Individual Rhetorics Effect

ASSALAMU`ALAIKUM WARAHMATULLAH

Sometimes, as you flip through books, you would find quotes and verbatims by famous authors or writers. You feel inspired, moved and write those lines down in your journal. But then less than a day week later, perhaps lesser, you have forgotten them and what they meant to you. These lines may be effectual in a long run for others, but since we have our own idiosyncrasy, they might as well are not working for us. 

These, we call 'Individualistic Rhetoric Effect' (IRE), a concept that dictates, a quote has its own scope and depth of effectiveness (read: 'scope' means 'how many people can be inspired', whereas 'depth' means, 'how long it can inspire the people effected'). This concept also can be put this way: the more people inspired in a longer period of time by a quote, the bigger its IRE score is. And yup, I made this concept up just now.

Being a reader, I have found several quotes which for me, sound so inspirational. The quotes I will be typing are the most effectual for me. They have made big changes in me and I am glad to share them with my friends. Not that anyone would read but, I just feel like sharing it. Anyway, these lines may not be as significant for you as they are for me; remember, we are different. Have a journal to keep an anthology of quotes of your own. I am making mine :)

"As you think, you create yourself"

Oh, how real and wonderful this quotation is. Although it is hard to be grasped, understood let alone swallowed, it does have this magical effect upon me. I mean, all this while I have been thinking about negative things and how to extinguish them. Instead of trying so hard to brush off those bad things, it would be better for me to focus my energy upon things I like and things that will get me to where I want to be. Rocky Mountains? Rio de Janeiro? Tibet? Say it! Hahaha :D

We think too much about the stuff we would like to eliminate, and bedazzled at how(soever) it begins to grow bigger, and bigger and bigger until there is no more room in ourselves for other things to grow. As you think of something - no matter you are against it or like it or being neutral about it - you are basically building it within you. Sometimes we cannot help it. All the twerks of obstacles and distractions, for us, must at all costs, be erased. We then find ourselves busy sweeping them off our life, while at the same time, loosing grip of our own life.

"A good deed ignored in the name of integrity is a stain of integrity"

It is a derivation of Saidina Ali's famous quote,"Those who do not do a deed (even though they have the chance to do it) with the belief that the deed will turn him into a man of riya' (read: those to do things for fame and appraisals), is indeed a man of riya`". Quite an absolutely powerful words there, if you ask me.

Now how many times do we pick up a trashed paper and a littered plastic bag in the public? How many times do we help an old folk with his grocery bags his shaking hands could not afford to carry? Psychologically, we do not do it because we think someone else might appear and help the lad instead, and because we do not want to be seen as a sociopath, looking for credits. Well, does not this show how corrupted your soul is, as equally corrupted as those who do not help!

To be honest, it is quite a hard thing to do for me myself, but as I live, and I learn, I began to understand how the world needs this thought to be put into actions. Famine, pollution, political crises, social destruction can be gradually eliminated if we do this value. I am trying to live up this.

"Either you think you can or you can't, you're both right"

A quote by Sir Henry Ford, if my knowledge serves me right. It depicts us as man of many options. Along the highway of life, we stumble upon boulders which by hook or by crook should be climbed. Either you are determined to climb that rock or refuse on trying, your decision will always be rightful and be what you deserve. The subsequent consequences that follow are too, what we deserve, then. A good decision can only be made by a good man. It is another way of saying, you are defined by what you choose.

"Shall I not worship He who created me and unto whom you will be return?"

If I am a Hiroshima, this particular verse of Qur'an is the 'Little Boy'. It gave both destructive effect upon my bad self and healing effect upon my good self. I cried literally once I pondered deep into this verse. As a man of meaning, this verse is an oasis of life. An elixir to hearts, regardless what heart you have. As a man of defiance, I fell to my knees in total surrender. No matter how hard a man of truth tries to swerve away (which is, in the first place, not an attitude of one), he will always be defeated by this.

Just in case one asks,:- of course all verses in the Qur'an are superior compared to all the quotes in this post. Every single verse has meaning(s) of its own. I have yet to learn them, one by one, and I am going to need a teacher for that. But the teacher has fled, so I have to start from some scratches. Anyway, the reason I choose the aforementioned verse is because it answered my prayer plain as day.

Take the verse from Surah Ad-Dhuhaa for example. Maa wadda`aka rabbuka wamaa qalaa, meaning: "Your Lord has not taken leave of you, nor has He detested you". Or the ayah from Surah As-Syarh: "Indeed, with hardship there will be ease". These two verses are phenomenal. Personally, Qur'an has the highest IRE score. I sincerely am thinking so.

The fact that the quotes I have chosen, complement and agree to the messages of Qur`an; the fact that these quotes are merely shades of many more shades of Qur'an; the fact that these quotes are nothing more but several contemporary derivations of lessons Qur`an teaches, and the fact that these shades are closer to myself, I think there is no harm in adopting them in your life. Whatever Qur'an says as wrong is wrong- fine. But let the contemporary understanding of it be kept.

"The people of faith are but brothers."

Again, another line from Qur'an. This time a ninth verse from Surah Al-Hujuraat. I cannot seem to understand why this verse, along with its Arabic transliteration, sticks deep in me. But I do know one thing; this verse is what has been keeping my love and affection towards my brothers of faith alive. Once I was a man of myself. I cared less about those who suffer in the aftermath of war and those who bleed in the name of Truth and Justice and Peace. But upon reflecting this gem, I realized how ignorant I was. How selfish I had acted.

This verse is a guidance for me and will always be, when it comes to relationship. I am a sucker in friendship and romance I suppose. However, in the sense of brotherhood, I will do anything to make my ikhwan and ukhuwat feel blessed when I am around. From this verse too, I assure those who want to revert to Islam; 2.8 billion brothers and sisters around the world got their backs.

Conclusion

If I do not apprehend myself from typing anymore, I might as well write a whole book in here. I wish I could share many more, but then I have commitments for myself. I hope these quotes do you any good. Seek your own quotes ans paste them on your desktop, locker, phone screen and ceiling and read them daily. You will be surprised with the results :)

P/S: The ulterior message of this entry it, "READ!"