I am sitting in my basement, with work streaming out of my ears and nose, uploading a picture of a monkey for my blog. Could the ridiculousness of the situation be any more apparent?
Despite my feeling like a monkey, I believe that this Ramadhan has been a month of some spiritual regeneration. I am finally convinced that disobediance to Allah's laws are bad. This idea I have only accepted superfically for most of my life. I understood that obediance is good, and that disobediance with respect to matters of the heart, is bad. I am not particularly extreme in my disobediance and unfaithfulness, just the casual neglect of my own feelings and intuitions, but this marks a moment of REFORMATION.
It happened in the laundry room in my apartment building. All around, there are signs that say WARNING! Do not put more than 1/4 cup of detergent in the machines because your clothes will not wash properly. And twice I deliberately choose to disobey this edict taped conveniently over ever dryer, and washer, every wall, every white space of the room. Why did I disobey? It could be a amalgamation of reasons: arrogance, stupidity, sheer defiance of a piece of paper, curiorosity. Whatever you want to call it, I decided to put in about a liter of detergent into the machines, knowing full well that oversudding would be bad. I disobeyed. Simple.
Simple not in relation to the loss of money. I did two loads for $1.75 each TWICE, so 4 x 1.75 = $7. 00 for washing my clothes. Then the drying, another $1.75 twice, brought by total to $9.50. Can you imagine $9.50 for two loads of laundry! If you come from a world in which money is readily accessible, and that twenties magically appear in your pocket, this amount of money does not seem so bad. You think, well I spend hundreds of dollars on buying clothes, well what's a $10 to clean the clothes?
THe significance is not the waste of money, but rather the cost of disobediance. THe signs of God are manifest everywhere and in everything and in everyone, but somehow we choose to disobey simply because we can. It is absurd. It is better to follow the middle path that is subscribed to us. It is good to make mistakes and detours on the path, but its stupid to pretend like the path was never there. It is silly to make the same detours. You can find yourself ignoring the real path as much as you like because of the size of your intellect and reasoning faculties, but ultimately the realization will come that you can't retrace your path. And there may not be more $20 bills in your pocket for laundry.
Despite my feeling like a monkey, I believe that this Ramadhan has been a month of some spiritual regeneration. I am finally convinced that disobediance to Allah's laws are bad. This idea I have only accepted superfically for most of my life. I understood that obediance is good, and that disobediance with respect to matters of the heart, is bad. I am not particularly extreme in my disobediance and unfaithfulness, just the casual neglect of my own feelings and intuitions, but this marks a moment of REFORMATION.
It happened in the laundry room in my apartment building. All around, there are signs that say WARNING! Do not put more than 1/4 cup of detergent in the machines because your clothes will not wash properly. And twice I deliberately choose to disobey this edict taped conveniently over ever dryer, and washer, every wall, every white space of the room. Why did I disobey? It could be a amalgamation of reasons: arrogance, stupidity, sheer defiance of a piece of paper, curiorosity. Whatever you want to call it, I decided to put in about a liter of detergent into the machines, knowing full well that oversudding would be bad. I disobeyed. Simple.
Simple not in relation to the loss of money. I did two loads for $1.75 each TWICE, so 4 x 1.75 = $7. 00 for washing my clothes. Then the drying, another $1.75 twice, brought by total to $9.50. Can you imagine $9.50 for two loads of laundry! If you come from a world in which money is readily accessible, and that twenties magically appear in your pocket, this amount of money does not seem so bad. You think, well I spend hundreds of dollars on buying clothes, well what's a $10 to clean the clothes?
THe significance is not the waste of money, but rather the cost of disobediance. THe signs of God are manifest everywhere and in everything and in everyone, but somehow we choose to disobey simply because we can. It is absurd. It is better to follow the middle path that is subscribed to us. It is good to make mistakes and detours on the path, but its stupid to pretend like the path was never there. It is silly to make the same detours. You can find yourself ignoring the real path as much as you like because of the size of your intellect and reasoning faculties, but ultimately the realization will come that you can't retrace your path. And there may not be more $20 bills in your pocket for laundry.
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