Note to self or Being a Cow

On a drizzly windy day I sunk my toes across the Margate coastline. What serenity I found to be enveloped by clouds and foam and fog cannot be described. Suddenly, my mindfull thoughts were disturbed by the powerful whooosh of an airborne kite, blue and yellow, royal in its flight. It appeared to have a life of it’s own, traversing the atmosphere of it’s own accord. However, there was a couple with their arms in their air, guiding the kite and keeping it aloft against the winds and drizzle. I found myself staring shamelessly for many seconds or even minutes at them.

Fortunately for me, they were so enraptured by their endeavour, they had not noticed me. What kept me there mesmerised across many moments was the love I sensed within this union. The question that then arose within me was, did their love create the trajectory of the kite, or was the kite’s trajectory the source of their love?

To our anthropocentric and immodest nature, the answer may be simple. Humans built the kite and without our force and energy, it would not be afloat. However, when I look beyond the rigid boundaries of human logic, I realise that were it not for the kite, the couple would not be in such close proximity. Their movements, their stance towards one another, their joyous emotions and their support of one another all arose from the purpose of flying this kite. Their eyes were not lost within each other, but had created a force of light that radiated, up and down, between them and the kite. By forgetting each other and looking beyond, they had found in one another a source of strength and comfort. The Holy Qu’ran states in Surah Baqarah (V. 165) ‘The love of Allah in the believers is most intense’. The intensity of this love comes from the nature of it transcending the transient material world and liberating us from our wordly limits. This may seem like an overdone, overanalysed story of flying a kite. For me however, it made me realise that the love of things at the level where we are actually restricts us from higher journeys. We fall in love with a person and focus on their looks, their wit, their intelligence, their humour, their possessions and many other things that capture the mind’s wordly imagination. This brings to mind a verse of the Qur’an that says, “Say: If your fathers, and your sons, and your brethren, and you wives, and your tribe, and the wealth yea have acquired, and merchandise for which ye fear that there will no sale, and dwellings which ye desire are dearer to you than Allah and His Messenger and striving in His way: Then wait till Allah bringeth His command to pass. Allah guideth not wrongdoing folk. [Qur'an 9:24]”

This does not mean that we should not love the things Allah has blessed us with. It is only when loving these things becomes more important than the love we have for our Creator and His meesenger that this becomes problematic. Having a husband with green eyes and designer stubble will definitely make flying the kite more joyous for me. But the kite is foremost. I have related this story in the context of romantic love. There are many more levels of love to be found by cooperating in flying kites as exemplified by verse 103 of Surah 3: “And hold fast, all together, to the rope of Allah and be not divided; and remember the favour of Allah which He bestowed upon you when you were enemies and He united your hearts in love, so that by His grace you became as brothers; and you were on the brink of a pit of fire and He saved you from it. Thus does Allah explain to you His commandments that you may be guided.”