Translated by Sama Marwan,
The only freedom agreed upon in our Arab societies is the freedom for everyone to interfere in everyone else’s life, for everyone to intrude on everyone else, and for some to violate the privacy of others… of course, with opinions on your intentions, appearance, and determining your fate in the afterlife according to inherited thoughts.
There is an accusation waiting for you before you are born. People invented accusations to feel a false sense of satisfaction because they hate what awakens their sense of helplessness.
If you become religious, you will be accused of extremism; if you become secular, you will be accused of decadence; if you become rich, you will be accused of theft; if you become poor, you will be accused of being a parasite; if you become a philosopher, you will be accused of heresy; and if you decide to be nothing, you will be accused of being sick.
Almost nothing we do is for ourselves in this life.
How miserable you are, Arab human!
You live to exist in the imagination of your neighbor, and your neighbor lives in your imagination.
Then you die, and your neighbor dies without either of you ever living a single day for yourselves and without even trying to know who you are, what you want, and why you came to life in the first place.
If the other person insists on inhabiting us in this way, we must strive to shape our image in their imagination.
We wear branded clothes and adorn ourselves so they can see us and appreciate us.
We work, earn, and possess so they can see what we own and appreciate us.
We compete to assume responsibilities and positions so they can fear us and appreciate us. We rush to support causes and principles so they can see our enthusiasm and appreciate us.
There is an eternal wisdom in this life: a wisdom that helps us live a good life, which is that we are not a standard for others.
What we feel and know is something personal and should not be generalized to every person, nor should it be a reference for judgments. Every person has their own circumstances and intellectual and psychological nature that shape their perceptions.
Right and wrong, virtue and sin are merely standards that reflect people’s understandings.
Once you believe in this, you free yourself from preoccupations with the external world and consider yourself your true concern, recognizing that every person is a different image of you.
Instead of directing accusations at people, you extend understanding to them.
Every individual has their own circumstances and experiences that influence their decisions and behaviors.
By adopting this understanding, a person becomes freer from prejudging others and instead focuses on self-improvement.
When will these people learn that those different from them might be better than them? When will they learn that interfering in others’ affairs is intrusion and a violation of their freedoms? When will they learn that those who do not resemble them are not worse than them?
The highest form of elegance is to stay away from gossip, to avoid interfering in others’ affairs, to have a clean heart, a sound mind, and good character.
I know that struggling to free oneself from interfering in others’ affairs is tiring at first, but it is comforting in the end…
In conclusion, I would like to end my article with simple words: If we miss freedom yesterday and today, tomorrow we will miss love. But the greatest fear is that after tomorrow, we will miss humanity, which will result from the loss of conscience.
