When I was kid, I met many Arab thinkers, writers & intellects, owing to the fact my mother & uncles are writers & poets. It hit me at a very early age that the man behind that great novel, poem or art work is a man of not too many principles… He writes about ethics, love and the wonder of living when in reality he is far removed from anything noble or courageous… or Great.

One of the major poets in the Arab World, who happens to be known all over the world, was in a party organized in his honor some years ago. He wrote some of the Arab World’s best poetry, a man of deep sensitivity to life’s challenges, beauty and mystery. After gulping down the second glass of scotch, he started hitting on every moving female in the room, cats included. What a sad spectacle!

This schizophrenia is mind boggling. What a man writes does not reflect “who” that man is. The question is: Who writes? His soul???

The same goes to one of Egypt’s most known caricaturists, may they both rest in peace. Great art, but a dysfunctional person… I know artists usually pride themselves for being free from conformity, but does that entail adopting sleaziness as a life style?

Musicians too have that aura around them that proves to be false once you dance a little bit closer to the fire. They project an image of sensitivity, love and liberty… the minute you rub shoulders with them you find out that all the theoretical things their music is all about, is indeed theoretical. There is great hollowness behind great expressions of music, articles and art!

In this time and age, creative men are a danger to humanity (LOL). No, really, they are. A man who lives in the realm of thoughts, ideas, dreams, art and music is a man who is not aware that his daily life is void of all of the things he philosophizes about. Instead of spending time building character, he simply imagines it. He deceives himself into thinking that the minute he “expresses” great ideas, he automatically “becomes” them. He preaches Love when he might be the worst sadist you could bump into with a heart of stone. He preaches loyalty when he has no clue that loyalty transcends the cheating part into other landscapes that he never even ventured into. He is satisfied with where he is standing because he has a good picture in his mind about who he is – a two dimensional picture that is shaken and torn at the first test of time.

Men with great charisma, who inflict dizziness on the female kind, are dangerous species. They base all their interactions with you on the false aura they create around themselves, on illusion. They make you swoon under the influence of words they like to use frequently: “freedom,” “love,” “liberty.” You fall in the God forsaken trap, then the aura starts to disperse. You are left with the naked truth biting at your fingers for having been so stupid to fall for it all.

Where is the noble man of great heart and faith? Many men think if they are ego centric, charismatic and proud of themselves they are automatically at the footsteps (or peaks) of Greatness. Greatness has nothing to do with words, parades, popularity or achievement. It has nothing to do with status, ego or the way we project ourselves to the world. Very recently a man of super huge ego told me he had gone through many trials in life that made him ego-less. What kind of a mirror do people look into before coming up with conclusions of the sort about themselves?

The ego is a very tricky, slippery place. Sufis take their mureeds down untrodden paths to harness the ego. Once you’re done with earthly ego – that holds dear status, material achievement – you are now ready to taste the fires of freeing yourself from the shackles of spiritual ego. It’s not an easy journey, getting rid of earthly ego (of desires, false senses of security,  paradigms of thinking that have the Self as the center of the universe), one is ironed day in and day out with the coals of self-importance, spiritual & intellectual alike.

Bowing to Allah as a selfless person, clean from any thought, any possession, any attachment, is the very reason why one cries at night on the pillow. Allah, you alone can bring me salvation, you alone can guide my soul, you alone can free me from me. You alone can free me from everything that is not You. Amen.