hatred and pain

Hatred is the intense hostility and aversion towards something that comes from fear, anger or sense of injury. A distaste that may emerge from very negative past experiences of dealing with such an object, be it justified or otherwise.

It is another step in the direction of anger. A dislike so great that it may last through years without end. And it burns from within. Much can be learnt from human history about the nature of hate. Racial prejudices, family feuds and world wars.

Looking at all these events, there's one thing we can concur. Hate leads to pain.Unbridled hatred could lead to much suffering. Not only to the object of the hatred, but also to those around him.

Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.
- Martin Luther King

It's ugly indeed. Hate blinds. It clogs up judgement and makes us irrational. With hatred comes the power to do ugly things, things that we couldn't ordinarily do. It enables us to inflict pain upon others as well as ourselves.

We've all been taught to love and show concern toward others. Islam promotes peace and forgiving.(as do most other religions) We've been told time and time again, that hate, only leads to pain. But how much of this is true?

Let's just put ourselves in this scenario:
Picture yourself alone in a room. And picture, next to you, a being so monstrous and ugly, that it makes your stomach churn. A titanic beast with eyes of the purest evil and a sinister smile left you frozen with fear. Look at its claws, dripping with poisonous ooze slimy and purple, as it claps and clitters them together, relishing in the clacking sounds that leave your ears ringing in eternal torment. Its putrid breath, sending out a vaporous black stench that makes your eyes waters and your nose flare up in pain. Disgusting?

Now picture this monster as it tears up your loved ones, killing them slowly. Sending them off from this world in a torturous and pain filled death. Peeling their skin from their flesh slowly and steadily. As it enjoys the screams of pain that comes from the burning throats of your loved ones. This monster, is hatred.

If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us. -Herman Hesse

There are those who hate something because they find it ugly. It is horrendous to their eyes. They find within it traits that they find displeasing. Traits that should never be manifested. These traits are ugly thoughts made real. Thoughts that sometimes we have but deem evil and not to be shown. Somethings are hated because these things are outward manifestations of the darker sides of us.