You won't find the solution for Palestine if you don't know where to look
The answer to our problems might be in the last place we imagined.
Remember when I talked about why Muslims build mosques but not banks?
The short version:
Muslims moved to the west and realised they needed a place to pray.
The need is in your face because you feel the person next to you as you squeeze in for salah. There’s a sense of immediacy and urgency.
You have an external force pushing you towards a solution—E.g. the sweaty guy next to you.
The pain isn’t easily soothed… you have to do something about it.
So Muslims collectively came up with solutions. They raised money and bought new buildings.
The same can’t be said about halal solutions for owning a home.
The need is there…
But the pain is not.
There is no external force—at least one strong enough—pushing you to find solutions for buying a house.
It has to come from inside.
It’s why so many Muslims opted for haram mortgages.
The pain of not being able to (falsely) call oneself a “homeowner” was more severe than the pain of finding a solution.
Note: There are solutions out there. But they aren’t widely known or available and most don’t provide a truly halal option let alone one that solves the problem.
It’s because people find change more painful than whatever problem they have.
If necessity is the mother of invention…
Then we need to create more need.
We need to increase the intensity of the pain.
I know you believe in Muslim Betterment—otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this.
I know you ask yourself questions like:
What can I do for Palestine?
How can I stop hate against Muslims?
Am I even capable of making a difference?
But what are the external forces pushing you to come up with solutions?
Did seeing images of the genocide provide the creative energy to come up with a solution?
Here’s why it didn’t:
Your brain processes external stimuli based on the emotions you felt at the time.
Your emotions and behaviour patterns are built from past experiences, opinions and beliefs (E.g. are you quick to anger?).
You process the stimuli with reactionary behavior patterns (anger).
Reactionary emotions are soothed very easily with reactionary behaviours (post on social media, comment, blame someone for it, protest, etc).
The pain of changing things is more severe than the pain of what we’re seeing. And we soothe the pain quickly and easily with reactionary behaviours.
Reading this probably made you… well… react.
Good.
Take note of what you’re feeling right now.
I know you don’t want feelings like this to control you.
If we want to produce real solutions we must be able to put feelings aside.
Look…
Ask yourself this question:
With 2 billion Muslims and the final Book of Allah and His final Messenger… why does it seem like there is no end to our problems?
I mean… we share all the social media posts. And hate who we’re supposed to hate. And blame who we’re supposed to blame.
Right?
I’m sure you can sense where I’m going with this:
We’re stuck in reactionary behaviour patterns.
Then can we at least agree whatever we’ve been doing so far doesn’t work?
We need to stop soothing our internal emotions with quick fixes and start being proactive about what we want.
The good news:
We can make real change once we rewire our brains to replace the current behaviour patterns holding us back…
With new behavioral patterns so we can proactively work on solutions for Muslim Betterment.
When you do this you will:
Address the past experiences and traumas shaping your current thinking.
Reshape your thinking to be geared towards happiness, good character and success.
Become solutions oriented instead of reactionary.
Notice the solutions already around you.
Attract solutions to yourself.
Proactively work on making real change.
Apply these skills to improve all aspects of your life (income, relationships, etc).
And once you become the person above…
You will be part of the solution for Muslim Betterment.
What does this mean for you?
Are you going to produce solutions for beating riba?
Are you going to make an impact in ending poverty?
Are you going to be part of the liberation of Palestine?
It’s entirely in your hands.
I’ll build on this in the next email (producing solutions for the Ummah doesn’t look like what you’d expect).
But I need to know if you’re in…
So let me know by replying to this and sharing it with more Muslims.
If you can share emotional content that sinks us further into bad behavioural patterns… then you can share this for the sake of building solutions for Muslim Betterment.