By Ismail Hassan

It is disturbing to realize that we – Somalis – failed in every aspect. If you glance our recorded and oral history, you would find that we failed to satisfy the basic human needs such as water, shelter and food. As primitive nomads, we travel days searching for water, which is one of the basic needs. As far as we know, there was not a single period that we satisfactorily had enough, not abundant, water. Instead of manufacturing or importing simple water-drilling equipments, we resort to prayers - Salatul Istisqa, or prayer for rain - until today, which have had no apparent remedy. We ask God to provide water while we are doing nothing. We believe erroneously that since Prophet Mohammed prayed the salatul istisqa for water, we should imitate. What we failed to realize is that the Prophet’s era people were not advanced technologically to drill water. Therefore, exhausted and hopeless, they resorted to prayers, which apparently did not solve their problems. Other societies across the world did not resort to prayer but manufactured equipments to drill water. On Somali websites, you read, and sometimes see the picture for, people praying for water. When are we going to wakeup?

In addition, our people did not construct a shelter to protect themselves from wild animals. Wild beasts and carnivores have devoured them. Recalls, how many instances you hear an elder informing you that a lion devoured a young camel herder. How many people died simply because a bite from poisonous insects or snakes while sleeping outside. Furthermore, the only food that they consumed was camel milk, which does not provide the nutrition that they needed to survive. Until today, our people suffer from malnutrition. We do not have enough food or the required nutrition to survive.

Furthermore, Decease was and still is rampant. People were and still dying every day in every corner of our country. They were and still are not dying because of a bullet, but diseases. Whenever someone dies, we simply justify his/her death by saying that “his/her time is up.” This explanation stops us from investigating the real cause of the death. We use silly terms such as “waal lagusoo booday – something jumps on him/her.” This means that the “Engel of death” visited him/her and, therefore, there is no point of investigating the cause of the death; the answer is simple “Angle of death.” Then after few days, some of relatives of the diseased face the same death and the same explanation is utilized again. It could be that a simple bacteria or virus killed the person, but still we insist that we could have not stopped the person since his “time come to an end.” This unfounded and silly explanation contributed to our demise. How our people dealt with this failure?

Our ignorant nomadic ancestors as well as contemporary Somalis tried and still try to escape from their shameful and multiplied failures by concocting unfounded explanations. They had to find someone or something else to blame for their failures. They came up with the unfounded notion of predestination – that God somehow predestined our lives and we have no control of it. Whenever something goes wrong, instead of finding the causes and its remedies, we conveniently invoke the predestination notion. Still today we are using such a ridiculous explanation Therefore, we are not responsible for any failures: if someone dies, God kills him/her; if someone become sick, God makes him/her sick; if someone is poor, God makes him/her poor; if someone becomes mad, God makes him/her made. Individually and socially, we accepted this notion. How many people do you meet that justify their failures by invoking the predestination notion? I remember a discussion that I had with my barber. While he was cutting my hair, we discussed about the importance of education. He asked me whether I graduated from the university. I informed him that I did. I advised him to go to school part-time while he is working. He told me that he wanted to educate himself, but Allah destined him to be a barber. And whenever Allah allows him to go to school, he will do it. I was angered and disturbed the manner in which he justified his laziness. This is how we justify our failures individually as well as socially. God becomes our explanation. Other societies’ attitude when something bad happens is “let us do something about It.” for us, it is the opposite “we cannot do anything about It.” the attitude or the ways in which a particular society interpreters the world determines their survival. Our erroneous and unfounded interpretation and narrow understanding of the world can be seen today in Somalia.

Instead of finding the underlying causes of civil war, many Somalis believe that what is happening in Somalia is a “punishment” from God (the predestination notion); that we somehow committed a horrible sin, which angered Him. God becomes the refuge of the ignorance, the failure and the loser. The predestination notion paralyzes the intellect of the person. It makes him/her a robot that cannot think or solve any problems. By the way, why bother if you know that your destiny is already predestined. This notion alone contributes the demise of our progress. Had it been that we understand rationally and scientifically that every affect has a cause, we would have solved many problems that we are facing today.

If want to survive, we need to understand the world rationally. We need to realize that our conventional understanding of the world is not sufficient and cannot survive from simple scrutiny. The notion that God somehow predestined our lives is unfounded and immature. If God predestined our lives, we bother to improve our lives; why bother to pray or help the poor; why bother to do anything? It is contradictory in nature. God wants from us to improve our lives, to help the poor, to pray…etc, but, at the same time, He predestined everything in live. How can any rational person understand this? Let us not blame God for our failure and let us take responsibility.

Email: Ismailhassan56@yahoo.com

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