Category: Highlights

Something that really annoys me in the world today is how people just have to think of themselves in terms of belonging to very specific seperate groups and how they get too obsessed with it all.

Not only that, but this seperation also results in ethnocentrism, where everyone thinks their group is superior to others, thus creating this ugly stupid form of racism.

It comes in many forms, from belonging to religious groups and their subgroups to belonging to geographical areas, countries in those areas, cities in those countries, towns in those cities, neighbourhoods in those towns, families…etc.

I understand the need to associate oneself to a group, it’s in our nature, but this is mad.
Why can’t we all in the end associate ourselves to the group of mankind and accept our differences as enriching factors for this group?
And if we absolutely have to break the group down to billions of seperated subgroups based on borders, religion or whatever else, why do we have to get so mad and fanatic about it, making it into racism and letting it create these deep fractures between us?

Patriotism is a great concept, but why can’t we apply it to our whole world?
Why can’t we open our eyes to the fact that we have more things that unite us all than things that divide us?

Is there such a thing as absolute truth?

People always seem to have different perceptions of what the truth is. There are always different sides and versions of every story, different points of view, and every version is further interpreted in various ways by the people learning of it.
So how can there be one absolute truth? How can anyone ever be sure which version is the true one? How can anyone be sure that their intrepretation of the truth is true?

I guess the only things we can be sure are absolutely true are things that are fixed, invariable, unalterable facts that can be unquestionably proven one way or the other.

Other than that, truth is pretty relative, as it depends on how you look at things, which strips it of its right to be called truth and makes it more of a belief.

People mostly just believe that some things are true or right without them having to be.

“The most perfidious way of harming a cause consists of defending it deliberately with faulty arguments.”

— Friedrich Nietzsche

I couldn’t agree more.

Applying this to the case of Islam in the world, I think one of the things harming it these days is the number of clueless people who think they are qualified to defend it.

These people who go on and try to portray themselves as scholars of Islam when they basically don’t have the necessary background or knowledge for it are just making things worse everytime they open their mouths.

People should be really careful about the arguments they use, the sensitive points they touch upon and the details they try to get into because what started as them trying to defend a cause or a belief could turn into them doing the complete opposite.

It’s great that people are passionate about their religion and want to defend it, but standing up and talking for a religion is a great responsability and before they do that they should learn as much as they can about it and only talk about issues they have researched very well so they can be able to get into more detail, answer questions and deny false claims.

The same applies to every other cause or belief.
Believing isn’t enough. You have to know the history of it, the why, the when, the where, the circumstances, the details, everything to be able to strongly defend it and stand up for it.

How true is it when we say that the future is what we make of it? And that our past has nothing to do with it and that it should not haunt us?

I think it’s true that our present is the result of the decisions we took in our past, and that the future is the result of the decisions we take today.
But, still our decisions today are based on whatever elements and consequences we have today, which have come to exist because of our old decision in our past.

Let’s say a person took the decision to study Computer Science a number of years ago, and today he is a programmer because of that choice and others he took along the way.
Today he also wants to take another decision for the future. And even though he could go and take a totally unrelated decision of becoming a professional photographer, thereby throwing away a lot of stuff from his past and many of the decisions he took, it’s most likely he won’t and that he will follow the path he started carving out for himself in the past and go for something IT related.

So, even though we don’t like to admit it, the past does somehow haunt us. It affects the decisions we take, it limits our scope of options, it tries to put us into a box we can’t get out of.

But life shouldn’t be that way.
What if we took a wrong decision along the way, or a decision we don’t like anymore?
I mean we’re human after all, and we’re built to make errors.
We should always have an option to undo what we did, and as that is impossible, then we at least should have the option to right our wrong by taking a good decision later on.

It takes courage to take such a decision though, because it means you’re admitting you were wrong, you’re admitting that a period of your life was somehow a waste of time, you’re admitting that you’re throwing a lot away and starting some things from scratch.
It’s not easy. And it’ll certainly feel unlogical to take such a step.

But what’s better to take a hard and “unlogical” step that will make our lives a lot better or to let our old wrong decision haunt us and control our lives making them miserable?
I’d choose the hard way any day!

So, after all, the future is what we make of it, it’s a direct result of the decisions we take today and it doesn’t have to be haunted by the past.
So we should learn from the errors we made in our past and take better decisions for our future, we can’t go on making mistakes and then trying to fix them forever.

What is the definition of a home?
And why do we always have to have a clear answer for that which is limited by a certain place for us to build our lives around?

