“Though it’s highly suspicious that the entire human population can be categorised into 16 groups of personalities, I now understand the pull of zodiacs and horoscopes. It feels good to belong to a group, that you can stop feeling so lonely and misunderstood (even just for a while) for there are others out there going through the same thing as you are. They say INFJs are minorities, the one percent. And though I cannot be 100% sure that I am one, I can say with certainty that it feels good to be able to finally say “I can relate to that right there” and for once be understood even if it has to be by strangers in foreign countries whose knowledge of my existence is… non existent. At first I felt shameful of this form of… entertainment? Often there would be cringe-y memes and writings with ugly fonts and microsoft word’s word art. But somehow the relief overcome the shame, and now I can say that I understand this need that human have. To have a sense of belonging. To be able to say “I also feel/think the same way”. And to learn a little more about yourself. I rate this activity 8/10.”
My best friend wrote those beautiful paragraphs as her caption on instagram post and needless to say: I couldn’t agree more.
The writing resonates with me deeply, especially on feeling embarrassed over obsessing on my MBTI group. But then again, I couldn’t deny that I did found the jokes and memes (on MBTI) heart-warming (if not entertaining).
“..it feels good to belong to a group..”
It always does! I might even say, it is the basic human necessities. It is humanly to define our identity. The least question to be asked is: Who am I?
When I used to ponder upon the question, things like family, race, nationality indeed.. calmed me down. Classifying myself to introvert pack then acknowledging the shared similarities helped me as well. It goes the same during school I guess, like.. managing yourself to be in one squad or joining organisations to proclaim yourself.
Possessing a solid meaning to oneself is substantial part of life, I concluded.
Despite the skin colours, beneath the varsity wear, whoever one’s last name is.. I had not known any better feeling than grasping my identity as a muslim. Islam had always brought peace, to my state of heart. It had always brought peace, to my piece of mind.
“…that you can stop feeling so lonely and misunderstood (even just for a while) for there are others out there going through the same thing as you are…”
And that’s exactly how Allah soothed Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)!
Imagine being sent to people of darkness, to pass upon His light. He (peace be upon him) had to face all kinds of mockery, had to experience all levels of loneliness.. being different, misunderstood, even accused on being mentally disturbed (astaghfirullah).. so Allah the Almighty reminded him of his identity. Allah calmed him down with the stories of the prophets, that he belonged to this righteous group of anbiya (the prophets) who encountered all kinds of troublesome to bring His light. MashaAllah.
This realisation helped me tremendously every time I feel isolated. When anxiety kicks in, I just needed to remember one thing and that is: I am Allah’s.
-h.a.
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