In a season of consumerist madness, let’s be grateful

At this time of year the stores are pushing their sales at us.
Advertising is everywhere. There if a frenzy to buy, buy, buy. Let's
realize that this is not a spiritual way of life.It's not an
appropriate lifestyle for someone who is dedicated to God. The
consumerist madnessis a deception. There's nojoy or peace attached to
it. It's a shallow illusion.
Look at what society has done to itself in the nameof consumerism. A
day of thanks (Thanksgiving) has become the prelude to "Black Friday",
the biggest shopping day of the year. It used to be that Black Friday
did not begin until Friday morning, out of respect for Thanksgiving.
Then the starting gun was moved to midnight, and now it has crept into
Thursday evening. Nothing is sacred.
The Prophet 'Isa ibn Maryam (Jesus the son of Mary), peace be upon
him, has been turned into a marketing strategy. His purported birthday
has become a month of shopping insanity, presided over by a mythical
sub-deity named Santa. People go into debt, they fight over sale
goods… no mention is made of faith.
We Muslims fall prey to the same consumerist lifestyle. Sometimes the
holy month of Ramadan becomes a month of shopping, sleeping and binge
eating, astaghfirullah.
Let us – Christians, Muslims, Jews and all people of God – not follow
this path. Let's hew to a way of sacrifice,zakat (purification),
sadaqah (charity), zuhd (giving up material luxury). We don't have to
be monks, but we must focus on the things that matter: faith and
family.
There are movements that advocate a simple living, back-to-nature,
low-impact lifestyle. In Islam this is called zuhd , which could be
translated as detachmentor asceticism. Zuhd is a choice that a person
makes to give up the hunger for material possessions and transgressive
carnal experiences, and live a simple lifestyle dedicatedto God.
That's what we need.
The faith in our hearts is more important than the brand name of the
clothes we wear. Where our feet carry us – to someplace good or bad –
is more important than the cost of our shoes. Thesincerity in our
hearts is more important than anygift. May Allah help us to see what
is important in life.
The Enjoyment of Delusion
There's a powerful verse from the Bible, Proverbs 30:8-9:
Give me neither poverty nor riches,
grant me only my share of bread to eat,
for fear that surrounded by plenty, I should fall away
and say, "Yahweh – who is Yahweh?"
or else in destitution, take to stealing
and profane the name of my God.
(Yahweh is an ancient Hebrew name for God).
If you visit the shopping malls at Christmastime, and read the news
stories of people lining up from the night before and huddling in
sleeping bags in order to buy the latest gadgets, then trampling each
other in the rush; if you turn on the TV to the usual Christmas
comedies and "Frosty the Snowman" cartoons, you see that God has been
forgotten, and has even become taboo. It's not politically correct to
speak of God. Just watch what we broadcast, be hypnotizedby our
Christmas elevatormusic, buy and forget…
Allah says about this:
"Know that the life of thisworld is but amusement and diversion and
adornment and boasting to one another and competition in increase of
wealth and children – like the example of a rainwhose [resulting]
plant growth pleases the tillers;then it dries and you see it turned
yellow; then it becomes debris. And in the Hereafter is severe
punishment and forgiveness from Allah and approval. And what is the
worldly life except the enjoyment of delusion." – Quran, Surat
Al-Hadeed, 57:20
This theme is struck repeatedly in the Quran. The amusement and
adornment of the dunya is an illusion that dries upand crumbles like a
corn stalk, and becomes dust. It is empty, the enjoyment of delusion .
Wow. That phrase, "enjoyment of delusion", makes me think of a madman
alone in a room,tied in a straight jacket, engaged in a pleasant
delusion playing only in his mind.
I know people who have a bedroom devoted to allthe junk that they have
bought but do not use. They never enter that room and the door is kept
locked. Isn't that a kind of mental illness?
Gratitude
How do we resist the onslaught of the season? How do we remember Allah?
The greatest tool in our toolbox is gratitude. By looking at what
we've been blessed with, our hearts become content. Socrates commented
thatcontentment is natural wealth, while luxury is artificial poverty.
Contentment does not mean complacency or passivity; it refers to a
state of awareness of ourblessings, and gratitude for the smallest to
the greatest provisions – the tiniest cells in our bodies,to the grand
earth itself.
Let's become aware of what we have: the food on our plates, our
ability to see and hear, the love and health of our families, sanity,
intelligence, knowledge… these thingsare huge. When we openour eyes
and start to see, then we become content and happy, and we see how
meaningless are things are like big-screenTVs, the latest smartphone,
or another new dress.
Let's remember Allah the Eternal, and think of our aakhirah
(hereafter). While others are are hungering for more, let's be
grateful for what we have, and give.
Our local Muslim community center here inFresno participates in
feeding the poor at soup kitchens; and is currently organizing a
winter blanket and coat drive for the homeless. I encourage every
Muslim community to do something similar. Get Muslim adults and
children involved in the process of giving, whether to needy Muslims
or non-Muslims.
It's liberating to ignore the sales and seasonal hype. When we abandon
the idea of acquiring goods, and instead focus on giving, we dump the
whole propaganda machine on its head. We change everything. Whilethe
frantic buying of "stuff" makes us forget Allah, gratitude brings us
back to Him. That's why Allah brings together gratitude and
remembrance of Allah:
"So remember Me; I will remember you. And be grateful to Me and do notdeny Me."
- Quran, Surat Al-Baqarah, 2:152
Being grateful to Allah means that our hearts become filled with love
for Him; our bodies are obedient to Him; our tongues praise Him; we
receive His favors with humility; we thank Him for everything we have
received; and we use what He has given us for good. We could never
repay Allah. The least we can do is thank him.
By being grateful and separating ourselves from the consumerist
craziness, we set an example of how to live without avarice. We free
our spirits, remove a burden from our backs, and shine a light for
ourselves and others.