Loving ourselves and our country

Cairo - Egypt

As an Egyptian, I started to think of the following questions and would like your comments. Please think seriously of these questions. These questions can apply to any other country, but here, I am discussing Egypt.

What does it mean to have a sense of belonging to somewhere? i.e. to be a real nationalist.
What does it mean to truly love that place? Again, i.e. to be a real nationalist
How can we really participate in construction of our nationalism and having positive impact on our society?
Do we really understand what loving our country means?
Do we really know what benefits we can really gain from that love?
Do we understand the difference between loving and respecting our country despite not accepting our government policies and governing personnel and officials?
Do we really know the difference between not being able to accept certain political and economical aspects and still loving and respecting our country?
Do we know how we can better our lives and being able to make a difference without protests or demonstrations since they get us no where! (They really don't since the upper hands of the governing sectors still have their way! Wake up! They really do not change much, except if they want to change and not because there is a public demand!

So many questions can be squeezed in, all aiming at one important aspect and that is the future of our country and its prosperity. How can this country really flourish and be better?
There are answers and solutions, but the matter is, how well can we apply them?

Individuality! Believe it or not every single one of us is the answer. Attitudes of each individual matters so much to the building of a country. Positive thinking and good attitude can build strength, and thereby, power. But this is the main problem. Not every one has the power to be strong and patient, that is why the ones who posses strength of will should help those who don't. It is about time we develop a sense of sharing and caring beyond our own selves and needs.

I believe so strongly that the following have a disastrous effect on each individual, thereby affecting an entire population! Firstly and most importantly is the lack of faith in God, then come the following: greed, selfishness and being self centered, hatred, loosing hope in one self and in everyone around, and envy!

The part about faith and obedience to God sums it up. God has given us so much to go forward from, but how many people actually do understand what the teachings of Allah and his prophet are truly about? We need to start knowing and applying.

A person's life must not be limited to one self only. Each of us should start caring beyond his/her own needs, which is something I see is beginning to take place in Egypt. Now, there are many non profit organizations, Islamic non profit organizations, and individual efforts aiming to help the uneducated, the orphans, and poor people in different areas in Egypt, which is a positive awareness growing amongst many people in our society. What we need to do is to increase our efforts more and more. There is good in our society, but some people are just too lazy to do something. Every little bit of effort will make a difference.

I am aware that our country is going through a difficult phase, especially economically, and I am sure that none of us are happy with many of the policies, but we should not let this aspect affect us in a total negative way, we must think as positive as we can. When we all manage to think positive most of the time, this will push us forward. When each of us develops a positive sense of dedication to what we do, the outcome will be greater.

I wish some of us can reach the minds of the people that work for the governmental sectors and be able to make a change to their attitudes! Those people need to be stimulated to work with more conscience, but they don't and we all know why. Their salaries are so low, and they developed a great sense of negligence in their daily work. They for some reason enjoy making people suffer getting paper work done. This is one of the very negative aspects we have in our governmental institutions.
Suddenly as I am writing this, I felt down, real down, right now, this instant, to the extent I was going to delete this whole post and ignore it! (I felt I should mention this).
But it is this feeling I just got that we need to neglect (I just did and will continue). I believe it is Satan.. Telling me to forget it... that this is useless, but I decided to continue. Words are easy, applying is much more difficult. But we must try.

Back to what I was writing… Well, you must be thinking. Ok… what is this gibberish she is talking about? How can we affect those people...? Ok... here I go, and this is from my personal experience.
Back to the people in the governmental institutions... How can we reach them?
Some of us need to get something done for instance, any sort of paper work or whatever. We do not necessarily need to talk to them directly. We can, or actually should resort to God for anything prior to resorting or expecting from people. Have any of you ever read Surat Yaseen before setting out to have something done? Or said any dua'a to facilitate things? Or even did a salat Istikhara? These are the keys to really getting things done. Those of you out there, who think that miracles are over, I tell you NO! The miracle of the dua'a and the Quraan still work and will always work for those who really resort to them. Salat al Istikhara is great. God gave us keys to solving problems, yet we seldom use them? Why is that? I have no clue!

