Monday, March 23, 2015

Intense Nostalgia

This sinner is in a state of extremely intense nostalgia.

This bout happened because of the little bit of cleaning work that yours truly took up at this blog. In this process I realized that many of the sites have disappeared. Many more have not been updated for long - even years. Two names of departed souls came to haunt my memories. The world is changing at a faster pace than a few years earlier but I do not have many of those co-travelers that I had a few years earlier. This last one perhaps is the main cause of intense longings for the past.

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

On Existential Crisis

I shall begin with the Islamic solution to existentialist crisis.
Supplication is an essential part of Islam.
Wise people have told us that we should start by supplicating first of all for ourselves then the closest people to us and then move on to near and dear ones and then neighbours and local society and then to global Muslim Ummah and the world in general.
Of course it is understood that when you supplicate in above manner your actions will be in consonance with the same.
And therein lies the solution to the existentialist problems.
Pragmatic people do not face existential problems.
Idealist people do.
Indeed an external solution to any existentialist problems is to create an emergency in the life of such a person that requires immediate and practical attention - another mundane crisis.
I once requested my teacher professor MSZ Chaghtai to explain existentialism to me. I had tried to get a perspective on the issue through his books but to no avail. He jumped back and forth from literature and philosophy and then concluded that you do not get it either this way or that way.
In person he told that today this is not an issue that gets much attention because terrorism and the things like that have become more urgent issues.

In conclusion existentialist issue is the confusion of an idealist about life choices. The solution is that most of the time there is no ideal choice. Pragmatism is always the solution.

Midlife crisis, seven year itch and the notions like are manifestations of the same problem.

The excessive selfish disposition that so many people adopt after going through above phases is the other side of the coin. Moderation is the Islamic way of life and the solution to this side affect of the solution called selfishness.