Gods

The gods throw the dice, and they don’t ask whether we want to be in the game or not. They don’t care if when you go, you leave behind a lover, a home, a career, or a dream. The gods don’t care whether you have it all, whether it seems that your every desire can be met through hard work and persistence. The gods don’t want to know about your plans and your hopes. Somewhere they’re throwing the dice - and you are chosen. From then on, winning or losing is only a question of luck.

The gods throw the dice, freeing love from its cage. And love can create or destroy - depending on the direction of the wind when it is set free. For the moment, the wind was blowing in his favor. But the wind is as capricious as the gods - and deep inside myself, I had begun to feel some gusts.

At last, as if fate wanted to show me that the story of the Other was true - and the universe always conspires to help the dreamer - we found a house to stay in, with a room with separate beds. My first move was to bathe, wash my clothes, and put on the shirt I had bought. I felt refreshed, and this made me feel more secure.

"By the River Piedra, I Sat Down and Wept" ~ Paulo Coelho

Comments

Syra said…
"At last, as if fate wanted to show me that the story of the Other was true - and the universe always conspires to help the dreamer "

sometimes the dreamer is going against the forces of natures and gets a big blow! (like no fishes in the lake)

nevertheless--"the other" should not be ignored :)
Isbah Omer said…
‘the other’ is who screws things up.. one has to learn to balance the you with the real you!!
Saira Andleeb said…
and also i dont agree that god plays dice …
Isbah Omer said…
well… then how do u explain tragedy?
Saira Andleeb said…
its ALL planned !!!… by god !
theres a reason behind every tragedy !!!

read my comments here to know wat i think abt “tragedy”:
http://sairastar.blogspot.com/2007/09/how-to-deal-with-hurt.html

:)
Syra said…
"the other" is the language of the heart of the real you :) and the heart speaks only once in a blue moon
-ignore it and u will be restless all ur life
-listen to it and u might end up heart broken, or successful in getting watever your heart desired
as long as you tried eventually your heart will be at peace,satishfied and with no regrets of not trying and thats what matters in the end.
however the hearts desire should be in accordance to shariah :)
those who say they can subdue their heart's desire--LIE!
or perhaps are too weak and scared of failure and thus don't deserve the success!
Isbah Omer said…
@ Saira... the concept is.. that when God makes a decision, that we usually refer to as fate or destiny, they don’t really ask you if you want to be in it or not... like you cant choose your families, (I seriously made sure over and over again that i wanted to be french...) the kids in africa did not ask to be born in Aids infected families. Its not karma... so how do you explain it? the thing is, no one wants bad things to happen to them, but they happen anyways. The gods don’t care whether you have it all, whether it seems that your every desire can be met through hard work and persistence. The gods decide. Period.
and... sometimes, good things happen when you least expect them to. So i truely believe that when your life is destined to change, it changes, no matter how hard to try to cling on to what you have, you lose. You cant fight your fate, because gods don’t care that when you go, you leave behind a lover, a home, a career, or a dream. The gods don’t care whether you have it all, whether it seems that your every desire can be met through hard work and persistence.
@ SairaStar... 'The Other' cant be ignored. For the things that you are 'destined' to choose from, you will be judged in the here after for choosing right from wrong... and for all the liberty that your fate can allow you in the playing field, you choose.. sometimes right.. and sometimes wrong... you can choose what you want... but u cant decide. You can want it... and leave the rest to God for God is the only one who knows what's actually right for you!
Syra said…
i totally agree to this
"God is the only one who knows what's actually right for you!"

as long as you make efforts and couple them with rigourous prayers, you will never be a loser.

I totally believe that Prayers have the power to change our destiny..it's not as if God doesn't care..it's our job to ask HIM for everything and anything
Allah mian says "main doon ga", "mujh say mango tay sahee" :)

As muslims, hum emaan latain hain achee buree taqdeer par. So yes, things are destined but Buree taqdeer can be turned good if we pray for it.

