The Further

Wake up, wake up

Its time to start your day

Your journey starts now

There will be a winding dirt road with patches and pitfalls

The decisions you make will either help you or get close

To falling…

Falling into a swirl of negativity

The world can be a cruel place

Just watch your relativity

Everything is relative

What you do today can attract what you seek

Don’t believe everything you read or what you believe…

The third eye is always misrepresenting certain beliefs

Stay strong with your righteousness, as it is no different than mine

Is the world flat?

Or is the world a flat circle in time?

The paths you choose and the decisions you make depend on your strength

The road will split in to two…

You may see what you desire pop up…

Out of the blue

But the narrow path is the moral path, stay strong & stay true…

By Ali Karzai

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In life we all have different paths.  Religion is nothing more than a GPS that gets us to our final destination, our maker.  We all have different paths but end up interconnecting in the end.  The poem I wrote is about religion and how following our hearts and staying connected to our spirituality can bring love and happiness into our lives.  My poem also insinuates how one person’s path may vary from the next, but the one aspect that remains the same is the strength in belief.  Specifically the main aspect to my poem is how following your heart and what is right in your eyes is what is deemed holy.  There will be distractions and non-believers on along your way, but it is up to you to stay true. 

In my life I had to see a very strict Islamic upbringing with the likes of my older sister and brother.  By the time I was born my parents had more of an open mind, and even sent me to a church school for pre schooling.  I had seen the extremities and always wondered why this was deemed Islamic?  The older I got the more I learned.  I saw that the media was responsible for most of the brainwashing and negative imagery on Islam.  Islam is a very peaceful religion, and uplifts people to stay calm and practice love in love out.  Islam preaches that if your neighbor is starving no matter how much of an enemy he/she is to you, it is your responsibility to help them. 

The aspect that I grew most upset for was that Islam was deemed as a religion that weakens “women”.  On the outside looking in from a western box, Islam is depicted as a religion that lessens women rights due to some extremities that call for women to wear hijab?  This is absolutely foolish as Islam when you truly look into what it means to be a Muslim; women are praised and respected even more than men.  One example is that when a man marries a woman, she has the right over his money no matter what.  The wife has more of a right than the husband’s own mother.  Also in the Holy Quran, it states that to find heaven on earth, “Paradise lies under the feet of your mother”.  It was absolutely preposterous to see the media slander Islam time after time for the acts of some extremists.  In the world we live in there are good and bad in every race and religion, however what frustrated me the most was the generalization of an entire population over the acts of a few extremists.  These stereotypes are unethical and are very offensive to someone of my likes who has a very diversified perspective on life.  Growing up in America until the age of 17 I had friends from many different countries.  I never judged them based on the immoral actions of the few from their country. 

My mother gave me the best advice that I still use to this day, “do good by people, and leave the rest to God”.  This advice brought out positivity into my life by not falling into the negative swirl of energy that anyone has tried to cast me under.  By staying strong, and sticking with what I believe is righteous I have been steered me into a clear perspective between right and wrong.  There has never been a gray area, and there never will be one.  I have studied the old testament and the new testament; my understanding of religion is very well rounded.  I do believe that religion is a map for people, however this map doesn’t change if you are Jewish, Christian, or Muslim.  This map is written and drawn differently for each, however the destination that you reach is the same for all religions.  One path may practice different cultural traditions but that does not necessarily mean that they are completely different from one another.  Islam was the last religion to come, and there are similarities between all three of the major religions although on the surface they may seem so unique and diverse to one another.

In conclusion, I hope no one takes my words out of context.  I strongly respect every vantage point on religion, however my viewpoint is that what may be different to one person is very similar in my eyes.  Religion for years has been the cause for wars, arguments, and major differences between individuals.  I never have been the type to argue over religion as I respect everyone for who they are and what they practice just as I do.  What makes me any different from them? What makes them any different from me? We are all on this journey we call life together, and need to remember that we are children of God at the end of the day.