Mercy: Day 2 – Hunger
Posted on Aug 13, 2010
Its now 1 PM and my stomach starts to grumble. I feel hungry but I am in the middle of only the second day of fasting. Its now that most will start to feel the change of the eating pattern. That is okay, I can push through. Its now 4 PM and the grumbles return, but I ignore them. I start to wonder what it must be like for some one who is under fed, someone who feels like this all the time. It is an unsettling feeling.
The Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessing of God upon him, said “Those who are merciful will have mercy shown to them by the most Merciful. Show mercy to those who are on the Earth and The One who is in heaven will show mercy on you”. Those are powerful words, and to be reminded of this during these first 10 days of Ramadan, during the days of mercy resonate within me.
My hunger will subside when the sun goes down, but for millions, and maybe for even more, around the globe they will go to sleep hungry, wake up hungry and live their days hungry. At the same time we walk into a super market and find an unimaginable abundance of food that if it is not sold with in a week’s time is thrown out in the garbage!
I remember growing up and watching my neighbor hauling out boxes of produce from his truck that he salvaged from the supermarket garbage bin. It was perfectly good food except it came out of a garbage bin.
When I was studying in graduate school at Stanford University, I would love to go into the library and read up on all the various subjects that interested me outside of engineering. Once I was in the government documents library and ran across a United Nations report on hunger. It was noted in a study conducted back in 1980 that if the United States would give just 2% of the excess wheat that it dumps into the ocean to keep wheat prices high, they could wipe out world famine! TWO PERCENT of the EXCESS! I was beside myself to say the least.
There is no mercy being on the receiving end of hunger. There is however great mercy for the one who puts him or her self through hunger voluntarily to know what it means and then does something about it to alleviate it from others. Showing mercy to others produces a multiplicity effect that continues to grow.
On Saturday, August 15th, 2010 a local charitable foundation and food bank, Rahima Foundation will be conducting their 7th annual Human Dignity Day by feeding the homeless in San Jose, CA. They are looking for volunteers and it is a wonderful way to help show mercy to those who need mercy.
Giving is Good.
Till tomorrow, Peace.
We used to have three of these beautiful trees in our yard. Two winters ago, during a very strong storm, one was toppled over, leaving its two companions to live on. Then some time last year the second tree lost its leaves and never grew new ones. It still stands although just as a skeleton of its former self.
Simple twigs and sticks, not much at all to look at or to even ponder about, but it is from those simple little things that great results emerge. A small spark, a flame, and the next thing you know you have a roaring blaze that brings warmth and the energy to cook our own food. For tens of years, that tree stood absorbing the energy from the sun, making its own sugar as food through photosynthesis allowing itself to grow. Each year adding more girth to its trunk and branches, producing shade giving leaves and then shedding them to the ground where they became the mulch and soil that the tree itself needed to remain firm and steadfast in the ground. A cycle that continued until The Sustainer decided that it was time for this tree to stop, and the cycle was broken. However the benefits continue. For now, locked in its wood, the accumulated years of energy lies dormant waiting for that small spark to ignite the wood and release it for one more final blessing.
The coals themselves originating from hardwood trees themselves also finally gave their last blessing as well. The entire evening was riddled with final blessings right and left. For not only did these trees give us what they could in cooking our food, so too did the chickens whose meat we were about to cook, and the grains of Bulghur wheat, tomatoes and onions that were stewing on the stove, all giving us their last blessing as well.
