A paper by Abdullah Maynard
Qadr and Qadir. The events in England following the death of Mark Dugan on the 4thof August, the spontaneous violence, rioting and looting to me illustrate in a graphic clarity the interaction between decree and destiny played out on a grand scale in the context of our evolution of consciousness. For difficult as it is, we must consider the social reality with an eye of understanding that is greater than, but includes politics, economics and sociology. We must see these realities in the light of the reality of our existence our relationship with the One.
There are many details in understanding the events that have unfolded since Thursday the 4th of August. If we take the initial incident as the death of Mark Duggan a black male in part of an ongoing police operation targeting violent crime in the black community. This was made more complicated by:
the claim that Mr Duggan shot at the police and was killed when the police returned fire,
the five hour wait by friends and family for information relating to his death in a initially peaceful protest,
the anger that spilled into the initial riots in Tottenham
and the admission that though Mr Duggan was apparently in possession of a gun at the time the only shots fired were by the police.
What follows this is a wave of rioting, arson, looting and attacks on the police that morph across the country in a way that seems to loose all relationship with the initial event or any form of related protest. By this time in addition to the conflict between the community of Tottenham and the police totally unrelated communities and individuals are involved with people driving up from Kent to participate in London’s unrest. Major disturbances took place in Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Nottingham, Milton Keynes, Leicester, Bristol, and Salford with minor events in far more less reported locations.
In the midst of this evolving terror the police, at first outflanked (some sustained injuries) or, apparently inactive, while lives are at risk and communities peacefully or not try to protect their own homes and livelihoods.
Eventually, four days of violence, 5 people dead and estimates of approximately 100 million pounds of damage or loss and the courts already processing people from various walks of life male and female, from 11 years old to 47 black and white.
Then there is the analysis what was this, was it protest, riot, or mindless criminality? Who did this black youth, disenfranchised youth, gangs and gang culture? What is beginning to become clear is that within the discourse there are opinions that see the situation as mono-factoral or arising from a primary factor. Initially voices from the community and individuals involved in the rioting were saying that the riot was a protest in relation to the injustice experienced by the black community discriminated against by policing methods and strategies. There is evidence that a disproportionate number of African Caribbean people have died in police custody, been stopped and searched, and are imprisoned. There was the response to this argument, that the Black youths were not protesting but through gang culture were attacking the fabric of the community as arguments were raised that Mr Dugan, shot by police was related to gang leaders and that riots in Liverpool were initiated by gangs where there were familial affiliations. Yet the mayhem was multi-cultural. There are arguments that the young people, engaged in this ‘mindless criminality’ are a forgotten disenfranchised underclass, underemployed or unemployable with blighted futures. Some are the product of poor parenting (where parents have had their authority striped from them by a nanny state) generally failed by society education and the nations leadership. Yet there were qualified people, graduates social workers, army recruits involved in the disorder. There have been arguments that the root cause is relative deprivation – not simply the true poverty of deprivation where people cannot feed or clothe themselves but the bitter twisted injustice of being on the bottom rung of a society where the rich get richer and others watch with envy in material capitalism whilst absolving the advertising memes of what (material) success is, realising subconsciously at least that the opportunity to achieve it is not there. Yet one of the people caught up in this was the daughter of a millionaire. Or were people just caught up in the trill the group experience of doing something exciting?
Then there are the higher order arguments about the erosion of morality in society. The week before these events in England the public eye was on the illegality, immorality and complicity of the phone hacking scandal. It is generally thought that three of the institutions that enable legitimate democracy in the UK are parliament (through the election of democratic leadership) the justice system (maintaining equality under the law) and the free press (facilitating the monitoring of our great institutions in the public eye). The scandal of the previous weeks had called aspects of all of these institutions into question. It was preceded by the MPs expenses scandal and that was preceded by the banking scandal, which has cost the nation far more than 100 million without the courts sitting all night as is the case following this recent mayhem but with relatively little more than some public apologies. The argument goes that a morality of greed has become accepted in English society and though what has happened in the last few days is predominantly criminality it has a cause in a lack of morality as modelled by people of influence within our society.
It is a bit like saying that when we break the decree of living in civility subtly, in the belief that it will not have significant ramifications, we enable an unforeseen destiny in which our towns and cities are in flames.
I am of the opinion that there is truth in all of these above explanations and that there are even more factors that have lead to this situation which I truly hope I and others in England irrespective of if we were there as victims, perpetrators or not will feel shame in relation to.
It is true that when seen with the eye of a universal ethic, from the position of faith a belief in a Creator greater that humanity it is possible to consider the events of this week as a spiritual crises, indication how far from balance we collectively are. But would it not be better to see it as an aspect of learning and growth, for after all part of the value of failing is to then improve.
