Dates Falling on My Roof

It’s that time of the year again….dazzling sunshine, scorching heat & ripening dates. In every yard, on every street, in parks, around masjids, on tall & dwarf trees, clusters of the delicious dark delights greet us this month onwards.

 Alhumdullilah, the country is blessed with more than 40 million palm trees that yield 110 varieties of dates. It’s a wonderful fruit that people enjoy & its demand reaches climax during the month of Ramadan as the food of choice for people to break their fast the Sunnah way.

 Prophet (SalullahualaihiWassallum) “used to break the fast before he prayed with fresh dates, if there were no fresh dates then with dry dates, and if there were no dry dates, then he sipped from water.” (At-Tirmidhi & Al Albanni declared it hasan in Sahih Al Jama #4995)

 But, as is human nature, when something is near or in abundance, it loses its value. Large number of dates lies scattered around the palm trees, smudging the ground, unwanted, and unvalued. It is a common sight to see the smudged pavements – residue of the flattened dates.

 So near & so much that no one (seems to) cares.

 This sad reality of human nature plays out in my own front yard. Both the neighboring houses are home to date palms (that too, right next to our side of the wall). Tuk, Duk, Put, with the rustling of those large leaves, dates, at various stages of its life, drop on my roof & patio. Every morning during the fruiting season, there is the extra chore of sweeping the ground of previous night’s fallen bounties. Sadly, most of the ones that land on our territory are either too young to be edible, over-ripe or old & shriveled. (This a possibly a result of no/weak cross pollination – owing to a shortage of male trees in the neighborhood) So there’s not much to entice the pellet there. There are some sweet perfect ones also, but the diligent army of night ants overtakes us at relishing them.

 We will be buying our dates’ supply for Ramadan this year.

 In the meantime, I’ll try to see the bright side of the picture & enjoy & appreciate the next couple of months. After all, it doesn’t rain dates everywhere!        

 “Amongst the trees, there is a tree which resembles a Muslim. Its leaves do not fall and it gives its fruit every season. It is a date-palm tree.”  [Sahih Bukhari- 4368]

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t Judge So Easily!

“To a vast majority of mankind nothing is more agreeable than to escape the need for mental exertion…To most people nothing is more troublesome than the effort of thinking.” James Bryce.

 

Each and every one of us likes to believe in the objectivity & individuality of our thinking. That’s human nature. Yet, whether we realize it or not, every one of us is guilty of harboring some kind of unfounded prejudice, which manifests itself in a wide spectrum of ways, coloring our lives from personal, professional, to political and social levels. This cloaked bias directs us to generalize, stereotype & worst, to be unfairly judgmental of others. Since most people are less inclined to self-examination or introspection, we subconsciously put aside our own thinking and accept the thinking of others. This is compounded further by our emotions that color our thinking. Moreover, the pressure to conform to already established popular or “in” views also contributes to our borrowed thinking.

 

We are afraid to laugh alone & uncomfortable to cry alone. This is why TV sitcoms come with laugh tracks & “awww” and successfully manipulate our intellectual and emotional responses. All around us, at all times, we are all judging and stereotyping each other.

 

Generalization from one’s limited personal experience is most rampant in our society.

 

*  An taxi driver ignores a potential passenger because he believes that she will haggle too much for the fare, based on her dressing & appearance.

 

*  A store salesman tries to take liberty with a decent woman customer because he believes all women, of certain nationalities, belong to ignoble professions.

 

*  An Emirati family enters a Dhs-10 store & someone utters in surprise: “What are they doing here. Aren’t they all supposed to be filthy rich?”

 

*  How cruelly judgment is passed on all working mothers as being “selfish” or “neglectful of home & kids”.

 

*  Just as casually, the stay-at-home-moms are stereotyped as “lazy”, “incompetent to hold professional jobs” & “leading a work-free cushy life”.

 

*  Suddenly, all bachelors of the city are labeled & treated as “dirty” & “immoral”, thereby exempting us from our civil duty to treat everyone humanely.  

 

*  All veiled women are seen as either oppressed by their faith, subjugated by men or brainwashed fanatics.

 

*  A blue-collar man justifies his contempt for successful & wealthy people by confidently alluding that they must have stepped on others or played unfair to reach the top.

 

*  The sincerity and intention of a woman converting to Islam is questioned and doubted by asking her if she has a Muslim boyfriend or husband.

 

*  Any and all road accidents are, without doubt or investigation, the fault of the driver if he happens to be a male between 18-25yrs.

 

*  A devoted mother by the bedside of a sick child is repeatedly insulted by apparent accolades like, “Wow, can’t believe you are a step-mother to this child.”

 

*  A May-September bi-racial couple out on the street is enough to invite knowing glances & presumptuous analysis like, “One did it for money & security & the other, for a boost to a mid-life ego!”

 

*  A crime case is reported in the papers & our age-old prejudices against certain race, religion, profession & relations is enough to convict someone in our mind even before the investigation is complete & judgment is passed.

 

Each time we give into generalization or stand on judgment over others, we are not only being unfair to them but are also not doing justice to our own intellect.

Note: Some of the above statements are very region-specific thus, may not be understood by people unfimiliar with the U.A.E. society.