After the terrible fire at the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris the chorus of voices in reaction came out in unison:”Oh mon Dieu(good start lol) C’est une tragédie.How are we going to rebuild?”and condolences and sympathies were offered from around the world.Politicians and journalists oblige,of course.

Let’s try another approach.What if the French instead said:”This is a sign from our Lord.What have we done wrong?” Maybe this is about our treatment of North Africans in our country.Maybe this is about how we are treating the refugees showing up at our shores from around the world and us not showing them enough compassion.Maybe God is not happy about us abandoning our own religion.Or maybe we should be putting more energy and value into being God-fearing instead of putting so much store in hedonism and pleasure-seeking? Wouldn’t that be amazing?! And isn’t that what we should be doing,not only the French but all of us?!

It is interesting to observe that individuals,often enough but by no means always ,do exactly that! It is called ‘tauba’ in our tradition(turning back to God, repentance).But nations seem to be incapable of such a gesture.Why is that? The individuals in the collective seem to be reinforcing the illusion and supporting the lie instead of the Truth(remember Nazi Germany and the Serbian massacres and the Burmese persecution of the Rohingya just to mention a few relatively recent events) .Collectivities appear to be even more perverse than individuals.So beware of the social influences around you.They are more likely to be corrupting than salutary.

All that being said,my sympathies go out to the French nation.They are so intelligent in their heedlessness lol Salaams,Ibrahim