Hemin Abdullah > Hemin's Quotes

“Tell me what you do with the food you eat, and I'll tell you who you are. Some turn their food into fat and manure, some into work and good humor, and others, I'm told, into God. So there must be three sorts of men. I'm not one of the worst, boss, nor yet one of the best. I'm somewhere in between the two. What I eat I turn into work and good humor. That's not too bad, after all!'

He looked at me wickedly and started laughing.

'As for you, boss,' he said, 'I think you do your level best to turn what you eat into God. But you can't quite manage it, and that torments you. The same thing's happening to you as happened to the crow.'

'What happened to the crow, Zorba?'

'Well, you see, he used to walk respectably, properly - well, like a crow. But one day he got it into his head to try and strut about like a pigeon. And from that time on the poor fellow couldn't for the life of him recall his own way of walking. He was all mixed up, don't you see? He just hobbled about.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“You were saying you wanted to open the people's eyes. All right, you just go and open old uncle Anagnosti's eyes for him! You saw how his wife had to behave before him, waiting for his orders, like a dog begging. Just go now and teach them that women have equal rights with men, and that it's cruel to eat a piece of the pig while the pig's still raw and groaning in front of you, and that it's simple lunacy to give thanks to God because he's got everything while you're starving to death!...Let people be, boss: don't open their eyes. And supposing you did, what'd they see? Their misery! Leave their eyes closed, boss, and let them go on dreaming!”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“I suspect the truth is that we are waiting, all of us, against insurmountable odds, for something extraordinary to happen to us.”
― Khaled Hosseini, And the Mountains Echoed

“It's a funny thing... but people mostly have it backward. They think they live by what they want. But really, what guides them is what they're afraid of. What they don't want.”
― Khaled Hosseini, And the Mountains Echoed

“They say, Find a purpose in your life and live it. But, sometimes, it is only after you have lived that you recognize your life had a purpose, and likely one you never had in mind.”
― Khaled Hosseini, And the Mountains Echoed

“Beauty is an enormous, unmerited gift given randomly, stupidly.”
― Khaled Hosseini, And the Mountains Echoed

“لا بد من التمييز والفصل بين "الدين" والفكر الديني، فالدين هو مجموعة النصوص المقدسة الثابتة تاريخيا، في حين أن الفكر الديني هو الاجتهادات البشرية لفهم تلك النصوص وتأويلها واستخراج دلالتها. ومن الطبيعي أن تختلف الاجتهادات من عصر إلى عصر، بل ومن الطبيعي أيضا أن تختلف من بيئة إلى بيئة-واقع اجتماعي تاريخي جغرافي عرقي محدد- إلى بيئة في اطار بعينه، وأن تتعدد الاجتهادات بالقدر نفسه من مفكر إلى مفكر داخل البيئة المعينة.”
― نصر حامد أبو زيد, نقد الخطاب الديني

“ربما لا تصل الرسالة إلى الإسلاميين، لكن من المهم أن تصل إلى العلمانيين الذين يخضعون للابتزاز الديني في أغلب الأحوال، فيتحاشون استخدام مصطلح العلمانية تقية وخشية الاتهام بالكفر والإلحاد. لكنهم بهذه التقية يؤكدون بالصمت التزييف الذي كشفناه، هذا إلى جانب أن تركيزهم على مسألة "المجتمع المدني" دون ذكر للعلمانية يؤدى إلى تزييف مفهوم "المجتمع المدني" ذاته، لأنه لا يمكن أن ينهض إلا على أساس علماني. والأهم من ذلك كله أن تصل الرسالة إلى الجمهور الصامت الحائر بين "الإسلام" و "العلمانية" والمتردد بالصمت الذي يفضي صمته إلى استمرار الحال على ماهو عليه.”
― نصر حامد أبو زيد, نقد الخطاب الديني