Remember, Repent and Reconcile
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
8 May 2023
"Remember when you hurt someone even unknowingly. Repent at that
very moment and Reconcile."
Persian Mystic Jami
The
world commemorates May 8/9 as the Days of Remembrance and Reconciliation,
dedicated to those soldiers and civilians who lost their lives during the
Second World War.
A contrite
heart with a sense of repentance quickly reconciles. The entire spectrum of
mystic poetry, esp. Persian mystic poetry, is interspersed with the thoughts of
remembrance, repentance and reconciliation.
When Nizami
was young. He committed a grave crime. With the passage of time, he realized
that he'd never be at peace with himself unless he repented and accepted his
crime. He went to the man who suffered a lot because of Nizami's false witness.
He held that man's hand, cried and could just say, " Kill me for what I
did." That man immediately forgave Nizami. That was the turning point in
the great mystic's life. He became one of the greatest poets in the annals of
Persian and world literature.
"Your
conscience keeps gnawing at you until you take a step towards
rapprochement," wrote Nizami.
To
remember, repent and reconcile can ennoble the mind. Legend has it that Valmiki
was a dacoit. His name was Ratnakar. He used to kill and plunder travellers and
caravans. Once he fatally wounded a traveller. While dying, the victim said, '
If the gushing blood of a helpless man cannot change your heart, nothing
can." Those words of a dying man made Valmiki repent. They transformed
him. While there are seven different stories of Ratnakar's transition and
transformation into Valmiki, this legend has a symbolical importance of
repentance and reconciliation, mentioned in one of the versions of Ramayan as
there are many.
Burying the
hatchet and saying let bygone be bygone is perhaps the most difficult task. It
helps heal the wounds and make the things bearable.
Muslims
will continue to dislike, and justifiably at that, Modi so long as he remains
obstinate in his assertion that the Gujarat massacre in 2002 following Godhra
incident was NOT a pogrom. It was a state-sponsored genocide for which the then
CM of Gujarat is still unrepentant.
You can
make fun of Shashi Tharoor for his archaic English and dandy ways, but he was
the only man from the entire Congress Party who admitted that Afzal Guru
shouldn't have been hanged in February 2013. Congress was at the helm. To
repent is to begin a new chapter in relationships.
There's a
phrase in Swedish language. It's 'Edin Ne Besat ' (wiping the slate
clean). It helps create a new image not only at an individual level but at a
much bigger level as well.
Mrs Indira
Gandhi would have earned more praise had she ever openly admitted her ruthless
role in squashing Naxalite Movement in 1971 and in unlawfully imposing
Emergency in 1975. Both were terribly wrong decisions on her part.
Though it's
difficult to admit and repent publicly, it always invariably makes things far
easier and paves the way for reconciliation.
-----
A
regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative
religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the
world's premier publications in several languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/remember-repent-reconcile/d/129728
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