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The Philosophy of Fate
By Glenn Cornwell, California's Death Row
After living on San Quentin's Death Row for a number of years, I've come away with a philosophy of fate that could well fit anyone's situation on this small planet, during his or hers short stay.
In Al - Islam fate is called "Qadir" or "Manifest Destiny". Muslims believe that in the beginning of time, the Creator wrote down everything that would happen in creation, and that the ink was dry before he even caused it to start. An interesting concept and if we believe in it, then we must also believe that "there's no such thing as luck."
Luck in itself might seem like a small
thing to give up, but for the majority of us, that couldn't be more further
from the truth. In my case, "Its bad luck I have trouble not believing
in." Its really taken a deep understanding of the
scriptures and many years of study
for me to adopt the mindset that "there's no such thing as bad luck."
Also that "everything thats happened to me is the will and plan of the
Creator."
In my life, what I'm not supposed to believe in, has been as obvious as the black cloud, that follows Al Bundy around on the Fox TV show "Married with Children," or the curse thats made all the men in his family's feet stink.
I could give you a dozen examples of what I felt was the result of "bad luck.," in my life, but when I apply the scriptures, I must conclude that first off, my bad could be much worse, and second, even the unexplainable tragedies in my life are the will and plan of God.
Of course I don't have to use myself as a clear example of how manifest destiny works. All throughout history there are many obvious examples of how an assumes his intentions are the will and plan of God, which in turn justifies any part of his plan that might otherwise be frowned upon. From the Roman conquest of Europe and the Middle East, to England's conquest of virtually the entire world, on to the Madisonian expansion of the US, to include most of the Western United States, manifest destiny has been a driving force. It's fuelled and justified wholesale slaughter, displacement, and the enslavement of entire cultures.
Writing from death row gives me an added spin to look at life from where I sit, but compared to many situations I'm fortunate to even be here.
Think about the thirty two thousand
plus children, who die everyday from hunger related illnesses, now think
about the feelings of hopelessness and longing the parents of those children
endure, unable to do anything but
sit by and watch it happen.
Imagine if you were holding your child, and he/she was four years old and
weighed fifteen pounds. What exactly did these cultures do to deserve
their fate? Also, why would this of all cultures be
so fortunate ? Why would this
of all regimes past and current, be so blessed? A nation that was
literally built on the manipulation, enslavement, and exploitation of entire
races of all colors.
I could give you my spin on the reasons
why, but honestly this is not about how I feel, its simply an observation
of what is. One thing all of the believers agree on is ; if the creator
chose to, he could blot us out and put another
creation in our place. Another
truth is that we, as a race, have developed the technology to blot ourselves
out.
After all, who is the only nation that
actually used a nuclear weapon on another nation? The answer is,
The United States, on Japan in 1945.
Think about it., the Soviet Union fell, its system was based on a strong military complex, instead of commerce and trade !
But what nation (during World War II), came to the Soviets aid, flooding its economy with much needed weapons to fight the Germans ? Who engaged in the arms race and cold war with Russia ?
Of course in hindsight, no one in their
right mind could make the claim that we batted Russia by flooding its ranks
with weapons and tanks, its just the reality of what happened. Now,
an investor with the right connections could
probably go to Russia and buy a submarine
or a jet himself.
I remember when then President Bush announced his "war on drugs," then held up a big bag of crack cocaine, claiming that his agents had purchased the dope right acrioss the street from the white house.
It didn't rub me right then, and it wasn't until years later that the world found out it was "his agents" who set up the networks and storage, successfully flooding "the Hoods" in America with the same crack cocaine Bush declared war on.
One might laugh at the gall of it all, but if you line up all the drug related deaths, lives ruined behind the sale of, quest for, and protection of the dope trade, its far from funny. All the lives those crack babies will affect when they grow up to be "who knows what."
Yet this relatively young country (224 years old) is a measuring stick for much of the entire world. Why?
One answer is an idea thats very seldom mentioned in the media, a practice the news never finds newsworthy. In fact the majority of people involved never really look for attention or praise.
See everyday in this country we have
a yin / yang of sorts going on almost non-stop. Millions of people
young and old, pray with all their hearts for the world. Also millions
of people are involved in non profit work, helping
others, here and abroad.
On the one hand we allow weapons dealers to supply illegal armies we call "freedom fighters" while on the other we feed millions all over the world.
In almost any given Hood in America
you can find churches filled with dozens of faithful worshippers, while
right down the block theres a shooting and smoking gallery with addictive
personalities doing things many of us
would never imagine.
Multi million dollar decisions are made in corporate offices while right outside the home of the most powerful family in the world (the White House) prostitutes stroll. Less than a few blocks away, homelss men, women and children sleep in abandoned stoops.
Meanwhile a bored housewife will drive a 40,000 SUV and burn 10.00 worth of gas to buy candles for a dinner in which 60% of it will end up in the garbage can.
A very real truth about this country is; there are people here who "if they had ten million dollars wouldn't give a starving child two dollars, and there are also people who would give their last two dollars to help someone in need," and thats what makes this concept of unity so great. Somewhere in the middle of those two extremes lies the mindset of many Americans. Maybe those who wish to oppress and allow other country's to suffer, tend to work and gain decision making positions in this country. I'd always wondered why the majority of judges in this country are ex-prosecutors, which is one of many things that make me wonder.
All of us have one thing in common, and there's a very beautiful, yet simple answer found in the Quran for us to ponder on.
In Suri (or chapter) 21 Ayat (or verse) 35, it states: every soul shall have a taste of death, and we test you by evil and by good, by way of trial, to us must ye return.
Now we can debate having a soul, we
can even argue the idea that we must eventually return to stand before
our Creator. But one thing we all must agree on is as far as these
human vessels we live in, everybody has an
appointment with death.
In my mind, and in the minds of Islamic
scholars, what this short verse is saying is that our souls will only have
a taste of death, but will not permanently die. At some point we'll
be called back before God and at that time be told
the truth, we'll find out our true
worth, according to our individual actions, deeds and intention while on
this temporary realm called earth.
In the Book of James 1, verse 2, The
Holy Bible tells us to "consider it pure joy when you fall into various
trials.
Knowing that the testing of your faith
produces patience."
Both of these brief scriptures, are examples that suggest that we should always maintain faith in the creator no matter what position we find ourselves in.
When I perform my five daily prayers (called salats) I never lose sight of the fact that at every position from standing erect to full prostration, I still worship my creator, patiently. Understanding the symbolism is important for me.
Maybe the events in our lives are not as important as how we deal with them. Maybe the United States position as the most powerful nation on the planet is not as important as what the millions of people do with the advantages we've been allowed.
For some reason, the creator must feel its all important for us to know about ourselves. After all, we must assume He already knows.
Its comforting to me because the belief
in fate is also a belief that the same people who flooded our hoods with
dope, manufacture then raiload cases and turn around and say, "we didn't
do that.", must go before the same God
as the child who starved to death,
but didn't have to.
With that in mind, maybe having power
and controlling as much influence as this nation does, could have its downside.
Who knows, since we even call ourselves "Big Brother." it might be
a good time to ask ourselves,
"when the father comes home, and the
kids have torn the house up, who gets spanked worse, the smaller kids or
the Big Brother?" What we think is a blessing, might just turn out
to be a curse after all, if we don't do all we can
do help others.
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