When I saw this caged Eagle, caged in the name of endangered animal protection in African Lion Safari, I felt like SubhanAllah this is the system we are living in. We want to cage the ones who are born to fly high in the name of “protection,” without dealing with the entire system which is actually the cause of endangering them all.
I was reading an article published on Quartz highlighting how a million plant and animal species are going extinct—and one of the direct deduction one can make from that article is how the economic system of Capitalism is to blame for this annihilation of biodiversity.
This is how Capitalism deals with everything, first it creates a mess and exploits and then the solution it offers (to the problem it itself created) is actually another problem itself, in this case going against the fitrah (natural disposition) of the organisms. In the picture above, they have caged the bird in the name of so called protection and solution to the bird becoming endangered, though it was meant to soar high in the sky and not be caged for Capitalism to make profit from it.
The system we are living in, it first creates the problems, and then the solution it offers is nothing but shackles, that chain the oppressed entity either mentally or physically like it has done in this case.
When I clicked this pic of the caged Chilean Blue Eagle, the neck of the bird was 180 degrees rotated.
There are indeed intriguing lessons to learn from this beautiful bird. It is often said to have eagle’s quality.
When I clicked this pic of Blue Eagle with its neck turned 180 degrees, I thought how amazing had it been if we would have had the same trait, but then I realised SubhanAllah even though as humans we can only see to around 70 to 90 degress with our sight, but our vision can be 360 degrees, seeing through the lens of enlightened thinking even that which is otherwise not easily perceived.
- Another interesting fact is that eagles fly very high. Even when a raven tries to sit on her back, eagles just keep on flying higher, they don’t retaliate, and a time comes that those high flights become highly uncomfortable for ravens, and they leave the eagle. Sometimes, we often come across weird people and events which position themselves on our backs as baggages, but the key is to keep on flying higher, and the time will come that they will be dropped off automatically.
We as believers should be smart enough to know our flight, and leave the unnecessary battles which are not worthy enough to fight for.
Eagles are very good in sight and vision. They know their target, and are highly focussed. They can see the details from miles.
We should also be highly focussed, and should scan the details beforehand.
In contrast to other animals that might tend to hide during a storm, eagles are said to fly high above the storm winds. They are the only ones (in birds) who can channelise the strong storm winds in their favour to fly higher.
As believers, we all face so many storms, some known and some unsaid at all, the key is to see those storms as opportunities rather than as obstacles or hurdles, just like the eagles do.
Finally, eagles inspire great leadership skills. For me this Blue Chilean Eagle was a symbolism of the ummah who has been caged and shackled by the Capitalistic system in the name of so called protection, and it, being shackled for long, has somewhere accepted that the cage is its world, and if it will go outside the cage then it will be eaten by the predators. This threat/fear in the name of protection has been installed in this ummah.
May Allah Al-Fattah (The Opener of closed doors) open all the shackles for us, and liberate us from all sorts of shackles and manacles. Ameen.