Imagine what your obituary will say. That’s who “you” are.
Or is it?
In one class with the aforementioned teacher, while discussing the compartmentalization of knowledge that man does today to specialize in one particular field of interest, the question arose of who Man really is and whether meaning should be derived from the material life.
Compartmentalization of knowledge has created a breed of human beings indistinguishable from their field of specialization. Thus, a doctor has no meaning in life other than the one he derives from his job. A banker has no sense of being other than the one she obtains from her daily work. A newscaster does not know anything other than reading out transcribed news; a chef’s life is defined by the food he prepares.
Sameer and his peers have already started identifying themselves with their chosen fields of interest. Sameer intends to major in Finance and therefore, all his activities are garnered towards this field. Once the transformation is complete, Sameer would come to identify himself solely with his profession. If asked to describe himself, Sameer would use the terms “intelligent financial analyst” or perhaps “calculated risk-taker”. Either way, who Sameer is becomes contingent on his specialization.
The alternate is to view oneself as the creation of a supra-human entity. For a Muslim, this entity is Allah. But are we truly absorbed by the essence of religion? Evidence suggests that today’s life calls for a separation of religion from the core existence i.e. religion is used simply to add cosmetic beauty to one’s material life.
Sameer can already see this happening in himself and his colleagues. Religion has been shunned as a secondary aspect of survival. Communication with God is reserved for moments of pain and suffering. Prayers are conducted automatically five times a day without understanding the meaning behind the Ruku, the Sajda and the Salam. The mentality is that if one is religious, one cannot hope to survive in the business world. Consequently, who “Sameer” is cannot be fully explained via religion; Sameer is lost in translation.
Sameer’s obituary will not describe him, rather his achievements (or lack thereof) in life because that’s how he appears in front of the world. His thoughts and emotions become irrelevant. Such an existence is naturally caustic to happiness. Increasingly, humans are becoming psychologically challenged as the world is fragmented into smaller niches, each niche attempting to understand life but being unable to do so on its own. As a result, Man is unable to understand life and is stuck questioning the point of it all.
On the one hand, Sameer feels lucky to be able to think this way, to question and to attempt to understand his own existence. On the other, he feels lost in the cosmos of this life, stuck between materialism, religion and oblivion unable to even describe himself.
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