Text of Shahid Alamolhoda's Letter to His Sister
Shahid Alamolhoda's Letter to His Sister
The following text is the letter written by Shahid Alamolhoda to his sister in 1356 (1977):
Dear sister:
After extending my greetings and salutations, I wish you attainment of true success and salvation (falah). Because I was far from you as we stepped into the new year, and could not bring myself to enter the new year without speaking to you at this critical juncture of life, I have taken up my pen for the first time to speak with you.
An hour ago, I was reading and came across a sentence. I thought about this beautiful sentence and deemed it appropriate to write down for you the outcome of these hours of reflection on the eve of the new year.
Chandel, the great twentieth-century European thinker, says regarding human life in the twentieth century:
"The human being of this era dedicates life to acquiring the means of living." We spend life in distress to create comfort and convenience; we run our entire lives hoping to sit for a few moments.
We toil all our lives in order to rest, yet life passes by and we never experience or attain ease, comfort, rest, or peace of mind, because society continually inculcates new needs in us. The false and artificial needs constantly created in humans come through advertising. You turn on the television and turn it off after two hours; you look at yourself and find seven or eight new purchasing needs that you never needed before. Previously, for example, you washed pots with ashes; today you must buy washing powder... You buy Burda, you buy Zan-e Rooz, you look through them, and your mind is consumed with obtaining those clothes and models.
Cultural colonialism and de-culturalization occur through imitation, resemblance, competition over artificial and symbolic consumption, and seeking attention; it is here that the profound saying of Muhammad (PBUH) applies: 'Whoever imitates a people is of them,' where the word 'imitates' is used; if our lives become like those of Europeans, and if our clothing resembles the styles presented in Zan-e Rouz, Burda, and Khanom... we have inclined toward becoming like them in terms of human characteristics, insight, and choosing our way of life.
The uniformity and regimentation of human beings in various societies, and particularly within our nation—which is constantly being implemented on a wide scale through cultural programs by the authorities—all fit into the molds of machinism to increase global consumption, especially in the Third World, imposed upon us by the industrial world. The plundering of authentic identities and spiritual resources, and the erosion of Eastern or Islamic ways of life—which consist of minimizing consumption and maximizing production—are altered by educational apparatuses. For industrial Europe had to find consumers for its surplus goods. And what better way than to provide consumer goods, extract raw materials, boast superior benevolence, consider itself superior and civilized, and if it ever wanted a ride, to have trained a compliant beast of burden, and so forth...
It first begins its work with cultural colonialism, and then exploits a pure and innate divine characteristic entrusted to humanity—namely diversity, which is a form of perfection.
We observe (with grief) that all philosophies, religions, ideals, loves, and aspirations have been reduced to this: primacy belongs to material life; hence, when material life possesses primacy, the goal is welfare. Then why should one work? To create instruments of comfort.
In your opinion, does modern man enjoy more comfort, or did man of the past?
Thus, all our energies are spent sacrificing life's comfort in order to provide the means for life's comfort.
Have you read the story of The Little Prince?
For what is the sacrifice of life's comfort? For perfection? For transcendence? For journeying toward truth? For attaining sacred human ideals? For closeness and proximity to one's best friend and ally (Allah), and not for acquiring the comforts of worldly life. Living to consume, consuming to live: a vicious cycle, a cycle of foolishness—work, rest, eat, sleep, and nothing more!!!
We had better reflect a little: what is our criterion for knowing people? For example, when you go to propose marriage, what do you ask? Do you ask: Are you an intelligent person? Are you courageous? How much have you studied history, economics, sociology, anthropology, and the interpretation and understanding of the words of the Infallible Imams? How vast is your knowledge? and so forth... Never!
We think and choose precisely as the materialistic bourgeois culture of the West has imposed upon us, and our standards of value arrive pre-packaged from the West; yet we do not know or comprehend this, imagining that our thoughts and outlook are Islamic. In truth, the mindset that the Quran seeks to grant us is the exact opposite and stands in complete contradiction to it. Indeed, the educational philosophy of the Quran aims to dismantle such values, criteria, modes of thought, perceptions, and understandings regarding life, existence, material means, needs, hopes, desires, ideals, and the like.
And all our efforts, grievances, sufferings, and even the nature of our emotions are focused on living better, rather than contemplating how we ought to live and why. What does life mean? Striving for what? Why live at all? We pay no attention to these, because we could not free ourselves from the mire of bourgeois culture, from the mire of consumption without production, from the mire of life reduced to material goods, and reducing all creative forces and overflowing genius to mere instruments—just like someone who has placed a stair to reach the rooftop, but as soon as he steps on the first stair, he thinks so much about the step itself, its crevices, its color, etc., that a moment arrives when death seizes him while he is still pondering converting the wooden step to metal or the metal to rubber or gold, and as a result, life ends without him reaching the roof.
I implore you to read this sentence carefully and contemplate it so you may comprehend its grandeur: 'People are asleep; when they die, they awaken.' I believe this beautiful sentence comes from Fatimah (SA)—that exemplary, witnessing model across all times for all generations, and for all daughters and mothers in history; that living persona of whose life history we know little except the events of her passing, yet who must stand before our eyes in every moment of life, in decisions and choices, so that we may learn how to live and how to die.
I present to you the conclusions I drew from this statement; perhaps you will reflect upon it and attain deeper insights.
People are asleep;
1- Sleep usually occurs at night, and the characteristics of night are darkness, blackness, and obscurity.
2- One who is asleep is unaware of the events occurring around them.
3- One who is asleep is unaware even of oneself.
4- If they have an enemy, the enemy can easily eliminate them or trap them.
5- When the sun, which is the manifestation of light and radiance, rises, human beings awaken from sleep.
6- The word 'Nas' used here means the masses of people.
7- Who becomes awakened, disillusioned, and remorseful after waking up?
One who realizes they possessed great talents and powers within, that God granted them tremendous capital, yet they left it dormant in the world of sleep and unawareness—just like stagnant water that turns foul and emits a stench—and furthermore, it is too late, death has arrived, and there is no turning back.
His (Allah's) purpose in creating man is evolution toward Him, and He placed material resources at man's disposal so we might employ them in service of that purpose. But... how is it that with our own hands we bury our talents and genius, abandoning them in the graveyard of oblivion, and as the Quran says, our lives turn disbelieving?
Beautified is the life of this world for those who disbelieve, and they ridicule those who believe. But those who fear Allah are above them on the Day of Resurrection.
Those who disbelieved and for whom worldly life was adorned ridicule those who believe; however, for those who observed piety, the Day of Resurrection and the afterlife are far superior and far more momentous.
Refer to verse 14 of Surah Al-Imran and discover how the role of woman in determining the intellectual orientation and life path of man and society is presented in this verse.
'The world is the farm of the hereafter.' Surah Yunus, Verse 12: Whatever we lack, we ask of God, and when God grants it to us, we forget Him; thus we are among the extravagant and transgressors.
Because the blessings God has bestowed upon us are meant to be utilized on the path to reaching Him, and if we do not use them, we are being wasteful.
'Thus it is adorned for the extravagant what they used to do' — 'Indeed, Allah does not love the extravagant' (Surah Al-A'raf, Verse 31). This verse is very profound, beautiful, and expressive, addressed to the Children of Israel (the people whom our Prophet compares us to): We did not forbid worldly provisions and adornments to mankind; rather, these are means for the people of faith, and they belong to this world, whereas in the Hereafter We shall grant believers what is far superior.
Awaiting your reply to my words
Your brother from Mashhad - Hossein
And what is our response to Shahid Alamolhoda?