Transcription
So, I've been here maybe uh four or five days now. We got here Wednesday morning early and uh now it's Sunday and most of the time so far has just been quite relaxed. Just spending time with family, a lot of invitations, you know. Subhan Allah. There's so much hospitality and so much generosity uh and amazing food of course, mashallah. So, most of it's been quite relaxed.
Um you know, there's a different sense of time here. It's not rushed at all and you can maybe even feel it just possibly through this uh moment here in this video. It's very relaxed. It's very calm. It's very still. It's very peaceful. And uh you know initial experiences we haven't done a whole lot. Um a few excursions just into the local area on Friday. We went for Friday prayer to the Ra Sharif, the Mak of Sid Ali, the shrine of Sid Ali here around which Maz Sharif is built, mashallah. So, we were able to pray Friday prayer there and a few walks just into the local area. Um, a little bit of shopping for some clothes and things like that, but not a whole lot yet.
Uh, initial experiences or initial impressions. Um, everything is fine. Like things are very calm, very chill, very relaxed, very easygoing. uh you see people out on the street just doing their thing. A lot of people, you know, busy working. There's a lot of construction. Uh there's a lot of activity, a lot of business, a lot of new things coming up, and people are just out doing their normal things um like a normal city.
The the main problem here is is just the lack of, you know, the the the amount of poverty is the big issue, right? Because this country has been in war or war torn for over 40 years. And the people, you know, subhan Allah, the people are so simple, like they're peaceful people, but because of foreign interventions, this country's been at war for over 40 years. And if one thing Afghans won't do is submit to anything other than God. So in general, right, generally speaking, there's this strong sense of faith and freedom and principles that make it difficult for them to ever submit to anything other than God. But aside from that, they're very peaceful people. All they want is just to live their lives simply, peacefully, and to get on. Very industrious people, very alive people, you know. And so a lot of the images we get in the West, they're so skewed and they're so distorted. The people are kind, generous, hospitable, you know, again, peaceful, peaceloving. And like I said, you see people out and about just doing their things, men, women. You get this impression in the west that women can't even go outside. And it's not the case. I mean I see women up and down on the streets walking, shopping, you know, doing what they need to do.
So the biggest challenge here is when it comes is the is the economy. It's the finances. One, of course, one of the problems is the lack of uh development over as a result of some 40 plus years of war and fighting in the country. And for the first time, I think there's a chance for some peace and some stability. Security is much better. The cities are much cleaner than when I visited here 4 years ago. security is much better. Um again there there's a lot of improvement taking place and this could of course all be facilitated with with international involvement but you know because the west isn't recognizing the government here uh it just ends up costing the people making the people suffer you know this is a form of economic terrorism that I think that the west tends to employ to those regimes and countries that don't tow the line that aren't um you easily controlled and so on, right? It just becomes some sort of economic terrorism that gets employed that ends up hurting nobody other than the the normal people, the common people. People in positions of power and peoples in positions of wealth always are fine. They're always okay. It's the common people that suffer. So it's a form of terrorism actually that seems to be taking place generally in in in a lot of the world with sanctions with embargos with things like that because it's the normal people that suffer the the just the common people that end up suffering you know
Um we have to really rethink and and maybe better understand and come to a better place as human beings in this world and the way that we deal with things and the way that we deal with one another. One of the greatest most criminal things that people do is dehumanize others. And they do this by portraying them as different and as somehow not the same that they're wild or barbaric or this or that. And it's all delusion, right? It's all just, you know, manipulation and it's evil, right? Because when you dehumanize others, it's easy to mistreat them. And what does Allah Almighty say in the Quran? We created you different nations and different tribes. So that you may come to know one another. You may come to value and see the beauty in one another in your differences and not to dehumanize one another but ultimately to love one another. Allah says in the Quran had I wanted I would have made you all one nation, one tribe, one people, one community, one religion but I made you different. So v and strive for excellence with what Allah has given you. And if people would only follow even the religions that they profess to believe in, that they profess to identify with, the world would be a much better place.
So anyway, just a few more days here. Um, we're just trying to get some uh paperwork and things like that done for the family. Hopefully, we can get it resolved. A lot of these things are running quite slow because the administrative work tends to be quite uh well, what can you say? You never know what to expect. So, hopefully we can get this done. Uh, but overall, it's been a very relaxed visit so far. It's quite hot, very hot actually. It takes some getting used to, but good. It's in a sense, I may have mentioned this before, it's a type of medicine for the soul to learn to settle down and to relax, to calm down and to shift focus back to what matters and what's most important. And this is what this is what Avanistan and countries like this, the east in general has to offer, right? a shift in focus from just consume consumption, consumerism, materialism to back to back to what actually matters and what contributes to human health and happiness. It's two things. Faith, which is God and family. This is what is held in paramount importance in in this country and in Islamic countries in general. Faith and family. And this is what gives human beings peace of heart, peace of mind, you know, happiness, joy, contentment. It's these two things. It's faith and family. You know, mashallah, family is paramount here. Respect, love. It's everything. And this is something that that seriously needs to be learned by, you know, by people living in the west, including Muslims who have lost contact and lost connection with this and have become kind of consumed with the consumer lifestyle. and the self-indulgent lifestyle. May Allah protect us. Self-indulgence is what's destroying humanity. Self-centeredness. And you see here really a paradigm which is based in selflessness, respect, and love and care for others.
I'll keep updating from these travels and journeys as best as possible. Inshallah, see you in the next one.