Chicken Run

“I always wonder why birds choose to stay in the same place when they can fly anywhere on the earth, then I ask myself the same question.”

― Harun Yahya

A few months back, we had a family dinner--used to be weekly, until everyone got busy, even on the weekends, so it becomes rare to have it. We had roast chicken, homemade. So what would be the best topic to talk about when you're eating chicken with the family? Chickens. Duh.

Momma told us about the average chicken sold at the supermarket. From the day they hatched, they were placed in a packed room with other chickens. Like canned sardins, but chicken. And they are constantly fed with God knows what, and in addition, they are not able to move freely. So where they pick their food, that's where it'll drop, from--uh, the other end of the chicken. So, food mixed with 'processed' food. Dirty, eyh? But they weren't given a choice. The men didn't ask them "so..you wanna go free, or do you want to live in this hella dump, until you've added enough weight, and we'll kill ya." That's the only life they knew. If they knew, how the world is outside that 'box', surely they'd fly away. Way to ruin our appetite, Ma.

That's not all, the lights in their massive, dense coop is on 24-7. So they don't sleep. What do they  do? They eat, they get fat because they don't move. And they get jabbed with hormones to increase their rate growth, daily. So they would weigh enough before they age enough. And to our dinner plates they go. It's a miserable life for a chicken, really.

Lets summarize this;
- The chickens 'lived' a small, enclosed life of lies.
- They eat whatever is fed to them, regardless how dirty and disgusting it may be.
- They eat, and eat, and in the end, they die.

But this ain't about chickens, I raise you one level--or a few more up. About homo sapiens.

Lets try this out;
- Some of us live in small, cooped up world. Not knowing what the world has to offer beyond their world.
- Some of us, take in informations, or in other words, 'eat' whatever is spoon fed to us, regardless of how truthful it is.
- Some of us, take whatever is given to us, and just, lay there. Only to die in the end.

Seems like we have a lot in common with our dinner, huh? Well, no. There is a difference, one major difference. The chickens, there is no choice. They weren't given any opportunity to change their lives. It ain't no Chicken Run. But us-- probably halfway through our life, we were given more than enough chances to make a change. It was by CHOICE. We put ourselves in small coops.
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Actually, those 'some' of us, are the majority. And frankly, I see majority muslims live such a way. Like mass produced chickens. Because we are taught to be grateful with what we have, and not be greedy, and whatnot. Faith in he Qada' and Qadr, it is as Allah have planned. But even in Islam we are not to simply wait for things to happen to us, but to go out and make it happen. If it by God's will, then it shall happen. If not, either you keep at it, or find another way.
The previous prophets, Muhammad (pbuh), his Sahabah, didn't have that pessimistic attitude. Even the great scholars of the past didn't. They worked their ass off. Word.

“We live not in the world outside, but in a world inside ourselves.”
― Harun Yahya, The Little Man in The Tower

"Treat a man as he is, and he will stay as he is. Treat a man as he has the potential to become, and he will be as he has the potential to become."
―Goethe

 The three quotes says it all. Here's another, just for the fun of it. I love quotes, just so you know.

"Be the change you wish to see in the world."
―Mahatma Gandhi

So what would it be? Chickens, or the chef's recommendation? By chef, I mean Allah. If it tastes bad, you're not eating it right.

We eat free-range chicken, by the way. Not the hormone injected, underaged poultry.

-Hafidz Iddin