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
an
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
more
of the other a fan is to give a little
more
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