Dust and Tribe is proud to feature this guest post by Rania Siddiq, Outdoor Trips Coordinator at the Art and Wilderness Institute.

I recently read a verse in the Qur’an:

The example of those who disbelieve is like a shepherd shouting out to that which does not hear call nor cry. Deaf, dumb, and blind, they do not understand.

(Q2:171)

In recent months as the daily bombing of Palestine continues, we have seen a lot of people shouting for justice, calling on politicians to put an end to the bleeding. Calling on them to see the truth as truth. Deaf, dumb, and blind these politicians do not understand. We see these wealthy, powerful individuals oozing with self-satisfaction, fake smiles plastered on their faces, uttering false platitudes to appease the public as they silently line their pockets with Israel’s money.

Completely blind to the death and havoc they wreak.

Completely blind to the fate they have sealed for themselves in the hereafter.

That example of disbelief is clear. 

What is unclear is the kind of blindness we see among the general public. People who perhaps do not wish to see the pain and suffering. People who claim themselves powerless and thus do nothing.

Where does this blindness come from? I find my own eyes covered at times. It is so easy to slip into a routine, to worry about one’s own wellness and livelihood. It is easy to forget the bigger picture: the hereafter.

As I think about an upcoming stargazing trip to Joshua Tree National Park, I realize in part where blindness of the heart can originate.

We have darkened the night sky in our cities, to the point where we can no longer see the stars unless we travel miles out into the desert. What kind of effect does that have on our souls?

Over the past couple hundred years with the onset of the industrial revolution, nay one could say even from the onset of so-called “civilization,” humanity has generally been on a path to remove itself from nature.

The ancient Mesopotamian tale, The Epic of Gilgamesh, is laced with themes of the human fight against nature (spoiler alert: The hero slays the guardian of the forest and cuts down a sacred tree). As agricultural societies are established, people are required to manipulate the land. Farmers fight against the floods, droughts, and soil conditions. Clearing land for farming means destroying native habitats and selectively planting varieties of crops that are good for eating. In these societies, working your way into the elite upper classes means gaining an education and moving indoors to punch out cuneiform on your super high tech clay tablets. One no longer desires to spend all day in the hot sun performing back breaking labor.

With the onset of the industrial revolution, the paving over of natural spaces and the shift to the indoors increases exponentially. Following that, our most recent technological revolution shifts us even further out of reality and into virtual spaces. 

Returning to my reflection on the stargazing trip, I realize that the darkening of our skies is symbolic of the blindness of our hearts. When we can see the vastness of God’s creation in the night sky, it is so much easier to remember our place in it. It is so much easier to accept that there is a hereafter, heaven and hell, and accountability for our actions. When we see the awe-inspiring forces in nature, we are humbled. We are grounded. We are reminded of God’s power. 

We humans have generally removed ourselves from the wild spaces and removed the wild spaces from our planet. We have created a synthetic world in which we are distracted, entertained, and sedated. We have blinded ourselves; we have deafened ourselves; we have made ourselves heedless of the truth. 

I can’t do much about the politicians or the general masses. But I can go into natural places to wake myself up.

I can be the shepherd shouting out the truth that I find there.