Box in a box in box and in another box. This is the simplest way to describe our lives nowadays. Even worse, each box has a lock and all the keys are lost. Yet there in the middle of the darkness; in the middle of nowhere where voices do not have echoes; where life comes to an absolute stop; where the end of the end is reached; where loneliness comes alive; something shines. Before our empty eyes. Something named faith. It forms hands and limbs to pull us out. Lock after lock will be broken, and cover after another then is pushed open. Darkness will become the light, and day then is born from the night. This is what it is. Faith.
It has always been our misunderstanding that created all of our problems. Although some of us speak up to explain, yet the question remains the same: who is listening? To me and to many other people, for example, listening is more important than talking. What’s the use if somebody converse in the middle of the deserts with no one around? Sadly, the sand is a better listener than most of us. Maybe it’s not our fault. Maybe patience is needed in the process. But one thing is for sure: no faith is wrong. If we open our eyes and ears and minds, we’ll see that our different faiths are the ones that bond us closer and closer and closer.
I as a student, who tries as hard as possible to be religious, learning about other faiths is as important to me as learning about my own. At school, religion is rarely addressed. And if it is approached, the teachers utter every word as carefully as achievable. In this way, nothing whatsoever is learned. A better way of talking is necessary if we’re to bond ourselves.
In the same path, when a certain argument is opened with a friend regarding a religious issue, the conversation lives no more than some counted minutes, fearing that the other side might get angered. What if that is ok? Sometimes to reach the truth, we have to be truthful. At the same time, there is always the kind way to explain one’s faith. I am not afraid to talk about my religion, but what scares me is that when the other side does not listen. And by listening, I mean understanding—not believing!
Throughout time, civilizations were created in peaceful ways. Yet, their end always came rather viciously. If we’re to look at history, we can clearly see that each of the great civilizations of the past ended when certain problems came along the way and ultimately when different faiths clashed. In our world today, we’re not that different from the people of the past. This time, however, the decision lies in our hands. We can either do what people in history did, or simply take the seemingly harder way: stop, watch, and listen.
It has been in the nature of human beings to be aggressive. Ironically, all of the faiths in the world order peacefulness and harmony among the people. Maybe we should not start by listening to each other; maybe we should start to really listen to our faiths. Then, step-by-step, when inner peace has conquered us, we can start to listen to our foes, to our friends, and to the voices within.
One of the most mind-opening movies I have ever seen was the Celestine Prophesy. It tells the story of a man who, through faith and belief, came to realize that earth and heaven is nothing but the same place. The story moves on and explains that there is a hidden and beautiful energy inside each one of us. And the key to finding harmony is to share that energy and not try to dominate each other. It’s about being simple, frank, and fresh hearted. Only then, heaven will not longer be heaven, and earth will not longer be earth; they both will be a place for some reason I like to call “Erven.”
Land is no land if it wasn’t green. Sky is no sky if the stars couldn’t be seen. Peace is given, and in the same way is taken. My foe is now my friend. And that’s how the start suddenly becomes the end. Our faiths are no longer our barriers; rather, they are our way. Misunderstanding is no longer here, for listening will start the day. Lock after lock is now broken, and cover after another was just pushed open. Darkness became the light, and day was born from the night. This is what it is, what it was, and what it will always be. Faith.
Abdullah immigrated to the United States from Iraq about three years ago and knew no English when he arrived. He recently graduated from South High School in Denver, CO in May of 06 and is currently a freshman at Denver Community College.
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