Winds of Change and Those of Us Who Are Swept Away – I

Winds of Change and Those of Us Who Are Swept Away – I

O Turner of hearts, keep my heart firm upon Your religion.
God guides whom He wills and lets go astray whom He wills.

Prophet Muhammad (SAW)_

Everything around us—and within us—is changing at every moment. Changes, whether positive or negative, good or bad, true or false, find their way into our lives. Yet we mostly make a point of the changes around us and the unfavorable directions they take. Whereas the real change is the change within the human being himself.

One day, after reading the newly published book of a writer I had followed for a long time, I felt that the writer had undergone an adverse change. I questioned why I felt this way and whether my feelings were accurate. When I reread a book of his that I had read years ago and had once been moved by, I realized what had changed. The book was the same book, but the one reading it was not the same me. Perhaps I had expected the same effect it had once left on me. In the end, I concluded that even such an expectation was misguided.

Indeed, when we examine the changes around us with deeper contemplation, we often discover that it is not the surroundings that have changed, but rather the way those unchanging surroundings are reflected within us. In other words, what changes are our perspective, our thoughts, our emotions, our experiences—our heart, in short; for it is our mind and heart together that build the mirror of the heart through which everything is interpreted. When the quality of that mirror changes, what appears in it changes as well.

Therefore, before claiming that a person, a phenomenon, a work, or anything at all has changed, we should pause and reflect once more. Has that thing truly changed, or is it I who has changed? Why is it that those we once addressed as “a” we now call “x”? That those whose faces we once smiled upon we now cannot bear to look at? That what once seemed meaningful now seems absurd? That what we once counted as a hundred we now count as one? That what we once valued beyond price we now do not even name? That what once kept us awake at night we no longer even notice? That what was once a cause for gratitude becomes, today, a cause for complaint? Should we not reconsider the reasons for all this? Has what changed truly been the other person, the surroundings, history, or the place? And what about us? Where are we in this change?

Just as a hundred guests visiting a palace—where great arts are displayed, various tasks are carried out, administrators and officials bustle about, and feasts are held—would each have a different share in that palace and a different opinion of what goes on within it, so too can a hundred readers of the same work offer a hundred different interpretations. Likewise, the palace of the universe we inhabit is adorned with endless works of art, with countless actions being performed at every moment; a palace in which the human being is a guest, perceiving everything according to his own eye and heart. At the same time, it is a book filled with infinite wisdom, waiting to be read.

A person’s share in and benefit from this palace and this book, however, is as much as his heart allows. There are hearts that, when faced with what happens around them, feel wonder, admiration, and affection; and there are hearts whose mirrors are cast into darkness, for whom everything appears the same and reduces to a single dark point. Some read this book with the eye of the heart, finding wisdom in every letter. For others, all that is written is nothing but meaningless shapes.

As the mirror of our heart becomes aware of the purpose and wisdom of creation, it begins to grow clearer and to take on subtler hues. As it turns away from that meaning and inclines toward the worldly and material, it becomes dense and dark. If we carefully observe our inner world, we can see this. The ordinariness of our lives, the increase of our complaints, the emergence of hopelessness, the intensifying noise and quarrels in our lives—all these suffocating signs point to the darkening of the mirror of our heart. So where did this change begin? How did it reach this state?

We are mostly concerned with surface-level changes. For identifying the real change requires effort, and having grown lazy and numb, we either fail to notice or refuse to acknowledge the change within our own hearts. Thus we never attempt investigation, inquiry, or deep examination; we simply talk about the visible changes and move on. Worse still, what is attempted here is the claim that we bear no responsibility or role in the change. Once we present the cause of change as something outside ourselves, it supposedly has nothing to do with us. How easy it is to say that something or someone has changed. If it were not so easy, perhaps our perspective toward that thing or person would not change so easily either.

Undoubtedly, in our age everything is changing rapidly and even radically. Our world changes every day in all directions, and these changes are reflected in our individual lives as well. The winds of change—developing swiftly and in abundance, multiplying and strengthening—separate many people from one another, bring others together, elevate some and lower others, become a step upward for some and a pit for others. One way or another, nothing remains as it was. Nothing can remain as it was. Let us look, then, at only the last ten years of our individual and social lives: what the winds of change have torn down and carried away, what they have scattered and gathered, what they have grown and diminished, what they have rendered valuable and what they have wasted, what they have given and what they have taken.

And in the face of this storm, what is the state of us—the people of our age? Some are bewildered, confused. Some resist with all their walls. Some seek to profit from the wind. Some have already surrendered themselves to the storm. Which are we? Which should we be? First, we must understand the nature of the wind. Some winds are of a kind that can be made use of; some are destructive and require protection; and some leave no room for escape, where one can only try to survive with the least damage. The winds of change of our age are all of these and more. But wherever they blow from, the direction in which they blow leads human beings toward estrangement from themselves and from their surroundings. We therefore need, without a doubt, a point of support and something to hold on to.

This need often presents itself as a “worldview” or as “belief.” In the midst of these dizzying and frantic changes, the human being who does not wish to be scattered seeks both to make sense of these changes within a single framework and to hold onto something fixed so as not to be swept away. The stronger our point of support and our grip, the less our risk of being swept away—and the greater our chance of understanding and producing something meaningful from these winds of change. So let us ask: what do we rely on and hold onto? What did others rely on and hold onto? Which supports remain uncorrupted, and which holds remain unbroken?

It seems, then, that we are in need of truths that will serve as an unchanging and unshakable support and point of attachment. Is there, in our lives, a truth that does not change and will not change? When everything changes at every moment, is there a wisdom by which I will not lose myself?

stone: what can the wind take from a rock?
scissors: the light is carried away by the wind; the heavy remains where it is
paper: the shelter of windy weather, the sleep of rainy weather