Don't look in only one direction with a single eye.
Don't mistake the loss of the eye you have, and the loss of sight itself, for eyesight and vision.
What fascism — and the hatred and division it creates, and the lies it spreads — produces in you, brings about in you, is exactly this kind of unconsciousness and ruinous condition.
Sight, the capacity to think, and the ability to reflect critically will be lost, will be destroyed.
A vision that has been ruined and lost will be made to seem like vision itself; thoughtlessness will be made to seem like thought — and you will come to believe it.
Instead, what you should be able to do is acquire two, three, or even more eyes. To see things from every direction.
Furthermore, looking at or seeing anything must not become mere fault-finding, tearing it out of its context.
Wherever you look, whatever you say, it must not be at the cost of selling your conscience, nor for vested self-interest.
At least before your own conscience, you must be honest, just, and impartial in that regard.
You should not harbor blind hostility or hatred toward anyone.
Do not let hostility or hatred that has crept in — knowingly or unknowingly — cause you to be unjust to anyone.
Know that blind hostility, hatred, and envy are a fire that burns and consumes you yourself.
That is precisely why it goes on to destroy others and the surroundings as well.
But that fire begins by first burning and destroying you yourself — making you bring about your own ruin, even making you celebrate it.
Regarding Islam and Muslims, many people are under a deep misunderstanding.
They are all caught up in the confusion and turmoil that this misunderstanding has produced.
Those who go about labeling themselves "seekers" or "inquirers" are, in their misfortune, carrying around this very misunderstanding as if it were profound understanding.
They are people who become slaves within the prison of the beautiful name and description called "freedom."
They don't realize that confusion and turmoil are not a position — they are the absence of a position; the loss of whatever position one had.
Muddied water reveals nothing clearly.
Confusion and turmoil that make themselves feel like a grand position or ideal are, in truth, the absence of position, absence of ideal, absence of clarity.
That is precisely why what happens in them is not inquiry, but the unease of being trapped in their situation — a justification.
The claim of "freedom" is merely the label given to the state and unease they find themselves trapped in.
The name given to self-indulgence is "freedom."
The name given to enslavement to carnal desire is "freedom."
What they have is not a position, not an ideal; it is only justification for continuing to be as they became, to remain trapped in helplessness, to keep doing what they are already doing.
Many stances, philosophies, and explanations are merely a cover for guilt — a search for a convenient philosophy to justify wrongs already being committed.
Islam is not what they have understood it to be.
Islam is not a religion created by a priesthood.
Islam is not a religion that created a priesthood.
There is no priesthood in Islam; there must not be.
Islam is a way of life that has eliminated all forms of priesthood and all forms of exploitation.
In Islam, everyone stands before God equally — at the same closeness, the same distance.
Islam is meant to guide throughout life, at all times, something to be carried always.
There are no priests in Islam, none for Muslims.
If there is anything, it is that everyone is equally a "priest," equally a potential saint, and equally a potential wrongdoer.
Islam: a straight line equal for God and for all humanity alike.
Fit for the upright-minded: one God, one human being, face to face.
Islam is without contradictions, without room for doubt, without exploitation. Straightforward, with clarity.
Free of priesthood and exploitation. Founded solely on social justice. Ensuring only social welfare. People generally do not imagine that such a "non-religion religion" exists.
That is why many misunderstand Islam, assuming it to be the kind of religion commonly talked about.
Is there a religion free of priesthood and exploitation, founded solely on social justice, ensuring only social welfare? Does such a "non-religion religion" exist, or could it exist?
Yes, such a thing exists. Such a thing will exist.
That is Islam.
Islam is not what anyone has understood it to be.
Islam is the kind of religion that no one has [truly] understood.
Submission to the foundation of the universe, and the establishment of peace through that submission — that is Islam.
Therefore, while condemning everything with closed eyes in general, do not also condemn what is right along with it.
Do not shut your own eyes, mind, and spirit of inquiry by condemning what is right.
If it involves no exploitation or priestly cruelty, what is wrong or bad about Islam's reasoned insistence — through the logic of heaven and hell — on goodness and justice, and its prevention of evil and injustice?
Some will ask: "Where does such an Islam and such a Muslim community, as described above, actually exist?"
That is not correct. Such an Islam and such a Muslim community do exist — they exist everywhere.
Many close their eyes to it; even when they see it, they act as though they don't; they go about as if they haven't seen it. That is the real issue.
If someone knocks to open the closed door of their room/mind, they bolt it shut again from within, even more firmly.
They give this self-bolting from within, this remaining closed, the beautiful names of "freedom" and "inquiry."
They revel in calling themselves "seekers."
Even if, in the course of "seeking" — done only to preserve the label of "seeker" — they find the answer, they pretend not to have seen it.
Because if they were to admit they had found it, they would lose the name, the label, and the pride of being "seekers."
So, in order to remain seekers, to be known only as seekers, they close their eyes — even when they find it, they act as if they haven't, and they try their best not to find it at all.
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