asma's blog

I spent the better half of last week having discussions about mirrors. I’ve always thought that the idea of a mirror is quite unatural and odd. Think about it: as human beings, we are created with eyes that are able to see everything. We are able to see others, the world, our own bodies, etc but we are not able to see our own faces. There is a reason for the mass development of mirrors, which I think is much deeper than just technological innovation.

Mirrors are everywhere now. Every room in a home has at least one mirror. In public settings practically everywhere we go, is embedded with mirrors. And what’s crazier, no matter where we are, we can pull our phones out of our pockets and boom a mirror.

As human beings, I think Allah created us without the a built-in mirror for a reason. While discussing this with my cousin, she told me an enlightening fact. During the hunter- gatherer times, the only way an individual would be able to see their own reflection would be at looking at a creek of water. They would do this to check for scars, wounds, cuts or bruises on their faces. It was a survival tactic. Imagining that thought, I realize that even when looking in water, our own perceptions of ourselves would not be as physically acurate as they have become now. With the state-of-the-art precise imaging that we have now, you can spot every blemish, every wrinkle, pretty much every characteristic of your face down to an exact pixel. So why now? I don’t think I have a clear answer on one universal why, but I can share my thoughts in general. We live in a very interesting time of the world. People everywhere are able to see themselves at any given time. But are we realling seeing ourselves? Do we really know ourselves? Do we really understand why we act the way we do, why we treat others the way we do and why we speak the way we do? Outwards physical reflection may gives us the illusion of knowing ones self and going through introspection, but in reality most individuals are operating in the world from a state of unconcious paradigms. Mirrors are a symbol for a false sense of self awareness. They are a symbol for the theme of knowing everything factually, but knowing nothing internally at the same time.

And what a time for them to be here.

Look at social media, pop culture, and the internet’s state. We are fed incomprehensible amounts of data and content ranging across a wide array of themes. One second you get a prank video, the next second you will see someone climbing Mount Fuji, and the next you’ll get a woodworking tutorial. We see so much every single day, but in reality we are truly seeing nothing. We are seeing 15 second snippets into decades long process without ever having to go near the understanding of that decades long process because our attention spans can’t even handle a video longer than a minute. We know of the endless possibilites that exist but we think they exisit far beyond the realm of that which is possible for us.

So maybe we aren’t meant to be looking so deeply into mirrors. Maybe mirrors aren’t giving us an accurate view of our reflections. Because maybe, to see our reflections, we have to look at the world, our people, our places, our foods. Maybe the reflection we see in the mirror is the least important of them all. Maybe to really see ourselves, we have to look inwards. Inside our minds, our hearts and our souls. Maybe mirrors are an illusion, to keep us disillusioned.