The concept of a home is strongly rooted in us and in so many of our major decisions. A home country, a home city, a home town, a home team, and the list goes on.

But what actually ties us to a certain place to make it our home? What defines a home country?
A home country to most is the place they were born, a place where they spent most of their lives, a set of memories and experiences, a history.
But some others have a home country they’ve never ever been to. They are born somewhere, have great memories and build lives there, but still they regard some other country as the home country they cherish so much.

So, even though being born somewhere and having lots of memories in it makes you love a place, it isn’t the essential element in making it your home country.

So what is it that ties a person to a place and makes him call it his home?
And why does a person actually need a place to call home in the first place?

The second question is easier and more logical to answer. I think a person needs to have somewhere to call home in order to have some sense of belonging, to have a place to look forward to going to, to have a place of their own that they can brag about and say wonderful things about, to have a place that they can identify themselves with.

As for what ties a person to a place and makes him call it home, I think how it’s being decided in many people’s brain is by their origin. Their parents are from that country so they are too. Full stop. It doesn’t need that much thought for most.

But why?
What happened to all the “Home is where the heart is” stuff, to personal choice and to following what’s better for a person?
Why doesn’t a person choose his home based on what he likes, what suits him better, what makes him more comfortable?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m maybe one of the proudest Tunisians alive. My home country is Tunisia, my home city is Bizerte and the list goes on and I’m proud of each thing in it and wouldn’t change it for the world.
But in reality, I’ve spent more of my life outside Tunisia than in it, and when I am in Tunisia I rarely even go to Bizerte, my supposed home city.

What I’m saying is that maybe we should not over-tie ourselves to our so-called home places. It’s great to have them and to use them as a certain source of pride and belonging, but not to over-obsess about them.

We should always be open to choose our home away from home depending on our choices.

Plus sometimes it’s necessary not to live in your home country and only visit it every once in a while to keep loving it, as sometimes living in it can be a nightmare, lol.

Floating in the sea
Lying on my back
My eyes are shut
The cool deep waters carry me
The tidal waves caress my body
The peaceful silence soothes my soul

This moment is perfect
The world around me ceases to exist
No more responsibilites, no more troubles
No more complexity, no more madness
Nothing exists anymore
Everything melts into the vastness of the sea
And everything is what I imagine it to be
I don’t exist anymore
I’m just another tiny part of it all
I’m part of nature
And nature is part of me
This is where I belong
This is my peace of my mind

But unfortunately I know it won’t last long
It’ll all be over when I open my eyes again
The world will come back with all it’s craziness
I’ll be sucked back into the storm of life
That’s how it always is

I wish I didn’t have to open my eyes
I wish I could float like this forever

I think i’ve always been a very open person when it comes to religion, willing to listen and learn more about all religions and beliefs, a topic that truly interests me.

As a muslim, i find Christianity and Judaism very close to Islam, which is only normal as they are all the words of the same God, and as Islam tells us to believe in all the prophets that were sent by God including Jesus and Moses.
The only differences between these religions’ holy books and teachings are the ones that were influenced and changed with time, resulting in a number of versions of the Bible and the Torah.
Thankfully the Quran didn’t go through this versioning problem, and only one version is available, which is the very same one there was when prophet Mohamed was around.

Another religion that really interests me is Buddhism.
I’ve always been really curious about it, and last year when i visited Thailand it got me even more interested in learning more about this religion and it’s ideas and teachings.
So, i started searching online and reading books to get an idea about this religion, and well i found that most of it is very logical.
I say most not all because there are some details like reincarnation that i don’t see logical proof to in the sense of the same spirit living on, i do believe though that life carries on, and that when one life ends, life goes on and another starts, but the spirit for whom life has ended is never reborn.

Anyway back to what i was saying, i found that the main ideas and truths that Buddha reached when he was enlightened are very logical ones.
And what i found even more interesting is that they don’t contrast at all with my beliefs as a muslim, in fact they offer explanations to some of the things God has asked of us.
After all, i believe that any religion has to be logical, and there have to be reasons why we were told to do certain things and avoid others, if that is not the case then the religion just makes no sense, and why would anyone follow something that doesn’t make sense ?

I think that in the end of the day, if we put all these logical religions together, and go deep into their main concepts, ideas and teachings, we’ll find they all rotate around the same principles that point us in the direction of peace, happiness and love of all humans and beings.
So, why is it that we keep fighting among us and sticking it to religion differences, when in fact our religions are not all that different ?!