The writer, Sameer Kermalli (Nairobi, Kenya) is a graphic designer, photographer and has been involved in leadership and community service positions.
Change is imminent, whether we like it or not. Change, many times is for good, we learn, but when we research and fact find, this learning changes to knowledge; and then we implement the knowledge, this becomes wisdom.
Resisting change without understanding it, is futile. Resisting change only because it’s going against what we are accustomed to, causes the tear in the fabric of our being, as humans; we begin to get pulled between heart and mind. When the prophets began preaching about God and his oneness; people called them all sorts of names, for they were preaching change, causing a disruption to what their hearts were used to.
“The world reveals itself to those who travel on foot,” is a quote by Werner Herzog, a man regarded as the pioneer of New German Cinema. Humans traveled great distances around the world, in search of anything better. “We humans are pretty special: we completely dominate the planet, and we’ve even moved beyond the Earth’s boundaries to explore, and possibly colonize, space,” writes Yuval Noah Harari in his book Sapiens. Then cultures, traditions and even religions sprung from becoming communities, to the detriment of humans getting too comfortable.
There are ancient generations who were happy with what they were taught by their forefathers, never questioning the knowledge, the current one is however slowly beginning to realize that they need to be able to answer questions more pertinently. They are beginning to awaken, to find a way of fixing what they had learned from the forefather, and have been practicing blindly. Practice makes perfect; not realizing that practice also makes permanent. What could have been understood or taught wrong becomes ingrained into the minds, making change one of the hardest things to achieve. The previous generation could not question, even if they did have some, their current knowledge is that, that trickled down from their fathers and forefathers, making them the bearers of information that was never verified.
Muslims around the world are faced with a conundrum about their religion, the history and even some of the concepts that are so deep and widely accepted, that they have become a part of the religion, despite being either culture or traditions of the Arabs and not Islam. Mosques split due to disagreements and new mosques were erected due to differences over simple Islamic rulings or understanding of the rulings. Today’s generation is not about what was said and how it was understood but rather what the facts are, how can someone research, and bring evidence and proof of what is being said, and practiced. The new generation is aware of the misinformation, the disinformation and malinformation, that has permeated into the society and the people who took charge of the communities and their development.
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