With the enemy so clear, let’s dive right in. Man’s worst enemy. So much so that when the wars ended, the Islamic prophet Muhammad Mustafa described this enemy by saying “the small war is over, the big war is now”. This enemy is not unfamiliar, it is ourselves. What we suppose that we are, it is our ego. The dark, ugly side of us all. Whatever we’ve suffered in life, we’ve suffered because of him. The child in us who twists us around his finger, who inflates himself under the guise of modesty, benevolence, doing good, who puffs himself up and up, who brags and brags, who puts himself out there like a clown and tries to show himself to everyone, who explodes one day with this inflation. The part of us that didn’t grow up.
Self-esteem, the state of knowing one’s own worth, is an essential concept for human beings. However, feeling too unworthy and carrying this feeling to the stage of grandiosity are both extremes that will prevent us from happiness, self-realization and being a successful person. That’s why we see the humility in people who have found themselves, who know themselves, who have been able to live life successfully in its entirety, beyond achievements in certain areas of life, and that’s why all teachings, all the main currents on the path to self-knowledge, start dealing with what is called the nafs (ego) first and foremost, and that’s why they stay away from things that the nafs likes and recommend things that the nafs doesn’t like during the education process.
Man’s effort to prove and assert his superiority. Underneath I see an attempt to proclaim his own divinity. In ancient times, there were many kings who took this endeavor to the extreme and proclaimed themselves gods. Don’t we also see in most of the rich people an attempt to ascribe a nobility to themselves? The constant attitude that I am higher than everyone else. Emphasizing it in the subtitles, even if it is not said in words, even if it looks like humility on the outside. And because the enemy is so formidable, and because he is so intrusive, one does it without even realizing it. Let’s not go to such kings, rich people, leaders; let’s go to the successful among two students, the head among three workers, the lady who employs cleaners, and of course to us who are managers in workplaces. Underneath it all is Pharaoh’s declaration of his godhood, the mechanism works the same.
The dusty pages of history are filled with an army of defeated people who thought that they were beautiful, successful, intelligent, strong, superior, and who now live in oblivion under the ground, in their homes, on the street, in a bar corner. “No one knows where the famous fairy tale lovers are” As Attila Ilhan said. Call it God, call it the universe, call it life, call it whatever you prefer. I have seen the vast majority of people fighting with him, saying you are out and I am in. I’ve never seen a winner. To whom did the Quran and other holy books come? To us. Why then are the infidels always addressed in the Qur’an? Who is that infidel? Isn’t it the neighbor’s son, the boss at work, so-and-so’s daughter, the Pharaoh in the story? There would be a mirror over there…
