'Then I will come at them, from in front of them behind them, from their right and from their left. You will not find most of them thankful.' (Al-A’raf:17)
One of the predominant characteristics of us human beings are that we are full of flaws and imperfections; opposite of Allah who is the origin of all the glory, beauty and wholeness, manifested in His Asma-ul-Husna. Each of the Asma reveals an aspect of Allah that is discernable through the uniqueness, intricacy and the splendours of His creations and countless blessings that envelopes us and flow within us without us being aware of them.
He is the Creator and we, as part of the creations are at the mercy of Allah’s grace – the gift of existence, of air that we breathe, the mind to think and make choices, the body to perform whatever tasks to fulfill our needs, the food and water that we consume, in different forms, shapes, colour, flavour and the tounge to taste, the stomach to digest them accordingly and to absorb the good from them and remove the bad and unnecessary. And all the sights that we observe, the environment that live in, the places that we go to, the tools that we use and depend on, that we need to get our life going the way we have planned or to our likings, every second and moment of time.
The now, and the memories that makes us smile or frown, that taught us some lessons and fills our life with experiences, wisdom, and shapes who we are now and what we will become, of the possibilities and hopes that we have for the future and when things work out as planned or even better than what we have hoped for. And the people that we have around us, our loved ones, friends and acquaintances, enemies and strangers who enrich our lives and gives us some purpose in waking up everyday and going about living our life.
Every second of our existence is a precious gift from Allah, but how often do we even realize that at any next second it will all end or will be taken away from us. How often do we realize the extent of Allah’s uncountable and inconceivable gifts that He is granting us? Can all the Alhamdulillahs or thank you ever be sufficient to embody the amount of gratitude that should fill our hearts and minds?
And yet, all we do mostly is complain of all the things that we don’t have and the things that went or going wrong for us or in the world we live in. But who are we to say that all these wrongs are wrong? Is not Allah who makes things happen the way they happen, even the bad ones? We, who cannot even see an inch beyond our scope of vision or hear a decimal beyond our hearing capacity; or be sure of what others are thinking even if that person is standing right in front of us? Countless limitations compared to the perfection of Allah, the Grand Designer, the Knower of all things, the Master Planner. He plans, He designs and He initiates. He draws the paths, many of them and He puts in the hearts, minds, movements, actions; every little thoughts, deeds and words of the knowledge and ability to take any of the paths that are laid.
He rewards and He punishes. Can any reward be more glorious that His and any punishment be more intense than His?
Any blessing you have is from Allah. Then when harm touches you, it is to Him you cry for help. (An-Nahl: 53)
