SANCTITY OF LIFE : HUMANITY AT CROSSROADS
By Taiye Olaniyi
The importance of human life to you, I, and every human being ever created by the same God and to whom back it goes after this present existence should never be trivialised by anyone and by any means, anytime.
The soul incarnate in man, of essence, is, pure. Pure because it is of Divine origin.
Every effort man therefore makes to attain eternity with God our Creator, invariably the Creator of every living being, everywhere, has to be directed at further nurturing this soul essence incarnated in our being with utmost purity of thoughts, words and actions.
The recent barrage and sorties of rockets, bomb blasts and other lethal weapons on fellow humans by the alleged Hamas and Israelis in Gaza including neighbouring nations and the grouping and regrouping under whatever umbrellas give one cause for concern. Cause for concern because the Middle East of the Jews and Arabs and their minorities lay claim to the superiority of their perceived and promoted means of accessing God for the salvation of humankind yet, historically and in reality have been too engulfed in too many destructions over land and its repositories.
Further to this are the crudities of alignments of numerous nations of the world both advanced and developing and those of the phylum of the poor taking sides and positions that get the sustainability of humankind at a crossroads.
Religions which ordinarily should be seen to promote peace, tranquillity and total emancipation of humankind from the ravages of sins, seem the same that often attract dealing ruthlessly with one another both on intra and interfaith matters of sociocultural, political governance, geopolitical and economic development and underdevelopment of millions if not billions of humankind.
In less developed countries of the world like Nigeria, utterances from religious rulers and leaders are not towards the universality of peace for humankind. Rather than unite all the variants and dissimilarity in our varying religious persuasions, for appreciating God as the Creator of every living being and the diversities in everything created, everywhere, the tendency is now more promotion of war efforts and their skirmishes as they take sides here and there.
Let it be said from the onset loud and clear, God created us all equally by giving the same essence that is most fundamental to you and me, the gift of life, His breath that to date makes us living soul.
Without this precious gift, the breath of life, you and I cannot be. As such, no superiority or inferiority of this precious gift in anyone.
As it is fundamental to you so it is to me and us, to all others, everyone, everywhere, at all times no matter the accompanying tides of time and space.
So, if life is this sacrosanct and sacred, to be nurtured by nature and man, why then the brutality all over the world?
Why is humanity daily at a crossroads everywhere, time past, now and the fear ingrained in a bleak future as it seems, though not the prayer?
Think about it, your life how precious to you and why you treasure what you cherish for others around you.
Why do you think you should continue to be why others should or should not because of who and who you are, you think you are and think you should be?
In time past as it is always being made cyclic by our inventions of thoughts, words and actions, few are regarded as only the ordained children and beneficiaries of the one and only God's Divine revelations while others in plural perspectives are of lesser inheritors of God's light, life and love. Should this be taken hook, line and sinker?
This though, is the thinking according to dictates of man.
The rich, the powerful, those occupying positions of authority, religious leaders, politicians, the scientists, capitalists, the old and the youths, families and nations at large create circumstances that resonate in discordance of all sorts culminating in nipping in the bud the lives of fellow human beings.
Peace efforts sometimes end in another round of violence, maiming and deaths in their assorted forms.
Yet, in whatever, whichever, and wherever manner we try and justify the killings around us, individually, collectively tribally, nationally and racially including religiously, human life even those of what we term lesser creatures remain sacrosanct and should such be taken and treated as such by us all.
Life as it is, calls for nurturing once the soul is seeded in man.
It calls for the weeding of bad thoughts, words, and actions, the pruning of bad habits, the fumigation of bad character and ploughing for future destiny.
Once in a while if not all the time though all the time for every human being created by the one and only God, we should in prayer, and action cherish fellow human life, appreciate the lives of others and remember to honour our God for this precious gift, the sacredness of life.
One cannot explain how soul-lifting heart thrilling, emotionally scintillating and humanly tantalising the early morning prayer in thankfulness to the Creator the only Giver of Life. is
"God of our hearts, God of our realisations.
We thank Thee for the gift of Life and the return of Consciousness."
Are you, I, and all of us thankful to God, or Cosmic for the gift of Life and are we all conscious of the rights of others around us and humanity as a whole to the benefit of this "Breath of Life" also in them?
As Gaza in Palestine, Israel and other parts of the world are in flames, in this period that humanity is at the crossroads, let us always remember that we all belong to the same humanity and have the obligation to seek and reflect in us all,
The Greater Light of understanding with which we are entrusted.
May peace return to Mother Earth in which we find our earthly existence.
Taiye Olaniyi, a retired Postman of the Nigeria Postal Service, is based in Lagos