When we talk about regaining self-confidence we should know how we lost it in the first place. What stole away our confidence even though it was stronger when we were children? During our childhood years we enjoyed more confidence in our ourselves, but people started laughing at us, disparaging us, comparing us with who are better than us in certain fields, and so on and so forth. The results of such disparaging actions on us as individuals can also be generalized to a whole nation. For the same reason, a nation can lose its trust in itself, its ideas and ideals.
Whether on a individual or a national level, we
certainly have wrong ideas or correct ones which people distorted for us, so we
became hesitant and surrounded by doubts. Doubt and hesitation certainly
restrict and weaken us. When we were little, ideas didn’t have great effect on
us in the same manner when we became adults. We only knew what's inside our
small life circle, and we can't go back to that state. Therefore, our childhood
confidence can't be retrieved. What should we do then? The only way to regain
true confidence is through reexamining our ideas and correcting them. Lack of
trust in ourselves doesn’t mean we should trust others and what they say, as
there is an inverse proportionality between our trust in ourselves and our
trust in others, whether individuals or societies. The more we lose confidence
the more we trust others, and that is a problem.
Ideas are what form our confidence. The more we
understand the more we become confident. And I specifically mean understanding
not just collecting information from the media which one should doubt their
credibility as each has its own agenda. I mean personal understanding of all
what we learn.
Knowledge is an inaccurate word, the more
precise one is "realization" or "awareness", which is the
"clear vision" the Quran talked about. Knowledge can only make an
educated person, a collector and carrier for what people say whether good or
bad, and he/she might collect contradictory information and ideas without
knowing so. I encourage learning and reading, but we shouldn’t be satisfied
with that alone. In order for our minds to be in harmony with our hearts, we
should project all what we take from others to our reason and to our hearts to
discern the wheat from the chaffs, or at least to doubt what we take from
others. I encourage awareness, not reception.
As a matter of fact, having a shaky confidence
is a natural reaction, it's not a problem by itself. It's natural for a driver
to hesitate or stop when they don’t know the right way, this is not a illness
or a disorder, it's a sign of rationality. The problem lies in not looking for
the right way. Foolish people are always described with overconfidence and
recklessness. A rational person doesn’t walk confidently except on a firm and
stable ground, which can be found on God's straight path, the path of
understanding and clear vision, as said in the Quran: "Is he who walks
grovelling upon his face better guided, or he who walks upright upon a straight
path?" This is true confidence which is based on reason and understanding,
while who blindly trust themselves are nothing but foolish.
People always encourage self-confidence in
general, without elaborating whether it's based on truth or falsehood, on understanding
or ignorance, just be confident! This is a call for recklessness and insanity.
What does it mean to be self-confident? It means to trust your ideas since
yourself is formed by your ideas, and yourself will change when your ideas are
changed. Hence, people's ideas aren’t alike and aren’t all true, so how can we
encourage everyone to be self-confident regardless whether they are right or
wrong?! This will cause problems and clashes among those confident people!
I can certainly say to every rational person,
don’t be confident, be shy, hesitate, and stop at times, but search and don't
stop searching. And after that, I won't say to him/her: go for it! Because they
will naturally "go for it" without knowing that they did. Don’t envy
the ignorantly confident people as most of them are reckless and foolish. It's
said that prophet Mohammed saw someone instructing his brother not to be shy,
and the prophet said to him: "leave him alone, shyness brings nothing but
good."
It's important for people who adopt the Western
Materialistic philosophies to call for self-confidence in general regardless of
its basis. This helps eliminate the voice of the heart which will make people
expose their fallacies. It will also turn people into an irresponsible
adventurous consumption force for the capitalist to exploit, whether in pushing
them into wars or making them have economical adventures and burden them with
debts for more luxurious life. It will also help make people more daring to accept
their extreme ideas.
A con man is always happy to find an
enthusiastic reckless person. That's why they try to make people this way
through their media and movies. A rational person is cautious, always
confirming the ground before stepping his foot, and that certainly doesn’t help
who want to deceive people. The West isn’t free as we think it is, it's owned
by the capitalists who drive it towards serving their interests, and that
includes the politicians. All quarrels and clashes are caused by those who
ignorantly confident, they are the ones who cause problems and accidents and
commit crimes everywhere. Even car accidents are mostly due to overconfidence.
Sadly enough, materialists encourage this blind overconfidence and call it: the
adventurous spirit!
Moreover, how can we separate overconfidence
from arrogance? According to that view, a dictator who commands people to
worship him –as in the story of the Pharaoh who claimed to be god- is a
confident person, because no matter what signs he sees he doesn’t waver and
never changes his idea that he's the one and true god!
It should be noted that those capitalists never
like risky adventures for themselves, they meticulously study every step
they're going to make, even opining a new branch for their bank or factory goes
through thorough studies. However, they like to encourage others to take risks
and be adventurous, and that's understandable since a fisherman doesn’t like
cautious fish. That's why Capitalism likes wars and cheers for reckless people
because they operate its weaponry and supply factories. A merchant likes the
adventurous costumer more that the cautious and careful one. Most of the
Western culture and values are formed by capitalists in Wall Street and other
such places.
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