Journey in Consciousness Retreat Aphorism three
The changing uncertainties of the outer world are balanced by an inner state of constant certainty, peace, harmony and joy.
Evolution is the process of continuous exposure to the spectrum and states of consciousness starting with limited and conditioned personal identity moving towards the ultimate transcendent and true reality
It is six weeks since the The Grittleton Retreat on Consciousness. Shayhk Fadhlalla presented a series of 5 talks around 5 propositions and aphorisms in relation to the Academy of Self Knowledge. The nature of evolution is continuous, despite if not because of the nature of flux, which is our state. The personal identity of the looter checking the sizes of trainers, the rioter smashing a police car with a street bin, the victim of thugs beaten up as his car was stolen, or the woman jumping from her first floor flat torched without care for her safety, the millions of us who watched this from the safety of our own homes and helped the victims or not are conditioned consciousness, ‘selves’ caught in the individually experienced fragmented process of responding moment to moment to a series of situations we see as reality. But what is reality? Often we speak of reality when what we really mean is the experience of the moment. The economic recession of 2008, the riots of 2011, the moments of our individual lives, or of human experience collectively may be greater than us individually. It is through these and other experiences that our conditioned personal realities are formed. Yet the more we abstract from the moment the more evident it is that there is a constant ongoing evolutionary process in which we individually and collectively are bombarded with the experiences we need to grow. When the Muslim who had lost his son, one of the three killed by a car as they and other stood in Dudley in Birmingham peacefully defending their neighbourhood, was asked who did he blame his response was that he did not blame anyone, he was a Muslim, he believed in destiny and it was his sons time. Following this the next evening Sheiks and Muslims spontaneously gathered at the spot said prayers and discussed without leaders how to respond to the tragedy resolving to not to march but to act nobly. In these acts is a recognition of a true reality, these acts transcend both the event and the nature of the lower self. They are only possible because there is a part of each of us that is not caught in the pain of the moment, a part of us that exists beyond that, a soul that knows peace, harmony, truth, justice and joy and compels the self to grow to evolve towards it.
Journey in Consciousness Retreat Aphorism two
Light is the primary source of life. Consciousness accompanies light to reveal the wonders of the universe.
All of Life’s experiences indicate the need for the personal will to turn away from duality’s veils in order to attain higher consciousness and utter divine perfection – the cause of all manifestations.
Aphorism three rests on aphorism two. Personal will is central to the decoding of life’s experiences in order to fulfil the process of growth towards higher consciousness. It is part of our return to divine perfection. We are here for the purpose of worshiping our Lord in recognition or realisation of the His Lordship as known to all of us before time when all souls were asked ‘Am I not your Lord?’ In the experience of our lives it is the will of the self that must turn away from the duality’s of creation to return to the unity of the creator in recognition of its on lack of significance. People of faith from many different religious traditions know this process of returning to the reality. The will to do this is encoded in all our hearts regardless of if we know it as yet or not, it is not transitory like the experiences that help condition our consciousness. These transitory experiences can provide the base against which we push to exceed our selves. Perhaps that makes sense of the actions of the young social worker who having been a participant in the looting could not sleep with herself and turned herself into the police station the next day.
Journey in Consciousness Retreat Aphorism one
Creation appears in dualities and follows patterns, which spring from the original universal Oneness
Within this interwoven wholeness, the human potential of higher consciousness can realize the truth of eternal Unity and banish “otherness”.
Accessing the state leads to joyfulness.
Again aphorism two rests on aphorism one. Hence the duality’s of creation originate from the unity of the Creator. Both the terror of the burning of the Carpetright shop and flats above, and the spontaneous acts of generosity the food clothes and essential given by the local people of Tottenham to those families now living in a Leisure Centre without personal possessions arise from something greater and it is through these patterns that we are able to transcend the lower states of consciousness to enact our human potential to become realised as higher consciousness in recognition of His unity. It is because of his grace in ways that we need not perceive that we are able to grow. This process of growth, this evolution is relentless whether we are experiencing apparent good or not, for us as individuals as well as humanity we are brought to the truth of Unity.
This is not only evident in the apparent tragedies but in the relentless process of life. We are social animals we come together to mimic unity in relationships families communities even as mobs. We are drawn to oneness and the loss of self through the banishment of otherness, and when we experience glimpses of this reflection of unity it is a thrill regardless of its outcome.
As Shaykh Fadhlalla has said, “we are drawn to Unity by small acts of passion”.
By His will (Allah’s) our evolution and with that submission is inevitable.
For further information regarding the Journey in Consciousness Retreat 2011 please go to the ASK website