, 10 tweets, 2 min read Read on Twitter
The reason many people do not succeed is not inability, but rather, succumbing to boredom and indulging the idea of “not feeling it.” Empowering your whims like that assures destruction. In contrast, subjugating whim to intellect leads to results.
This has even crept into some education models. Alot of talk about “encouraging creativity” is just a cover for not enforcing discipline, as if it will create resentment in the kid. The huge myth is that discipline undermines creativity.
Do you know how much discipline it took to become a realist painter. Like Michelango and Leonardo. And those people weren’t creative? Discipline allows learning skills, which then open doors for creativity. There is no point in creativity if you have no skills.
The nafs has a lawyer that sits there creating words and expressions to justify it's desires. And people who couldn't achieve discipline themselves, will fear trying to discipline their kids or students.
The calligrapher Muhammad Zakariyya used to scoff at artists who called their work "freestyle." He would say there's no such thing. Art that has no rules and requires no disciplined training is just the expression of the lazy and unskilled.
And if you think traditional calligraphy is daunting, try spirituality. Tasawwuf without submission to the rigors of the law and discipline in avoiding temptations and doing dhikr is nothing but Popcorn Sufism.
I’m sorry if freestyle artists are offended, but this is what Zakariyya said. That’s his take on it after 4 years of disciplined training. He originally learned everything himself in America. Then he met a master and showed him his work. The master said...
… “You have potential. But to reach it, you need to start over from scratch." So he moved to Turkey and from zero.
Just look at this room. How long do you think it took to design this, then learn it, then execute it so flawlessly. This is generations of disciplined artisans.
(There are a lot of myths around discipline, like that it's misery and drudgery. That's actually not the case. More on that later...)
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