FOR THOSE WHO WOULD RIDE

For more than 20 years now, my hero comes back to his village every year from where he now lives with his family in Canada. The poorer ones of the village, and a couple of neighbouring villages, wait for his arrival every year. He does not have too much time for the family, for he must attend to the sickness and deaths and marriages and squabbles of these, his favoured ones. He gives time. He gives companionship. He gives friendly banter. He gives money. The amounts do not matter; the giving matters.

They touch him for it if a crumbling wall needs to be repaired, if a buffalo needs medical attention, if a child needs to be wed, for illness, for celebration, for death; for anything. He does not judge character; he feels their need. Someone in the family once reproached him, “Why do you give them money, do you know that half of them blow it up on country liquor or a fix of poppy husk?”

His answer is a revelation, “You do not know the pain of their craving.”

What he gives them may just be keeping someone from stealing his wife’s modest jewellery, or keeping someone’s daughter in school, or giving a little respite from craving and despair. He is absolutely against substance abuse; he has been there and back in years long gone by. He feels their pain.

Oh, how we like to ride the high horse of morality! How many of us have ever paused to think, where would the supercilious arrogance of the upright be were it not for the grovelling supplication of the sinners?

We sit in judgement over the ‘sinners’, and ours is probably the bigger sin, for have they not been destined by fate to sin, the same fate that seems to have made us 'virtuous'? They probably carry the burden on behalf of the virtuous!

Everything is in balance in the Perfection of Allah’s world. We must gather the courage to bless the sinners, for they may carry our burden of sin. And the sufferers, for god only knows whose burden of suffering they carry.

One who has fallen from grace has the options of realization, of atonement, of making amends. The upright have to choose between forgiveness and incarceration, sensitivity and indifference, warmth and cold, love and hatred, saving and condemning.

The choice they make determines whether they remain 'right', or fall into 'wrong' themselves! Like the hero of the tale, the blessed ones would be empathetic rather than judgemental.

Let us not be not frugal in investing in forgiveness, we do not know when we may have to redeem our investment. Let us desist from feeding the fires of grudge, hate, scorn or contempt. They only kill the warmth inside and make us colder than the object of our disdain. It shows on our countenance. We are here to practise compassion, not pity; to free ourselves from the yoke of hatred, soar with the birds in the heavens by forgiving and letting go!

The sinner has the chance to redeem and rise, the upright can only fall. Be aware!

“Zeina Glo brings you the radiant glow of inner peace, good health and attendant beauty.

Zeina Glo helps you strip off layers of inhibitions, hesitation, and cynicism, allowing your thoughts and emotions to flow freely.

Zeina Glo helps to douse the flames of insecurity and guilt, to open the windows of mind and body to the cool fresh breeze of love.

Zeina Glo encourages you to spread inner peace, good health, radiance, exuberance, warmth, joy and the glow from your inner being.

Zeina Glo brings the beauty of your own thoughts back to you!!”

For, questions, criticism or advice, please post comments here, or write to zeinaglo@rediffmail.com or zeinaglow@gmail.com