However, we live in a society built on the foundation of freedom and liberty. Our country (America) bombs freedom and democracy into other countries. All of us are free! Free to do what we want, free to dress, eat, spend, build, speak, and anything else we desire. This leads to a better society, a wealthier society. Look at what 300 years of freedom and liberty has done. It built America, the greatest darn country in the history of the universe.
Let's take a step back and ask, are we really free? No, I don't mean free from the NSA or Obama. I mean, is there such a thing as "freedom" in a metaphysical sense. Today, I had the freedom to drink two cups of Dunkin' Donuts coffee, or did I? About four years ago, I made the choice with all of my freedom and might to attend college, or did I?
Did I choose to be born on planet earth? Did I choose to be born in march? Did I choose to be born at all? Do I have freedom in any of these regards? I didn't choose my family, my ethnicity, gender, height, body shape, tone of color, DNA, brain, heart, lungs. I didn't choose any of these things. The lack of freedom in the entities I just mentioned is obvious. We have no freedom in that regard. But let's look at something more elusive, somewhere else where we also think we have freedom. I decided to attend college. But did I really?No. My parents chose for me, society chose for me. I was taught that without college I'm worthless, that I have to go to college. I have friends who hate education in general, but they are in college. Why? They are all adults. Don't they have the choice to just stop, since we're drowning in freedom and liberty? I don't think so.
If you go to a typical high school. You would notice that almost all of the kids are dressed the same. The emos all have the same brand of clothes and attitude, so does the jocks, the cool kids, and nerds. They all look like each other. Why is that? Don't they have a choice?
So, does freedom really exist?
The ironical part is that even though freedom doesn't exist, we think we have the freedom to do what we want. And this ultimately leads to us losing our freedom and becoming slaves to our whims and desires. If not whims and desires, we become slaves to society, for example, the high school kids, or me going to college (however, I do enjoy college).
This is one of the reasons I decided to start practicing Islam. We don't have freedom, we are slaves to either ourselves or society. The only true freedom is being a Muslim, a slave of Allah. Following the guideline of the Perfect, the Creator of everything, the Most Knowledgeable, and the Most Seeing, is true freedom. Following the commands of Allah means you free yourself from following the commands of men. And that is true freedom.
