Count Your Blessings

Badrya Darwish

As usual, our Amir said it all by starting his Ramadan speech reciting an ayah from the Quran. In Arabic it means many things. It is from Surat Al-Anfal Ayah verse 25 and it goes like this: “And fear a trial which will not strike those who have wronged among you exclusively, and know that Allah is severe in punishment.” Well chosen! I hope every MP and politician in the country recites that ayah tonight and think of it seriously and its meaning.

It is for those who are trying to create unnecessary chaos and make trouble by inciting hatred in society. So far, unfortunately they have succeeded with their multiple plots and their empty rhetoric in attacking each other. They managed to control some of the weak hearts. This week alone I heard and read so many statements by our MPs from both the 2009 and 2012 parliament. I am shamed even to repeat them in print.

They are all striving fitnah (affliction) in the nation. What is this new trend? Since when are we like this? Since when do we have this sensitive division of Sunni and Shiite amongst us? This is as clear as daylight. MPs attack each other based on sectarianism and they are plotting in blocs. If it is not sectarian – we are facing a more dangerous division – bedu (tribes) and hathar (urbanites). Is this fashionable?

The most ironic statement from an MP was that he was apologizing to his bloc that he shook hands with the Iranian ambassador by mistake. He said he would wash his hands seven times to cleanse himself. Allegedly, the honorable gentleman was kicked out from the committee which collects donations for Syria by the group because they knew he shook hands with the Iranian ambassadors during a ghabqa (Ramadan late evening dinner).

His block, it seems, were even more lost in translation. Instead of defending and showing that Islam does not believe in such rhetoric the MP made (the washing-of-the-hands statement). Is it a sin to shake hands with the Iranian ambassador? To what low level have we reached in our society if shaking a hand with a person from another sect is considered a sin? Where do we live? Remember before, when I said we were back in the Jahliya times (the pre-Islam time).

If they consider shaking hands with the Iranian ambassador a sin what about all these leaders who shook hands with Netanyahu and Israeli leaders who keep on visiting Arab countries and meet their counterparts in the United Nations? Why did we not hear statements that these leaders are sinners?

These are examples of how trivial we have become!
I think the whole of Kuwait, instead of following the empty rhetoric from all sides in the holy last days of Ramadan should sit and contemplate on the ayah recited by the Amir. Maybe then they will be enlightened and they will have a better understanding of life, to fear God and fear for the future of Kuwait. It is not too late, by the way.

Instead of fighting each other, why don’t you thank God for the blessings we have. Count your blessings. Other countries are covered in bloodshed because they had severe dictators and widespread poverty. What is your problem in Kuwait? Just visit one ghabqa in a middle-class house in Kuwait and you will get my drift. We are not deprived of anything material but it looks like we have become spiritually-empty. We lost our way.

By Badrya Darwish
badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net
http://twitter.com/badryad

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