Wednesday, October 30, 2019

What It Means - Day 226

"He is not one of us who does not show compassion to our little ones or respect our older ones."
Muhammad, Hadith

Yes, I have quite a string of ahadith going here, and, for that matter, a string of seemingly simple ahadith. However, simply because it is "seemingly simple" does not mean that it is simple at all. One of the things that drew me to Islam in the first place is its collectivist nature - which also runs parallel to the fact that in other ways it is intensely individualistic (there is no strong priesthood, so there's really nothing between us and God). In the US today we've become a society that doesn't care enough about the most vulnerable members of our society, but ratchets that up by being almost intentionally cruel to society's weakest members. As people often point out on Twitter, it's the cruelty itself which is the point. However, as President Obama pointed out yesterday in his critique of "woke" online culture, it's not simply enough to call the president a motherfucker (and Lord knows I've done that enough). In the end what matters is what we do to help our "little ones" and "older ones" that matters. I've just started working in support of the South Burlington Food Shelf and my goal is to try and give back more and more every year.


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