/ WRITINGS

Humanity: The Greatest Ideal

“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

The benevolent ship, our planet laden with Humanity, is drifting in the endless expanse of an uncharted void. In the Universe’s enormity, our warm world is no more than a grain of sand in the Sahara, a tiny sand grain at that. The eternal charted course of stars and all they carry swim across the space-time ocean. To my mind, it is unacceptable that Humanity can be the only sapient life form in this Universe; I just can’t stand the thought that God’s creative activity would produce a solitary intelligent life form. Life may be thriving in the deepest and farthest recesses of our Universe. We just run the possibility of never knowing them. Earth hosts ~8 billion human beings at the time of this writing. It is impossible to see all or know all, yet the existence of someone we never saw does not depend on our knowledge and can’t be affected by our ignorance. While I firmly believe life exists outside our blue planet, we should care more about the people in this world. Since this island in space carries its resources within, even though the resources are rapidly depleting, human intelligence is the most significant resource in our world.

“Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.”

— Carl Sagan

Human intelligence and ingenuity will eventually find a way to solve the problems of world hunger and carbon emissions, given the political leadership of this planet chooses to act in the interest of Humanity rather than nationalistic interests. The men who mock religion secretly created a new idol of the Nation. Religiously, they pay obeisance to this construct of the mind. Our age detests the dogmatic inclination of the religious people of the medieval ages, like the inquisition and witch-hunting. Likewise, future generations will abhor the hyper-nationalism that most people, perhaps the most influential people of our time, hold in such worshipful regard. What is worship? To have a mental conception of anything in high regard, such that it is deemed inviolable.

Reflecting upon the fact that the contention of rival Nations has led to significant growth, progress, and wars. Part of this is good for mutual gains and cooperation in improving the lives of the underprivileged. Nationalism in the 21st century is becoming a fire-breathing dragon. Although it preys on the weaknesses of other nations, it might finally be consumed in an inferno of its own making. Humans seldom create things they never use. No matter the destructive capability of a weapon, people always find or make a way to use it. Human effort rarely goes to waste, even if it is spent on engineering a virus. The destructive ambition of man is the bane of all life on Earth. The false pride of modern Nations rises from stories of past grandeur, technological might, and cleverly crafted narratives. This false pride prevents Nations from respecting Humanity as a unity. Nationality and the distinctive features of people based on geography were naturally meant to serve the purpose of identification among the many races of Humanity. On the contrary, this distinction served as a means of creating a deep divide.

The progression of hyper-nationalism at this juncture in history is unnatural. The consequences will follow. On the other hand, healthy nationalism in the form of competitiveness in improving people’s lives is an admirable ideal. The highest respect should go to Humanity as God has honoured it with a dignified frame, an ever-ripening intelligence and the resources we have used until now. We should all take pride in our nationalities, but we should not become blind to Humanity. Humanity surpasses the bounds of caste, creed, religion and ethnicity. A doctor from China can treat a patient from the U.S. the opposite is equally valid. Our physiology is the same regardless of the part of the world we come from. We are all the same inside. What separates us are the contents and discontents of our minds. We can part ways with the people we can’t live with, but how does it become necessary to eliminate a viewpoint that differs from ours?

Hate begets hate. Understanding and reason are closer to love. Hate restricts our possibilities, and benevolence widens our horizons. Altruism isn’t just good for the afterlife. It has an intangible utility in life. Wars have been adorned and presented as a linchpin for supporting certain economies by vested interests with a robust military-industrial complex. Still, eventually, they lead to losses and human suffering. Humanity needs peace more than a profit-making mentality. Although all nations have to look out for their interests simultaneously, the interests of Humanity should be at the core of all countries. The talk of Humanity is not idealism; it’s the core of our species. Everyone will realise this in the end. People should realise it early on in their lives.

“O humanity! Indeed, We created you from a male and a female, and made you into peoples and tribes so that you may know one another. Surely the most noble of you in the sight of God is the most righteous among you. God is truly All-Knowing, All-Aware.”

Quran 49:13

faizan

Faizan Bashir

Principal Engineer | Architecting and building distributed applications in the Cloud | Adventurer

Read More