My work involves contact with many people.  Once in a while I come across nice people and some annoying people.  Today, I was on the phone with a person who spoke perfect French. I was very happy talking with him and I could not distinguish whether the gentleman was in fact a Frenchman. When I asked for his name, he answered “my name is Mustafa”. Knowing well this Arab name, I became more interested to know who he was.  He told me that he was born in Africa.  I was astonished, since the country where he came from was not a country of French influence. While we were talking, he mentioned that he lately visited another country in Africa whose population was very kind and innocent.  I know that the word innocent has a different meaning in each language. Then I said to him that I know an Arab saying which says: “Happy are those who are innocent” In Arabic: ”Ya Saadek Ya Saaed Enyia” which means the same as “Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit” Matthew 5:1-13.  Then I told him that if people think that the occident has lost its values, they are wrong.  The Occident is split between many groups, for example, the intellectuals, the analytic and the scientific people and the believers, the people with feelings, the religious; then the poor, the middle class, and the rich, those who create and those who build, the leaders and the followers etc, etc.”   Each group has its own voice and each voice represents an influence - some good, some acceptable and some unacceptable

It is possible to ignore any outside influences, in order to listen only to the voice of our heart for guidance. We have to be certain that the voice that we hear is in fact our own inner voice. In order to find our own voice we would need to immerse ourselves in total silence and in an atmosphere of meditation.  How else can we hear our own voice, which is stifled by the roaring voices around us?
 
Looking for our own voice is like looking for a needle in a haystack.  The outside voices want to influence us to their point of view.  It is advisable in such cases to play down our impulses to spontaneous reactions and ask ourselves: are these people who try to influence us really sincere?  Are they not in a situation similar to ours, surrounded by other voices trying to win them over to other beliefs?  They are lacking the strength of opposing these outside voices.  If only those outside voices could express themselves freely, they would probably speak sensible words which we would feel.  Our inside voice should evolve from humanity and justice.  If we succeed to listen to that voice, we would not feel lonely.