Tawakkul (trust) in our Provider's bounty or in the money we collect: hunter-gatherers vs billionaires and trillionnaires
Qur'an, Chapter Isra (Ascension):
أَوَلَمْ يَرَوْاْ أَنَّ اللّهَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضَ قَادِرٌ عَلَى أَن يَخْلُقَ مِثْلَهُمْ وَجَعَلَ لَهُمْ أَجَلاً لاَّ رَيْبَ فِيهِ فَأَبَى الظَّالِمُونَ إَلاَّ كُفُورًا (17:99)
(Asad) Are they, then, not aware that God, who has created the heavens and the earth, has the power to create them anew in their own likeness, having, beyond any doubt, set a term for their resurrection?However, all [such] evildoers are unwilling to accept anything but blasphemy!
قُل لَّوْ أَنتُمْ تَمْلِكُونَ خَزَآئِنَ رَحْمَةِ رَبِّي إِذًا لَّأَمْسَكْتُمْ خَشْيَةَ الإِنفَاقِ وَكَانَ الإنسَانُ قَتُورًا (17:100)
(Asad)Say: "If you were to own' all the treasure-houses of my Sustainer's bounty, lo! you would still try to hold on [to them] tightly for fear of spending [too much]: for man has always been avaricious [whereas God is limitless in His bounty].
These two verses make me think of hunter-gatherers vs billionaires and trillionnaires (perhaps because I'm a little obsessed with both the pre-agricultural era and the secret banker/monarchies of the modern world :) ). A common trait of hunter-gatherer/horticulturalists (paleolithic humans) is their inability to store any food (no fridges and they don't eat grains or legumes), except perhaps for some dried meat in some climates. Every day they face the challenge of having to hunt meat and collect fresh vegetables/fruits/honey/nuts/berries (perhaps also garden some root plants) to find fresh food for that day only. And yet, they never seem to worry about their provision (unless the "white man" is invading or logging their forests or destroying their habitat or spreading them contagious diseases-sometimes purposefully to wipe them out/genocide!- or forcefully dislocating them or just plainly murdering them) and they're quite satisfied and grateful for the good food God provides for them. They seem to have full tawakkul (trust) in their Provider's bounty. They've been generously fed with a wide variety of foods and they don't see why they shouldn't expect the same tomorrow. Actually, they eat better (more nutritious and wider variety) than we all do. It seems typical for a small tribe of 20-30 people to go through 40-50 kilos of game animals, birds or fish on a given day, and they do this with a mere hunting session of 3-4 hours, usually adult men only. If these people were to modernize, they would become 4th world as they say and they would have to work all day and they probably won't be able to afford a fraction of that meat. Heck! You have to make like 50-100 dollars an hour to be able to afford the food they eat for how little they work. Even for a college graduate in the US that is a lot of money to be making. I mean, they're rich by the bounty of Allah, why should they want to change their lives for a bowl of rice which makes them sick, doesn't satisfy their hunger as much, doesn't provide the same nutrients and strength and they have to work more for it? Especially when, for them hunting etc are more like play and fun time spent with family, rather then boring and stressful work/study/job. A typical 60 year old paleolithic man can climb within 3-4 hours, 10 trees, each 15 meters (with the ease and agility of a monkey), and chase an animal over some kilometers. I don't know many 60 year olds living an industrial life that can do that, actually not many 20 year olds either! That's how strong and healthy and muscular these people are thanks to their lifestyle, the original lifestyle God has granted us.
This interesting lovely trait (of not worrying about your food tomorrow) is shared by all such tribes around the globe (India, New guinea, south Africa, south America, etc) as far as I can tell. In the last decades, unfortunately there aren't many such tribes left due to industrialization. Those who continue to persevere in their traditions typically face great oppression (whether through direct or indirect contact) and if not killed, they must fight the governments and capitalists in order to avoid being forcefully adapted to agriculture or worse. I admire these peoples' total lack of interest in the material possessions with which capitalists try to lure them. Even when they understand we have more advanced technology, they purposefully chose to continue their way of life. A common theme is that they say they're quite satisfied with their life and peaceful and don't need anyone's help, they just want them and their lands to be left alone. In fact they're the healthiest, happiest, strongest people with the least stress and they're perfectly adapted to their lifestyle unlike us (our bodies, minds and spirits are suffocating in the civilization we built for ourselves) because they've been living this way for millions of years just like all of our ancestors have (they follow our fitrah-nature/instinct). The more people study them, the more they wonder whether we've "evolved" or "devolved" (culturally-speaking). In any case, I think they have much to teach us in living in harmony with nature and ourselves, as well as in building peaceful, crime-free (almost), egalitarian societies where some of the most important values are "sharing" and "each contributing to his/her ability".
Now compare this with the culturally extreme opposite: the super-rich pharaohs of the modern world who perfectly fit the quranic description of pharaohs: cruelly oppressive (total wars/warfare commerce) and wasteful (consumerist). They perhaps own enough to last the next 100 generations of their offspring and even more (they pretty much own all the khazain/treasures of God mentioned in 17:100 above), yet they continue to be avaricious in collecting more money and not giving to the poor (from whom they stole in the first place...). All the while when they die they will leave all that they collected behind, and all that they have collected are material things that are bound to perish sooner or later. Yet, it is this material collection that they place their trusts in, they only feel their future is "guaranteed" because of their worldly belongings and powers. Or, for us, we may feel unsafe because of the lack thereof, which would be a similar attitude.
May Allah allow us to live with the consciousness that the Creator who has created us thus far is the One who will create us again tomorrow and in the afterworld and that the Provider who has fed us so far is the only One who can provide for us tomorrow, inshaAllah (God willing).
