The Roman Circus
The Roman Circus, with its grandiose spectacles and mass entertainment, served as a powerful tool for distracting the populace from the more pressing matters of society, effectively curbing critical and cognitive thought. In the vast arenas where chariot races, gladiatorial combat, and theatrical performances took place, the masses were consumed by the thrill and drama of the events, leaving little room for reflection or intellectual engagement. The circus became a means of control, diverting attention from political and social issues, and reinforcing the power of the ruling class by keeping the populace entertained and disengaged from the realities of governance and civic responsibility.
Circus Maximus started in the 6th BCE to make sure no one questions the decisions made by the rulers, to make sure the person is so occupied with the entertainment he receives that he completely forgets about everything else going on, an addiction to this entertainment. They spent masses of wealth on it just so that the people will not revolt against them, they were receiving what they wanted, they were “enjoying life” unaware of the crucial role that each person held in society, completely drained and void of thinking, an effective tool of making sure no one raises any voice.
25 centuries later the circus has evolved in a truly marvelous manner, why not make the circus available 24/7 to every person in the world to fully ensure that not a single being has the ability to rise and question whatever happens around them, involve them in the worst form of moral corruption so they devolve to nothing more than critters lying around. Make every form of personal degradation available in their houses so that no man holds any value in the system we operate. Adult content, gambling, intoxicants, all available to every person no matter where they are. It is not possible for a young person to not fall into these things unless he is being protected by a guide but there is no guide readily available to him the same way these things are.
Youtube, Instagram, Tiktok, Games, Sports, they are nothing but means of distraction, means to make sure no one thinks, to devolve me and you in a way that we do not stand up, like Iqbal said “Arzoo Awwal To Paida Ho Nahin Sakti Kahin, Ho Kahin Paida To Mar Jati Hai Ya Rehti Hai Kham” . Every game nowadays includes the aspect of gambling by the name of “luck”, the amount of evil on social media can not compare to the amount of good, doom scrolling every single day after waking up and before sleeping, making humor more appealing than anything else, though it is not seemingly a bad thing but it is nothing more than a release of dopamine, flashing reels with vibrant colors, just to make sure you are fully involved in it and your brain falls for it completely. The Quran asks us to reflect, to think, to absorb whatever is around us so we may understand the signs of Allah, even if we go outside we are so absorbed in music that it is not possible for us to do so. Spending hours and hours watching a single cricket match, what if we were to think for that long about what is around us? To realize and think about the control
system we are present in? People are so involved in such forms of entertainment like Khalid Mehmood Abbasi stated that you may even blow in the ear of a child, he won’t listen, even a sufi is not this dedicated and focussed in his Muraqba. A person truly loses their reality, you may be the most dedicated person to Tasawwuf and Dhikr but you will forget everything once you open a game or start watching a movie.
And do not be like those who forgot Allah, so He made them forget themselves. It is they who
are rebellious. Surah Hashr – 19
There are 2 aspects of humans, one is what is on the outside, the animalistic form, the desires rise from this animalistic form, it demands and requires gratification, it does not care about the means at all, the Nafs of a person. Its requirements are to eat, drink, sleep, pleasure, if a person bows down to them he is nothing more than an animal. The reality is what is on the inside, the soul of a person, the Arwah. It is something completely different, it is the consciousness of a person that he loses when he sleeps, it truly knows the difference between good and bad, the more you bow down to your own desires, the more it fades away till it falls asleep forever, those are the people Allah SWT refers to as worse than cattle.
They have hearts with which they fail to understand; and they have eyes with which they fail to see; and they have ears with which they fail to hear. They are like cattle – indeed, even more astray. Such are utterly heedless. – Surah Araf 179
There is a listening that we all do, to listen with our ears, but there is a listening only a few do, to listen with what is truly inside, to reason, to think, to reflect and to perceive. This is the “self” in Iqbals philosophy of “Khudi”, the “self” that philosophers have spent ages trying to decode but are unable to do so, it is the true identity of a person which needs to be woken up in such a society where it is being forced to die.
Why would they want you to not realize your own true self? They are fearful, they do not want you to rebel against them because they know there will be no escape, the controversial book “protocols of the elders of the zion”, you may argue on its authenticity but you can not argue that it is what is occurring in the world, the infamous term “yahoodi saazish”, we are all enveloped in it in such a beautiful way that we do not realize ourselves. If a person abandons the shackles tied around him from a young age he is now an “extremist”. Westernization of Islam and liberals being promoted is nothing more than their own propaganda against Islam which is mentioned in the RAND co-operations public articles, “Building moderate Muslim networks”. It is not possible for you and me to not fall into it if we take social media as a guide. Where there is good there is bad as well, if we take everything at face value then we are liars ourselves.
There is a reason why sports players, anchors, social media celebrities are one of the highest paid people, they want you to follow that path, they don’t want you to follow what is required, creating situations in which a person is reduced to the demands of food and water. They do not wish for you to achieve the state where you are capable of doing something and this is not something they recently did, credit where due they have spent a lot of time and effort on it to fully nullify the concept of rebellion against them. Even if a person simply just realizes the truth of this world and the universe, he is capable of doing a lot more than a person that is just sitting at home and spending time watching memes, they do not wish for something like that to happen, every single capable person is a threat since he may wake others up to the truth.
From news to documentaries, it is not easy to find what is the truth which makes truth in this sense subjective to every single person. The only objective truth is what Muhammad SAW brought and what Allah SWT revealed, the Quran, in this time of Fitnah, the way out is the Quran, the guiding rope from Allah SWT.
It is a critical time in global politics for the Muslim to wake up, we had a duty that Allah assigned to us, a duty that the prophet SAW handed over to us, it is time to wake up and wake others up, knowledge is also key to waking up, to realize what is around us is not what is truly what belongs to us.
“This worldly life is no more than play and amusement. But the Hereafter is indeed the real life, if only they knew.” – Surah Ankabut 64