When I was a sophomore in high school, I took an architecture class. My classmates and I spent the entire semester working on making wooden lamps. For an entire semester, I worked hard to design and build a lamp. And when the lamp was complete, it looked marvelous. Or at least that’s how I viewed it, because of the time and effort I had put into it. A few days later, I came home to find out that my youngest brother had broken the lamp. I was furious.
In my later years, I came to ponder about the symbolism of the wooden lamp. As human beings, we shine when we serve one another and illuminate the light of justice, morality and ethics. We have to remind ourselves that even though we are created in a perfect fashion, we are bound to fall and break. Never mind those who forcefully break others, by spreading hate against them, while claiming to be following God. Would God be pleased with those trying to break His lamp: human beings? Does God have a favorable view of one group and not of the other? Didn’t God create everyone?
Those in authority including religious and political figures should not behave in a manner of aggressiveness and hate mongering. In spreading of fear lies no solution to problems. Anyone who claims to be following God is bound by the laws of God. That is to ‘do good and forbid evil.’ Do what is right, regardless of how the rest of the society perceives it.
As citizens of this great nation, we are reminded by our forefathers of the importance of establishing justice. They built a system in order to protect the citizens from inequality and subjugation. This system or democracy as we call it, needed war to help make it stand upright. Moreover, democracy does not mean following the majority even when the majority is wrong. Democracy means upholding the cause of justice even it is against oneself.
That is why the preamble to the constitution starts with, “We the People of the United States in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility…” This profound statement beginning with, “We the People” and its reference to justice clarifies that no special preference is to be given to any color, creed, religion, race, ethnicity or background. Similarly, we cannot believe in the constitution only when it is convenient for us because our constitution was not merely written for our forefathers, but for a people to come in the future; so that no injustice may be done against anyone. We must stand as one, and express to all that our words provide the means to meaning.
I remember a story I was told when I was young. The story was of a dying father in his deathbed. He calls all of his children to give them some advice before passing away. He gives each of them a cane/stick and asks them to break it and all were capable. Then he gives them a separate cane/stick and tells them to join all the sticks/canes into one piece and then try breaking it. This time when the pieces were joined together no one child was able to break it. He tells them, “My children this is how life works. When you are divided you can be picked apart one by one. But when you are one unit, then no one can break you.”
In the grand scheme of things, we may look different, follow different belief systems, speak a different language, wear different clothing, but on the inside we are all the same. We all have feelings and a heart that feels pain and sorrow when in distress; and happiness and love when in peace. That is what binds us together. When one of us shines it makes all of us happy because one represents all and all represents one. The battles in life are not merely about winning or losing. It is about doing what is right and preventing what is wrong.
Khalid Sajjad is attending Ball State University, where he is pursuing his MA in Physiology while serving as Muslim Student Association representative. Khalid can be reached at ksajjad@bsu.edu