The Price of Freedom

My son bought a cage full of birds. He doted on them, giving them fresh seeds sand water every day. One day, he forgot to close the cage door and when he returned home, he found to his dismay that the birds had forsaken their seeds and water in exchange for the sweet freedom of the open sky. It was as if the birds were saying to him: “Freedom is more precious to us than life itself!” 

Liberation must be achieved against the negative forces that prevent a person from realizing hs or her true self -- both those forces that emerge from within one’s own mind as well as external influences and pressures. People who claim they free in an absolute sense are merely fooling themselves. We are all bound by restrictions, some of which are visible and others that we cannot see. People’s movements are sometimes shackled by their own choices and at other times they are restricted against their will. Some people realize how their freedom is limited and are able to address the matter with clarity and awareness and . Other people are clueless. Still others choose to live in denial. 

Freedom is subjective. The real difference is between those who strive to attain it and exercise it in their lives by asserting their identity and voicing their own opinions, and others who unquestioningly follow a path pre-determined for them and say what others expect them to say. There are even people who desire being restricted. They not only subsume their identities to the will of others, but who celebrate their doing so. Such people are able to accept the representation of good as bad and bad as good, however circumstances dictate. 

Restraints on our actions come in many ways: family, friends, vested interests, memories, hopes, expectations, wealth, career, government, need… Restrictions encompass our lives, narrowing our scope of behavior, making us hesitate and equivocate. The only people who are completely free from these restraints are those who have passed on from this world. As for the living, we are subjected to them to one degree or another. 

A person finds he has lost valued relationships with people from various walks of life as well as many golden opportunities, but in the end this person accepts the loss, because he sees he has gotten something else in return: a greater scope to be himself! He does not claim to have earned himself completely, but merely to have broadened his potential for personal freedom. He is willing to bear the narrowing circle of of friends, loved-ones, supporters, and sympathizers. Indeed, he may weed some of them out himself so he can have a chance to hear his own voice. 

He has accustomed himself to tasting a bit of bitterness, confronting a few surprises, and accepting a lot of disappointments. Naturally, he hates these things, but he deals with them because they are easier to bear than losing his connection with himself and his self-expression. 

Sensible people has a store of “wisdom” to draw upon, allowing them to exercise prudence, decorum and delicacy in what they say. They know when to refrain from taking a stand. Another aspect of this wisdom enables them to recognize the truth in the words and deeds of others, to praise that truth, adopt it and build upon it. They can do so without denying the disagreements and differences that they have. 

Freedom is not brazenness. It does not mean to confront people at every turn and dispute with them for the sake of disputation. It does not mean to overturn everything that is familiar or to embrace that which is new just because it is new. It does not mean to take a stand against the government just because it happens to be in power. It is also not a quest to expose the errors and shortcomings of others as if their faults are some sort of currency to traffic in. 

However, experience shows that many people do not want you to conform with them on one or two positions, they want you to conform with them unconditionally in every way at all times. 

There are so many relationships that demand conformity from you: marriage, employment, ideological schools, society at large, trends, governments, the will of the majority, business partners, and even one’s followers. Beneath all of these demands are the restrictions that come from within our own psychological makeup. These are the hardest to identify and the hardest to break free from. Allah says: “And whoever is protected from the stinginess of their soul - it is those who will be the successful.” [Sūrah al-Hashr: 9] 

It seems like the people who make the most noise about freedom are those who have the least appreciation of it. Abū Sa`īd Ahmad b. Dāwūd once visited the great imam Ahmad b. Hanbal in prison during his persecution for refusing to proclaim that the Qur;an was created. He tells us the following:

I entered Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal’s cell during his incarceration before the time he was flogged. I said a lot of things to him to get him to publicly recant his views and go free, like: “You have a family depending on you. You have kids. You have an excuse.” 

It was as if I made his resolute answer all the easier for him. He said: “If that is your mindset, Abū Sa`īd, then you’ve taken it easy.”

This attitude can place you in situations and junctures where you will be tested and tried. Will you seek the easy way out unconditionally, even if it means sacrificing your own identity? Or will you hold onto what Allah has given you that makes you unique and bear the responsibility of your personal vision, even if it means you will have to give up some of the things you hope for and desire? 

I am not speaking here about being right or wrong. Making mistakes is also part of what it means to be right if we learn from our mistakes. Indeed, they are an inevitable consequence of living, of constituting our experience, and realizing our potential. -islamtoday.net