أَوَلَمْ يَرَوْاْ أَنَّ اللّهَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضَ قَادِرٌ عَلَى أَن يَخْلُقَ مِثْلَهُمْ وَجَعَلَ لَهُمْ أَجَلاً لاَّ رَيْبَ فِيهِ فَأَبَى الظَّالِمُونَ إَلاَّ كُفُورًا (17:99)
(Asad) Are they, then, not aware that God, who has created the heavens and the earth, has the power to create them anew in their own likeness, having, beyond any doubt, set a term for their resurrection?However, all [such] evildoers are unwilling to accept anything but blasphemy!
قُل لَّوْ أَنتُمْ تَمْلِكُونَ خَزَآئِنَ رَحْمَةِ رَبِّي إِذًا لَّأَمْسَكْتُمْ خَشْيَةَ الإِنفَاقِ وَكَانَ الإنسَانُ قَتُورًا (17:100)
(Asad)Say: "If you were to own' all the treasure-houses of my Sustainer's bounty, lo! you would still try to hold on [to them] tightly for fear of spending [too much]: for man has always been avaricious [whereas God is limitless in His bounty].
These two verses make me think of hunter-gatherers vs billionaires and trillionnaires (perhaps because I'm a little obsessed with both the pre-agricultural era and the secret banker/monarchies of the modern world :) ). A common trait of hunter-gatherer/horticulturalists (paleolithic humans) is their inability to store any food (no fridges and they don't eat grains or legumes), except perhaps for some dried meat in some climates. Every day they face the challenge of having to hunt meat and collect fresh vegetables/fruits/honey/nuts/berries (perhaps also garden some root plants) to find fresh food for that day only. And yet, they never seem to worry about their provision (unless the "white man" is invading or logging their forests or destroying their habitat or spreading them contagious diseases-sometimes purposefully to wipe them out/genocide!- or forcefully dislocating them or just plainly murdering them) and they're quite satisfied and grateful for the good food God provides for them. They seem to have full tawakkul (trust) in their Provider's bounty. They've been generously fed with a wide variety of foods and they don't see why they shouldn't expect the same tomorrow. Actually, they eat better (more nutritious and wider variety) than we all do. It seems typical for a small tribe of 20-30 people to go through 40-50 kilos of game animals, birds or fish on a given day, and they do this with a mere hunting session of 3-4 hours, usually adult men only. If these people were to modernize, they would become 4th world as they say and they would have to work all day and they probably won't be able to afford a fraction of that meat. Heck! You have to make like 50-100 dollars an hour to be able to afford the food they eat for how little they work. Even for a college graduate in the US that is a lot of money to be making. I mean, they're rich by the bounty of Allah, why should they want to change their lives for a bowl of rice which makes them sick, doesn't satisfy their hunger as much, doesn't provide the same nutrients and strength and they have to work more for it? Especially when, for them hunting etc are more like play and fun time spent with family, rather then boring and stressful work/study/job. A typical 60 year old paleolithic man can climb within 3-4 hours, 10 trees, each 15 meters (with the ease and agility of a monkey), and chase an animal over some kilometers. I don't know many 60 year olds living an industrial life that can do that, actually not many 20 year olds either! That's how strong and healthy and muscular these people are thanks to their lifestyle, the original lifestyle God has granted us.
This interesting lovely trait (of not worrying about your food tomorrow) is shared by all such tribes around the globe (India, New guinea, south Africa, south America, etc) as far as I can tell. In the last decades, unfortunately there aren't many such tribes left due to industrialization. Those who continue to persevere in their traditions typically face great oppression (whether through direct or indirect contact) and if not killed, they must fight the governments and capitalists in order to avoid being forcefully adapted to agriculture or worse. I admire these peoples' total lack of interest in the material possessions with which capitalists try to lure them. Even when they understand we have more advanced technology, they purposefully chose to continue their way of life. A common theme is that they say they're quite satisfied with their life and peaceful and don't need anyone's help, they just want them and their lands to be left alone. In fact they're the healthiest, happiest, strongest people with the least stress and they're perfectly adapted to their lifestyle unlike us (our bodies, minds and spirits are suffocating in the civilization we built for ourselves) because they've been living this way for millions of years just like all of our ancestors have (they follow our fitrah-nature/instinct). The more people study them, the more they wonder whether we've "evolved" or "devolved" (culturally-speaking). In any case, I think they have much to teach us in living in harmony with nature and ourselves, as well as in building peaceful, crime-free (almost), egalitarian societies where some of the most important values are "sharing" and "each contributing to his/her ability".
Now compare this with the culturally extreme opposite: the super-rich pharaohs of the modern world who perfectly fit the quranic description of pharaohs: cruelly oppressive (total wars/warfare commerce) and wasteful (consumerist). They perhaps own enough to last the next 100 generations of their offspring and even more (they pretty much own all the khazain/treasures of God mentioned in 17:100 above), yet they continue to be avaricious in collecting more money and not giving to the poor (from whom they stole in the first place...). All the while when they die they will leave all that they collected behind, and all that they have collected are material things that are bound to perish sooner or later. Yet, it is this material collection that they place their trusts in, they only feel their future is "guaranteed" because of their worldly belongings and powers. Or, for us, we may feel unsafe because of the lack thereof, which would be a similar attitude.
May Allah allow us to live with the consciousness that the Creator who has created us thus far is the One who will create us again tomorrow and in the afterworld and that the Provider who has fed us so far is the only One who can provide for us tomorrow, inshaAllah (God willing).
