COMPULSION
Written by Wasif Ali Wasif in Urdu “MAJBOORI”
By: ABBAS ALI
Being compelled is not a bad thing, and to be honest, it is not a good thing either. Being under compulsion is an undeniable truth. The man is under duress. He wants to break the compulsion, and nature intends to keep him under the compulsion. Both are compelled by their thought processes.
Every speck in the universe, not just man, is compelled by its sphere.
The stars are under compulsion in their specified orbits, and the sun has been kept under compulsion in the act of its rising and setting. As if everything was contained within its own small circle of existence. The flow of a river is its compulsion; the flight of birds is their compulsion; the swimming of a fish is its compulsion; the rustling of air is its compulsion; the pouring down of rain is its compulsion; the sky is lofty; the earth is plain and down. Everything is enclosed in the nutshell of its qualities. Things are compelled to travel in accordance with their habits and nature.
A thing or an existence cannot act outside of the confines of its arrangement. This is the compulsion; this is the identity; and this is the self-esteem. A carnivore will prefer death to eating grass; a falcon will never eat the dead; and a vulture will only eat the dead. All are under the same compulsion.
One person’s action differs from the action of another. One’s profession is different from another’s; one’s life is different from the lives of others. The achievement of one person differs from the achievement of another. One’s quality is different from another’s. One person’s style is different from another’s. A hard worker is different from an idle one. How can sleeping people and those who are awake be the same? Success and failure are two different results. Where one person looks under a compulsion, another person can be observed breaking the compulsion. A man can do whatever he wants. Till now, he did whatever he wanted to do, but in this freedom, the story of his compulsion is hidden.
Man may go into the vastness of the skies; he may knock at the doors of the skies; he may discover the secrets of the universe; he is free. However, within this freedom, a time arrives when his freedom and free-walking bring the message of compulsion to him. And a person flying in the skies comes down to earth and gets absorbed into the earth. His beginning is compulsion, and his ending is compulsion. He is free in between. How much freedom would there be?
A man constructs a house for himself. He is free to construct a house of his choice. However, after constructing a house of his choice, he cannot alter it to a great extent. Something accomplished with freedom places its owner under compulsion. Until marriage, a man considers himself free. He can marry in accordance with his choice. However, he feels compelled after marriage. A husband’s freedom actually turns out to be his compulsion. A seemingly free lifestyle is actually compulsive. After having traveled, a man understands that the journey was predetermined for him. All the free-looking routes were only possibilities. The truth is that there is only one path, which he is compelled to take. Even if he considers it his freedom, it is still his compulsion, and even though he considers it a compulsion, it is still a compulsion.
Every man has been put under the compulsion of his behavior. A miser will always be a miser, and a generous person will always be generous. Believers will be compelled to believe, and refusers will not budge from their stand. The splendours in the world are the sub-topics of compulsions. This world is lively because of compulsions.
Persons born into the same family and brought up in the same setting do not have the same taste or nature. Every person is born with a different nature, a distinct experience, and a separate destiny. Every person has been kept as a mortgage to his behavior. Every individual is compelled to act within the parameters of his arrangement. A man’s attributes show him the destination of his freedom. However, these attributes are confined by the compulsion of their existence. A man’s sight is both infinite and compulsive. Scenes viewed from a distance are not the same as those viewed up close. The moon looks somewhat different from a long distance and somewhat different from a close distance. Our sight is a deception; whatever comes into our sight is the deception of our sight. The buck does not stop here. Our eyesight, besides being finite, gradually starts to depreciate after a certain time. The phenomenon is not confined to the eyesight alone; our limbs also weaken. We lose our health while trying to take care of it. While protecting life, we end up being insecure. Our assets, like our powers, begin to be taken away. When our eyesight weakens, the candles on our face go out. Even though we are safe from external dangers, the warning bells of internal dangers continue to ring. Unknown apprehensions eat away at our beliefs like lice.
Although we are free, however, this freedom is within a limited circle. We cannot go beyond its circumference. We are surrounded by our situation and thoughts, just as we are by the sky and the earth. We can neither disappear nor go beyond our height and limit. The frontiers of profit and loss are the limits of our activities. We cannot alienate our loved ones or adopt foreigners. Our achievements are finite, and our wishes are infinite. We can not complete the story of existence. Someone’s beginning remained incomplete, as did someone’s ending. We get looted on the same route on which we are travelling. Our existence turns into non-existence, and we cease to be ourselves. Freedom appears to be apprehensions; however, we have been ordained that we are accountable for our actions throughout our lives. Man is nothing except the struggle he undertakes. The same fact is worth focusing on. There is a message of freedom for the man imprisoned in the circle of compulsions. What a strange stage!
A man is only accountable to the extent of his liberty.
The days of life are limited, and our activities are accountable with reference to their results and intentions. Eating food is obligatory, which implies that it is a compulsion. Man, on the other hand, has the ability to distinguish between what is legal and what is not. Man will eat food, but how? legal or illegal. We are answerable with reference to the choice of sustenance, behaviour with other humans, and religious obligations. Man is only accountable to the extent of his ability. A blind man is not answerable with reference to light. We are answerable with reference to the utilization of whatever we have received. Our natural achievement is our compulsion and we are free and answerable with reference to the utilization of this achievement.
The freedom implies how we utilize our compulsions. What we observed with our eye-sight? The pilgrimage of pious places or luxurious palaces of self. How we utilized the finite life? Complaints, pessimism, revolt or thanksgiving, hope, submissiveness, prayers, where did you utilize it? Discoverers found the secret of life and losers left after having destroyed their lives and left behind deserts. A man said, “If man is born to die; why do we act?” Another man said, “Because we have to die, therefore, it is important to act.” In the same compulsive life, some people feel helplessness and cannot come out of disappointment. Whereas in the same compulsive life some people light candles of hope, keep busy in action, and make the present life as well as the future life successful. Compulsion and freedom are the name of way of thinking. The rebels of the creator want freedoms. They feel obstructed by compulsion at every step. Believers are satisfied within their compulsions. They are introduced to new freedoms at every step.
Man has a strange situation. Life in temporary, the wish to live permanently here keeps on growing within him. A man wants to become permanent before retiring. The behavior of this life in temporary. Nobody has come to be here permanently. One who has come must leave and one who has been born must die. However, the flowers of freedom keep on growing on the same compulsive ground of life. It is a matter of feeling and style. Compulsion is the destiny of life and its behaviour aspires for freedom. We can neither be asleep forever nor can remain awake forever. Those who accept the perennial system of life happily achieves contentment. People of heart, people of love and, people of affection have converted the suffocation and compulsion of life into music of freedom. In the valley of annihilation, they are freed from the compulsion of survival. When they come out of their existence, they become the memory in the hearts of their followers and remain alive forever. A man under compulsion is converted into a free-man with the blessings of love. Love achieves freedom from the sphere of compulsion. Slave of freedom is the slave of love. A belly-worshiper is always under compulsion.
(Qatra Qatra Qulzum Pg 181-186)