In short, God can change our fate!
and ofcourse,prayers and efforts go hand in hand. You can't rely on one completely.
Saira Andleeb said…
@isbah i agree with wat uve said but by saying that gods dont always play dice i was refering to the concept of prayer that can change certaing things too, rest i totally agree that we dont have much of a say and niether the persistence sometimes to pray that hard as to change what gods have planned for us :)
Syra said…
http://qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.asp?HD=1&ID=138&CATE=24
khany said…
i agree with you that nobody chooses to born with aids, poor and orphaned. however, it seems to me that part of the reason why we detect so much suffering and witness so many tragedies is because we lack an absolute point of reference.

if, for a moment, you entertain the idea that we have done nothing to deserve any favors from god and then choose as reference a person who is deaf, dumb and blind, crippled, diseased, orphaned, poor and destitude etc. then all of us are in deed blessed to varying degrees in relation to this person. what we perceive as tragedies are simply the absence of blessings that we did nothing to deserve in the first place. from this point of view even the this most unfortunate man is blessed to have been given life.

{contrast this with the buddhist world view. one of the central beliefs in their faith is that suffering is 'real' which i take to mean that it is not simply the absence of blessings but suffering has an 'existance' of its own.}

true that god doesn’t care that when you go, you leave behind a lover, a home, a career, or a dream. but hey, you make it sound like god doesn't care, period! in fact god cares a lot, a whole lot more than we can imagine, about what ends our dreams were meant to achieve, about how we treated our fellows and our lover, about how we built our home and provided for our families, and about our integrity in our professions and careers. god cares.

you are not discouraged from seeking out a lover, a career, a home or a dream. in fact god provided you the means to pursue them all. but he impressed upon you continually the ephemereal nature of men, their dreams and possessions. what has permanence are the intentions and this currency has great value with god.
Syra said…
now thats KHANY STAR talking! (Y)
Isbah Omer said…
Beautifully presented Khany. And as you said, as ephemeral as the nature of us humans can be, when we want something, or someone; or we want someone to want us... all we can see is the love, the dream, the adventure and the happy ending. Oblivious to the consequences. Unaware of the fact that we might not be able to live with the actual possession of that dream.

[Remember, the other side looks pretty from the other side...]

You are right, you are not discouraged from seeking out a lover, a career, a home or a dream. But you cant ignore the fact that when the lover, the career, or that home aint the right dream for you, god cares enough, a lil too much, to NOT let you have it.

And at that moment, God doesnt care that you have to wait for a new dream or a new moment to define your self with.

The point of reference is not that god doesnt care for our losses. The point of reference is the fact is that god doesnt let us have some dreams because he has another plan for you. A better one. So at that moment, god doesn’t care that you have left a dream, a lover, a home... only because it is in your best interest not to have it right now.

& what really defines our faith is the belief that whatever happens, happens for a reason, and the reason is higher than the fact that 'god doesnt care'. The true heart of the matter is that God does have a dream for you. He is just waiting for the right time for you to have it.
Syra said…
now that's IsbahStar talking (Y)
both the stars are shining =)
khany said…
i only presented my opinion. so thank you isbahz for raising the question. i also gladly note that our opinions are converging to a consensus :)

you say god keeps us from our dream because he cares for us. moreover, he has another (better) purpose in store for us. i think it is only the fortunate few of us who belong to this category. do not we all see counterexamples everyday of people who fulfill their lusts for material desires? people seeking more fame, seeking more power, seeking more wealth.. and getting them by any and all means. they have a disease in their heart and allah increases them in their disbelief. so, in my opinion, it is only the blessed who get checked in this regard.

your post also seems to imply that we will eventually succeed (in fulfilling some dream), if only we remain patient. i don't think that god has promised any individual success in this world(?). however, god is just and our reward is in the hereafter.
Syra said…
indeed Allah is just and our reward is in the hereafter.
jaza and saza in the hereafter.
Isbah Omer said…
I was away for a while, so this one took long to reply... but here it is khany..
Counter examples... true...
Guarantees... there are none... and neither are any promises for any apparent rewards in this world, but the way i see it, you have to look up to your own heaven and hell in this life time. I don’t really think that people who fulfill their lusts for material desires, people seeking more fame, more power, or more wealth are being rewarded. Isn’t the hunger and greed for more a curse in itself? How many sins do they commit ensuring their worldly possessions remain theirs? How many times do they let go of their loved ones for securing a contract or just to make a nice appearance? The people who are at the top of the world are the loneliest people on the globe... I feel that the real reward is the ability to distinguish between heaven and hell... the wise & the blessed would find the fact that they have people they can count on - comforting, while the greedy and the cursed would have all the fame and fortune, and still want more. So the way i see it, and as you put it earlier, its the way you perceive the concept of rewards in this world, so if we change the point of reference, we will find ourselves lucky to have many things, if not all, even in this lifetime.

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