[Fiction] End of Humanity

Nashiyaan

“Those ready to commit atrocities in the name of religion are in reality its grave diggers.” Harken to the clanking of shovels. Are they preparing a stage of honour for humanity? Nay! They are digging grave for all of us. The time is well nigh, when number of grave diggers exceeds the souls inhabiting the face of our land. There is no one else to blame for defacing us from the face of earth. It is we who ruined our own home and hearth, brought desolation to human settlements on the one hand, and satiated hunger of cemeteries.

The more soil from land comes out of its womb, the more space for those living over the earth will be created within the earth. Our toil for digging more graves is turning the earth into a great cemetery, which will be indifferent to the sects of those who will be buried within. After all religion has descended from heaven and people will ultimately bury it under the tons of soil.

One day the Great Spirit took pity on a pious person who was sent to grave for no mistake of his and offered him new life so that he will spend rest of life in Nagshrot. The deceased said, “I am happy in this resting place, why are you sending me to place of unrest?  Please take pity on me. I fear not the wrath of disobeying you. I know I will be sent to purgatory, like Satan, and I am happier to embrace the deadly fire of hell, than to live in a place that has been turned into hell by your followers.’

Upon this the brooding spirit took a pause and said “O human kind! The more civilized and religious you are, the more brutal you become.” A madman watching all this from next grave uttered, “Poor mankind has been devoured by its own spirituality. I wish we would have striven to become more animals, than becoming defenders of the holy”.

Then the Great Spirit decided to give animals a better position in the hierarchy of beings, because they never threaten their own specie for some abstract notion, which was originally intended to ameliorate the situation of particular specie. This pronouncement was resented by mankind. Even some people termed apotheosis of animal to a higher status at the cost of mankind by the divine blasphemous. Like Satan, who mocked at the creation of Adam from clay, mankind derided at animals for their lack of reason and vision of future. ‘Uplifting of such a dumb creature into higher level of spirituality is tantamount to defiling the very notion of sacred’ thus spake the great priest of mankind.

While the people were clamoring against the decision, a saintly figure emerged from the thin air and reprimanded them for being short sighted and having short memory. He reminded them about the ethical ideals. The classical ethical ideals were incarnated in the figures of animals and birds. He said: “Why do you always quote from Aesop Fables, Kalila wa Dimna, Sheikh Saadi, Rumi and Fari-ud-Din Attar ‘Conference of Birds’ to represent higher human ideals. The saintly figure castigated humanity for always falling short of ideal and living under the illusion of being ‘chosen one’ and ‘best creatures’.

He continued, ‘Now it is high time to confer the title of best creature to the creatures who were deemed ideal by the very people who claimed to be their masters and condemn mankind to live under them.’ Gesturing towards the devastated settlement of Nagshrot he spake ‘you have turned your city into a wasteland. It seems you long for rule of jungle. Now your wish has been granted. Only by living like animal you will become human.’ He wrote these commandments on a cliff that stands besides the statue of Buddha. It is said that thereafter the phase of animal kind in the spiritual history had started. Humanity died his own death long ago. Only spirit remains alive, though within different creature. Who cares for husk when focus is on kernel.