SubhanAllah! I had my kitchen sink clogged for days now, my family have tried everything from chemical de-cloggers to plungers but subhanAllah it is not yet resolved. Seems, the issue is deeper.
Emotionally and also now physically exhausted, thought of writing something on it.
Other than the realisation that even unclogged kitchen sink is also a ni’mah (blessing), was wondering a single sink can effect the whole household, everyone is impacted. A single clogged kitchen sink has impacted the whole, normal functional system of household.
…And imagine the impact on people all around the world who are directly living the consequences of the clogged system. The most devastating contribution of capitalist economics to the world’s clogged economic drain is interest- Riba which has impacted not only financial but every sphere of life. In a natural drain, water flows downward. From high to low, from those who have, toward where it is needed. Riba reverses this entirely. Money flows upward- from the poor who borrow, to the wealthy who lend. The one who needs the most, pays the most. The one who accumulates without effort or risk through monopolisation and hoarding, becomes more rich (you can search the OXFAM reports on this statistics).
In one of the two pictures, you can see some brownish water, actually, it is not only clogged here but also has started flowing in reverse, from back to up, making the block more filthy.
Riba based economic system (Sadly! which is also the economic system in present muslim countries) is a drain engineered to run backward, pulling wealth away from those who need it most to those who have hoarded a lot already through monopolisation of wealth and resources meant for masses.
Alhamdulillah.
“Allah has permitted trade and forbidden riba.” Surah Al-Baqarah 2:275
Islam when implemented as a complete deen, forbids systematically the monopolisation and hoarding of wealth so that it doesn’t remain in the hands of a few, while the rest suffers in misery thinking it as their “fate.”, Islam’s obligatory system like Zakat, Islam’s mandatory wealth circulation is the counter-mechanism. Like the natural built-in flow. 2.5% of accumulated wealth, released annually, systematically to keep the system flowing. I was thinking how we, as a world, are living the clogged system, which has reverse-flow, the filth of which we all are enduring.
After some time, I noticed the swirl (that round water ring), it felt like progress. It had the texture and the appearance of motion. We assumed may be the water has started to flow, but swirling and draining are not the same thing. And somewhere beneath the busy-ness, we all already know this, we have always known this but we don’t acknowledge it that like swirl, which feels like a motion, a life in mere motion also is not meaningful flow of life, just because you are moving, busy doesn’t mean you are living a meaningful life.
At its deepest level, capitalism understood something profound about human beings, Capitalism keeps the natural drain of the human heart and mind deliberately, strategically, systematically clogged so that they don’t question the system, but blame the other victims of this very clogged system. The swirling is what they want, your life in motion, and you feel like life is moving even though it is not moving in the right direction, guided by the purpose.
The fitrah, the natural human disposition, somewhere knows the right direction. It does not need to be installed. It only needs to be unclogged from the distraction, from despair and from a system that profits from its clogging.