Before getting something done, talk to God, tell Him that you need something done, but at the same time, ask Him to grant you what He knows is best for you, and trust me, He is the all knower, He will never grant you something bad. Please bear in mind the following verse:

وعسى ان تكرهوا شيئا وهو خير لكم و عسى أن تحبوا شيئا و هو شر لكم والله يعلم وانتم لا تعلمون

( أية 216 من سورة البقرة)

There also happen to be many dua'as one can use to open closed doors:

ألله المستعان وعلية التكال ولا حول ولا قوة إلا بالله العلى العظيم

Leave your matters to God, ask Him for help in whatever it is you need, believe me if it is good for you He will help. God is just like a loving father to us all, He really loves us and wants what is good for us. All we need to do is ask, and He assured us of this saying

(وقال ربكم ادعوني أستجب لكم (أية 60 من سورة غافر

Do you know that people's natures can be changed for just a while to suit your needs? Maybe that is a bit vague, let me explain. For instance, you have a problem where you need to go have some paper work done at one of the so called governmental institutes or authorities, and you really need things done. What I suggest you do is the following: Pray two rak3as for God and in your sujoud ask Allah to grant you aid in whatever it is you need done, or say dua'a al isitikhara, then before entering the place, say the dua'a above and be as patient and nice as you can to them, no matter what (God will do the rest)!

From my experience where I had an incredibly complicated law suite, it worked miraculously! Only with the aid of the dua'a and prayers I had done all through out the entire procedure. I am not saying it went 100% smooth, but I assure you, it went 90% smooth! It did take time, yes, but things were going, and I had no lawyers with me, I had to do everything myself, and my opponents had 5 lawyers whom happened to be scum bags!! You know what I mean! The guys called Mo7derren at the district attorney's building were always offering help and actually asked me to leave my number just incase my opponents lawyers tried to go behind my back to bribe anyone or play some sort of dirty games! The same happened at court! I was really surprised how things went! And I never bribed anyone (it is haram any way) but I did tip them after it was all over, and I asked a Sheikh if it was haram, and was told as long as I was not paying them before hand or making them expect something from me at the beginning, and as long as I was not rewarding them for giving me something that is not my right, then it is ok. It is just the only convenient way of thanking them (since again those people are underpaid). You will not believe this, they did not want to take anything, I had to practically convince some of them. But some did not take anything! This was something I did really respect.

Some people still do their work with decency regardless of being underpaid. I know they are few, but they say they are just happy to be of service and to please GOD... SO there, some people still want to please god and have blessings in whatever little they get from their jobs! You know why? Because they have peace inside, because Allah blesses whatever little they get to suite their needs! Because they still have strong Faith!

Modesty and nice words too can play an important role in getting things done! Try to be modest with those who are less than you in social standards.

"الكلمة الطيبة صدقة"

You must be asking what on earth does this have to do with loving Egypt? Right? I'll tell you. When you say Duaa, and ask God to guide those people who are in places such as governmental authorities, this duaa can do miracles when you ask Allah to help them do what is right and what is good for you and others, it is not something to be taken lightly. Do not belittle the effect of the duaa you say for others and for your self.

I wrote all that because the aspect of faith in God needs to be strengthened amongst us. Religion is all about moving on to being better and to having a better life! If people think that Islam is a backward religion they are wrong and mistaken. Having faith strengthens us, gives us hope for a better future. We just need to hang on.
Prophet Muhammed said that there will come a time when :

(القابض على دينة كالقابض على جمرة من نار). "He who hangs on to his religion will be like he who hangs on to a piece of burning rock!"
That will not affect our modernization, we just need to pick out what is good for us and discard what is not, from this so called modernization.

As individuals, when we do that, we will each participate in the bettering of our country's future. And yes, it is that simple. The whole thing depends on how much we believe and have faith in God and ourselves. Isalm encourages us to think of others, to care, to help, to give, even a simple smile or salam (hello) can make someone's day brighter, therefore work harder towards productivity.

Why can't the owners of companies for instance mix more with their employees? Why can't they go down the steps of arrogance and mingle with the guys at the buffet, or the factory workers, or with their company drivers? Simple gestures can be great drives for those people, and come to think of it, they are the main reason why big companies and factories have grown!

Why can't our president walk amongst the people without fear of being assassinated? Do you know that king Abdullah of Jordan does that? He actually walks amongst his people, on his feet, in the streets. My ex-boss was in Jordan on business once and to his surprise he ran into the king!! On the street!!

Why can't we walk in the street and smile to one another, and throw salams when we pass by anyone sitting down? It was encouraged by the prophet to do so?

Why can’t we for instance arrange for parades on the streets asking people to be nice to one another and calling for peace amongst our own fellow citizens?? Make a "Fellow citizen day!" Or being helpful day? Or Cleaning Cairo Day? It is not funny! I am serious. Some of you may be members of some sort of NGO, why not think of this seriously, as a matter of fact, I should start trying to find a way to do something like that.

Stimulating positive thinking and cooperation amongst citizens of Cairo (to begin with).

Does any one have any suggestions???