell as I saw God in his heart. They all are
beautiful people and manifest the beauty of God.
Now that I have blessed the house of Patrick and his wife, I will bless each
house I enter as God is a resident of each of them. I will pray for each worker
in the office as I prayed for Delores.
When I meet my pious wife I will see beyond her beauty. I will see in her the
love and beauty of God. When I meet my children I will see them as gifts from
God. A gift with the responsibility given to me for nurturing them, preserving
them, upbringing them and shaping them as responsible citizens and loving
believers. I will tell my children to preserve their ethnic and faith identity
and not melt down in the heat of American materialism. I will consider all
children as my own children, all men as my own brothers, all women as my own
sisters, and all elders as my own parents. I will love myself as well. Because
of the retreat I am now a better human and a better Muslim.
But what about my community?
My community is not just my Muslim community around the mosque, but the whole
city starting with my neighborhood. I must visit them, their houses, places of
worship, education and politics. With the help of fellow believers I will
organize programs to help my people. I will help the programs already in place
and start new ones already tried in other places that those representatives of
the prophets told me in the dream.
These programs may include sharing faith with each other, feeding the hungry,
health care for the homeless, clothes for the under privileged, refurbishing the
homes of the elderly, planting new trees, cleaning the neighborhood, helping the
illiterate to learn to read, guiding to youth to create a drug free society, and
above all inoculating the love and respect for fellow human beings out of love
and respect for the same God we worship. I will not keep God imprisoned in the
house of worship, but allow Him to enter my home and my life, and live with me
in my heart.
What about my nation?
I will stop calling the U.S.A. "The great Satan" or Pharaoh's land, (I never did
anyway, but some do). I will thank God for making me a citizen of this land of
opportunity, the land of freedom with fertile soil to sow seeds of love and
belief, not of hate and racism. I will tell my representatives in congress to
fight for human rights, social justice, gender equality and against racism all
over the world, not just in the U.S.A.
The world at large
The world is now my village. To protect and preserve its people and environment
is my own personal responsibility. The last millennium has seen much bloodshed,
wars in the name of God and race, ethnic cleansing, holocausts and concentration
camps. In the new millennium we will work toward the gift of peace with peaceful
talks and action, of equality of races, gender and faith. We should have clean
air to breathe and a beautiful place to live in.
I believe that if I sow good seeds today and nurture them right, tomorrow my
children and their children will enjoy the delicious fruit thereof. I will then
smile looking down at earth from the heavens above. The earth will become a
heavenly place to live. I will promote and propagate my message the world.
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Reflections on an interfaith retreat
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