Sarang-sarang (Moderation)

As Tausug, we were nurtured to face life and relations with moderation. "ayaw makalandu', sarang-sarang sadja" (not to be extreme, but to be moderate), a good guide to life and living.

However, in reality life is full of people from different strands of the spectrum. There those who shun life and lived solitary life. For them, mundane life is an illusion. What matters most is the hereafter, so the decision to withdraw from mundane life. There those who live their families to pursue spiritual goals, thinking the leaving and the sacrifice is a minuscule compared with spiritual growth. Foregoing relationship or leaving one all-together is a temporary setback compared with the spiritual benefits.

There are those who believe there is only one life, the current one and the hereafter is an illusion. Life after death can not be proved by science and therefore it does not exist. Just one life and to enjoy it to the fullest. There is no sacred or divine. Divinity is a mental invention. We can choose to un-invent it. so we might as well enjoy a life of hedonism and humanism.

There are those who would force us their beliefs. They think they are right and everyone else is wrong. Their's is one single truth and that is what they will tell you or which they will agree. They are the arbiter of righteousness. We do not mind them living their own thing. However, they do and want us to succumb to their beliefs. it is not enough we respect them, we have to yield and I am not saying about extremists from my religion only. Extremists cut across religious, cultural and society's borders. Ostracism, exclusion and violence are common weapons to exact submission.

And so I went back to my ancestor's lore of moderation, "sarang-sarang". For in here, is a guide to living neither of the extremes, the exclusion of others or of violence. Live and let live. Just as our community imam (religious leader) frequently say, to you is your religion, and to me is mine; yes, we can live as neighbor with respect for each other's peculiarities.