As someone who has struggled with depression my entire life, Im grateful that its finally being talked about. It is, of course, tragic that it took the suicide of a famous comedian to make it happen. In an age of selfies and photoshopped Facebooks, its hard to resist the impending need to display our false perfection. Pop culture teaches us to dance and sing along to songs that obnoxiously repeat because Im happy! Somewhere along the line we buy into the myth of perpetual worldly happiness and perfection. So we put on our happy masks and photoshop our Facebook. But its all just a farce. Why cant we admit that we *arent* perfect? Why cant we admit that our lives arent perfect? That our relationships arent perfect? Why cant we admit that we struggle too? That we are human, living a human existence in a painfully imperfect world? If theres anything that this Ramadan did for our ummah around the world, it is this: it has torn away at the veils over our eyes, showing us the Reality of Dunya. So maybe we can stop pretending. Its okay to be broken. If all the horrors and tragedies of this world dont break us, maybe our hearts are already dead. Maybe its time to finally put away the false, edited photos, and stautuses. Maybe its time to set aside our masks and just be real. This world isnt perfect. We arent perfect. Our lives arent perfect. And thats okay. If all of these things were perfect, how would we know our need for God? How would we see it? Our utter, desperate need. But you see, thats just it. It is only through that need, that we are given. It is only through breaking, that we can be made whole. Tears can be like medicine. Tears to God--the only cure. Salvation doesnt come through feigning perfection. It comes through breaking, through humility, through admitting defeat and utter need, to the only One who can save you. To God. And God alone. Look at the stories of the Prophets and how they were each saved. Look at the duaa of Nuh (AS) and Yunus (AS) and Ayoub (AS). They didnt pretend. They didnt feign strength and ability and perfection. They humbled themselves completely and admitted that they had no strength or ability, because they knew that truly all strength and ability comes from ALLAH. -Sister Yasmin Mogahed
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 09:34:09 +0000