Seeing politics through a new lense

have you no sense of defenses sir

have you no sense of decency sir at long

last

have you left no sense of decency

those powerful historic and beautiful

words

put an end to an ugly period in american

history

joseph welch a lawyer for the u.s army

uttered

these momentous words in the now

infamous mccarthy

army hearing in which a bully a bigot

a very nasty politician met his waterloo

it was a battle of the jews on june 9

1954 about 12 years before i was born

on my birthday joe welt versus

joe mccarthy teresa mccarthy was leading

ugly crusade against americans in

government

accusing them of being secretly

communist

according to most historian joel’s

statement

invoking the idea of decency the virtue

that americans

valued so much in an individual in their

society

in the government in their politics

triggered

a series of changes that put an end to

this ugliness

in american politics a word

was enough to end a

trend of ugliness in culture and

politics

that was then but look at our politics

today

did you watch the first presidential

debate i did

i was horrified by the ugliness that

pervaded the first presidential debate

the content was cantankerous

disrespectful

divorced from reality and truth

there were very few moments when one

would have associated

decency with politics that debate

serves as a mirror a reflection of the

ugliness that is now a defining

characteristic

of our politics and our culture

are we not a city on the hill

now everyone in the world can see this

ugliness so prominently

on this play remember george floyd

those eight minutes and 47 seconds

that it took derek shawwan to squash the

life out of george floyd

redefined america the image

and the video traumatized many of us

i do not think i will ever be able to

forget how a man was killed by those who

were supposed to protect him

while others watched that brutal cameo

is reflective of our politics it is a

metaphor of

how like george floyd’s life all

goodness

is being squeezed out of our society

derek shawn’s public execution of floyd

re-introduced america to the world

last week amnesty international had to

shut down its operations in india

because of government harassment

through a video commentary i tried to

engage indian civil society

and i was told by indians did you not

see what

happened to george floyd your society

is brutal merciless and

racist stop preaching to us

yes indeed those eight minutes and 47

seconds

have given us a new identity worldwide

by now hopefully i have made my point

that politics society and culture

in america is beginning to look rather

ugly

ugly is now the new normal

it is not an aberration anymore

and sadly it is a global pandemic

i research and teach about politics in

the middle east and south asia

it’s not pretty there either in india

upper caste hindus are raping women from

vulnerable communities

and the ruling party advocates for the

accused

they were rise in new delhi where police

and members of the majority community

destroyed life

and livelihood of minority communities

in china the eagle community is facing

oppression

like no community anywhere the middle

east

is at war with itself iraq syria

yemen libya states are collapsing and

millions are displaced

killed or are starving we live on a

beautiful planet but we are living

in a very ugly era

i call this condition a global pandemic

of ugliness

as loss of sm what is assam

what have we lost

ehsan is a spiritual and mystical

concept of islam

that means very simply literally

speaking to do beautiful things

it is the cornerstone of islamic

mysticism

also known as sufism the values

and practices that inform the beautiful

poetry of rumi that we are also familiar

with

derived from ahsan and sufismi

the goal of islamic mysticism

is to do beautiful things and to live a

beautiful life

the quran says

the quran says do beautiful things for

god love those

who do beautiful things god’s mercy is

closer to those

who do beautiful thing god is with those

who do as ham but the most

authoritative definition of

hassan comes from a hadees a tradition

of prophet muhammad

peace be upon him it is called

the hadees of jibrael a tradition of

angel

gabriel it is a source of some of the

most fundamental concepts of islam

it is also a fascinating seminar the

only one in human history

that was taught by a prophet and an

angel

together in the hadees

angel gabriel asked several questions to

prophet muhammad and he answers them

what is islam what is he man what is

that

and a couple of questions about end of

times

when gabriel asks muhammad peace be upon

him

what is hassan the prophet said a son

is to worship allah a sign is to serve

god as if you see him

but if you cannot see him then at least

know

that he sees you

it is it means that hassan

is to do things as if you are gazing

upon god

you are engaged with the divine

but even if you are not able to see god

you should at least be conscious and

aware of the fact

that god sees you that god’s gaze is

upon you

so i understand as sad as you gazing

upon god

and god getting upon you

it is to live life as if you have made

eye contact with god muhammad also said

that god has commanded assan in

everything

so i ask in my research why not in

politics

so how can we bring beauty

back into our politics here in america

in our culture

and in our society before we try to

solve our problems we really need to

understand

what are they and there are many so i

submit to you that two of our biggest

problems are number one racism

and number two in equity people of color

in people who see no rise in their

income whose jobs are insecure

will have to work more and more for less

and less

whose health care is not guaranteed are

the most vulnerable people

in our society there is systemic

discrimination against people of color

especially african americans

the fact that the richest and the most

powerful country in the world

cannot protect the lives of its

vulnerable citizens

is what gives us our ugliest hue

hassan is a conglomeration of values

in my research on hassan i found that

asan

is a composition of many virtues such as

love compassion forgiveness mercy

charity and many more virtues that

render human conduct

beautiful the two virtues

are critical and i want to highlight

them today

and i believe that if these values are

nurtured they can help us fight racism

as well as inequity they are called

murahada

and fana murahaba

is vigilance against the self

and fena is self annihilation

marachaba is a spiritual practice that

demands vigilance against the self

at the end of the day you ask yourself

questions about how you lived your life

that day

it is to consistently and perpetually

confront oneself with the question

are my actions leading to beautiful

outcomes

am i making this world better and more

beautiful

or am i part of the problem not only

should we ask these self-critical

questions at the individual level but

also at the societal level

are our institutions our leaders

adding to the ugliness that surrounds us

or are they in pursuit of a stem

this exercise of self-reflection

of self-criticism of holding yourself

to a higher standard demanding more

beauty

more virtue more responsibility from

your own

actions and from those of your

institutions is what murakaba is all

about

while murahaba is an islamic spiritual

concept

many of you may not be very familiar

with it

it is similar to the socratic ideal

that an unexamined life is not worth

living

that is what moral beings do

they judge themselves according to a

moral standard

and that’s what socrates meant to

examine your life to judge

its moral world fana

is an unbelievable idea it comes from

the quranic verse

it says that everything that exists will

perish

except the faith of your lord which is

majestic

and noble prophet muhammad also teaches

us in the context of this verse

that fana is to die before we die

what does it mean to die before we die

what does it mean that everything

except the face of god is perishable

what it means is to gradually efface our

self

virtue is to gradually face our self

the goal of sufism the goal of

trying to achieve asthma the goal of

becoming beautiful

is through self effacement

we erase ourselves and self-interest

in pursuit of the welfare and good of

others

to move away from self-regarding to

other regarding politics

can we spend some of our time our

resources

our efforts to make the lives of others

better

this is how we can bring beauty into our

lives

and our culture and our society

by recognizing that there is no virtue

in selfishness

but only in selflessness

we do not have to completely become

mortals all we need to do is

think a little less of the self a little

of the other a fan is to give a little

and take a little less that is how you

live

life as if you have made eye contact

with god give a little more

take a little life