Monday, January 26, 2009

God is Not With Us

In football, a player may be given a red card and sent off. What usually happens is that his team, being one player down, would crumble and suffer a bad loss. Occasionally however, that team sometimes manages to rise and play a better game finishing it with a great victory.
That team does prove that they are better off without that player.

Some of you may not like this, but I think that player is God. For ages we thought he was on our side, that he would bring us victory against the godless Jews who were stealing his holy land. I don't have any pleasure in saying this, but God was not on our side. God was with the enemy. God was with the Jews. God was with Israel. God was with the occupiers and God gave them our land. God allowed them to found Israel and God allowed the UK and the US and whoever knows to supply them with weapons and money and waves of admiration and allowed them to hold strong and protect their country. I'm a bit tired of people saying God has always been on our side whenever we make some achievement (like blowing up the tires of an Israeli tank) and not mention that statement whenever we get screwed ....when was that? let me think: Oh yeah, 1947, 1948, 1967, the 1990s, the 200s, the loss of land, the loss of lives, Qana, Gaza, Jenin, Jerusalem, Baghdad....etc.

We'd like to think that God is on our side. We'd love it. We love it when we know Ricky Martin or Ben Affleck is on our side, so how about God, the creator of the universe? He must be on our side. That gives us comfort, that gives us some sort of strength that we were unable to handle in any useful way.

But worst of all, it gives us a sense of relief that we never deserved. For when see the massacres happening in Palestine and Iraq, the daily merciless blood-shed that we did not stop or (effectively) try to stop, we'd like to leave it to God. "God is with our brothers there. He's with them, and he will give us victory one day and bring us our land back"

Let me tell you something, everybody thought God was with them. From the very early days of war, fighters on both sides used to believed God or some god was with them, fighting with them, giving them victory and strength. But those who won have always been those who worked hard and planned well.

It's great to believe in God. I'm one of those believers, and he provides great relief and peace to anyone when they need it. But we have placed on his shoulders what we should have placed on ours. We have handled him our duties, and loaded him with our responsibilities. Miracles happen only to those who deserve them, and good fortune comes to those who never thought they'd get lucky. I'm not sure if God is on our side, he might be, his wisdom is sometimes difficult to interpret or predict, but I'll just assume we're playing with one player down and we have to plan well and work hard for victory.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Or you can say that God is dead, or God never existed in the first place.

Anonymous said...

Well, God himself said it before in Quran, in meaning : "I can only be with my people if they are with me", and this is not the case with Arabs right now, I guess you can tell that if you read Nizar's comment, and there are so many people like Nizar who will cause the morals to come low.
Also, God himself had prophecied that this will happen and the Jews will take Palestine, I believe that his wisdom will be that this event will be the event that will turn back the time to what it used to be, and we'll come back strong again, I think you can say that through the last events in Gaza, most of the protestors were young people who got fed with their politicians, and who believe that we have the right of our land. I tell you this, just wait to see. The history documents darker times when we were even weaker during the Crusade wars, untill we got to our minds and fought back again. I think that's God wisdom

Anonymous said...

What if it isn't about land?

What if it's not about strength?

Remember what Jesus said:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Lining up our actions with those who are listed as blessed, we fall very very short indeed. Jews, Christians, Muslims, atheists; all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. is there one righteous? No, not one.

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

We deserve nothing from God. May He have mercy on us, and may we humble ourselves so He doesn't have to.

Adoosh said...

God's with those who are with their selves. That apparently doesn't apply to us, Arabs!

haijekov said...

well why not think of it as God is the wise coach for the team. The players just don't listen to what he asked them to do so eventually they get screwed and lose the game.
It's like (and no offense meant here), the emirati teams importing the best coaches in the world for their teams. Even with the best coaches ever they're not able to accomplish anything because the players aren't really that great.

think about it

Ammar said...

Interesting Post Hareega, but it's human nature to Monopolize God, Amazingly, His are blessings that are delivered to all humanity, it is us who manipulate and monopolize God's mercy, His blessings, His justice, we claim them to be ours, for us alone, and all those who seek Him in a different way are doomed, God wouldn't listen, He wouldn't answer, He's ours, and for you to be answered, you have to be one of us; by blood, or to a lesser degree of seperation, by choice, or, by force.

It all goes back to the premise of the Chosen People, in the anthropological term, which is a contradiction when making a theological arguament, We all think that we're the "chosen people" with our own interpritation of the term "chosen" the ones whose side God will eventually defend and deliver to the "promised land", in both this and the life hereafter.

With this eventuality, we reach the point of a kind of collective selfishness, one that is unparalleled, a kind that reaches the point of chauvinistic predetermination of people's fates, condemnation of their lives, and afterlives.

Anonymous said...

ya 3am the muslims are saying angels fought in Ghaza alongside Hamas, and the Israelis are saying Rachel came to their soldiers aid in the fighting. It's safe to say that Heaven is playing both sides for fools. I think Jesus is behind this whole thing. That Jew!

Anonymous said...

Tha2er: Man, whatever you say :D

God has never been on anyone side, god has never accepted a prayer and there is no evidence or reason to believe in God so why should I?

Hareega said...

nizars, that may be your own opinion not mine.

Tha2ir, "being with God" can surprisingly have different meanings among many believers. While it may seem straight forward to many, its direct application is very different. Remember also that a lost of athiests win wars over believers. Don't blame God for that.

Kinzi, I don't disagree with you at all, and I still believe that this world is not worth fighting for, that's why I'm asking for us to let God out of the game, and to assume he's not with us here, and that he will not come to the rescue in any fight we're going to make even if it was for a good cause. I never asked anyone to stop believing in God, but I hope we stop believing that God will be with us by defualt in anything we do.

Adoosh, good words.

Haijekov, you lost me on the emirati league since I've stopped wathcing it long time ago, but I got your point. The problem is with "listening to what God is telling us". Apparently people are making up thousands of interpretations of what God is trying to tell us.

Hareega said...

Ammar, wise words. Jews that "Chosen people" concept but apparently Muslims and Christians often behave as if they are the Chosen people as well. Nobody succeeds because he was "chosen" from God.

Sandmonkey, yep I've been checking your blog and you got some interesting things on it man!

Anonymous said...

God is always on our side,but that doesn't mean 'politically'.it doesn't mean that God will help a people occupy a land or not...He i never political or economic or cultural in that sense,bec for Him the kingdoms we build here amount to nothing.It is the Kingdom in heaven that we should be worried about.
However I do understand the 'frustration' we feel when we see innocent people getting killed and made homeless and tortured,and God allows it.I feel many times that it is not 'fair'.But as u said hareega...sometimes God's wisdom is mysterious and not very 'sensible' to us.Who knows what the wisdom behind it is?!
I believe that God ia always on our side,we just have to be on His once in a while.

Anonymous said...

I find it funny that there are hundreds if not thousands of religions, and all believers think that god is on their side and that surprisingly they just happen to be born into the true religion.

Whisper said...

All the Prophets were carrying the same message is to consolidate the Lord "There is no God but Allah"

We know that human should have a full dependence on God in all his work .... but there must be works and expectation "think and trust" اعقل و توكل
God is there, and we have to pray for God to respond, but

there scourges and test from God, and we have to strengthened our faith and patience on the scourge,and be sure that GOD will reward us in life or after life for that