The Worldly Quest

I’ve only now realized that it’s very easy to lose focus, to allow yourself to be so consumed within the Dunya that you start to wither away, essence-wise. You don’t put in enough effort to nourish your starving soul. You let yourself drift away, from the Light, from your closeness with the Supreme Being. This leads to an emptiness within your core and gives rise to a hollowness that is reflected not only in your behavior or words but also starts to eat away at you from the inside. It’s a kind of depression, the reason of which you are unable to comprehend.

This is the time when you must take some time out for reflection. When you feel you’ve distanced yourself from your spirituality. When life gets so busy, running after worldly affairs that you rarely get time to focus on the little things in life or the small efforts that matter, which could eventually become your doorway to Jannah (Insha Allah).

When you reach a point where you just sit down to ponder over what life has become, and when you realize it is now no more than a surge of anxious accomplishments that may appear outwardly as commendable achievements but are never able to fulfill or satisfy you internally. This is the time when you need to take a pause, sit down and just think. The questions we need to ask ourselves are what are we doing exactly? Where are we headed? Are we contributing in the least bit towards the welfare of others? Are we making any significant efforts to make life easy for another human being? Are we providing any support to make other people more secure and happy? Do we even spare just a moment to make Dua for the ones who are suffering or ailing or are in trouble – without their reminding us to do so? I know, for a fact, that I’m not. And it is certainly not because I am unwilling to do so but mostly because I’m rushing to accomplish my daily tasks. Things such as my class work, the tasks at my job are so much more important. I find myself scurrying hurriedly to work and then rushing through to get home early so I can get more things done in little time.

We lead our lives as if we are in absolute control of whatever happens in our lives. But are we really? Why is it that we lose this sense that there’s this Being, the All-Supreme, who is in Control of everything? We can never be productive or successful without His Will. So then why do we let this false sense of self, cloud over the wiser part of us that knows that without His Help, we are nothing? Shouldn’t this reason be sufficient enough for us to extend help to our troubled fellow beings?

I was recently approached by someone for help and what left me surprised was my attitude towards it. This compelled me to question myself. Was I not usually the kind of person who would jump at the thought of helping out someone in distress despite not knowing them very well? But today, as I’m trying to juggle so many things at a time, I also find myself weighing the prospects of sacrificing my “precious” time that could be of use elsewhere. This is just how materialistic, selfish and inconsiderate we can become as human beings once we let this never-ending quest for the world and the worldly enter us.

For most of us, this realization that we’re heading in the wrong direction would only have taken a backseat and would not be completely lost. This is owing to the inherent light within us and our natural inclination towards the good in life, which is an undeniable Blessing from Allah. And we have to continue making a conscious effort to rid ourselves of this rat-race mentality and focus on the greater things in life, otherwise, we just keep sinking deeper and deeper into this vicious, monotonous circle that deprives us of connecting with the Almighty. We need to keep pushing ourselves out of it. We need to allow this need for connectivity with Allah to resurface because it forms the very basis of the calmness and serenity that nourishes us from within, that calms our consciences, illuminates our soul and even with our imperfections, makes us whole.

Great (And Small) Expectations

Tears slide down your cheeks as you ponder over events that are currently the hot topics of your life. You try hard not to feel sorry for your own self. You try your best to be thankful for everything Allah has given you. Because face it – He has given you like a real, real lot. You have it better than most people in this world. So the point is – should you be even feeling the feelings you are feeling? Should you be even discussing this stuff with your family and friends? Should tears even be shining within your eyes?

So then what exactly are you supposed to do? Just shut out those feelings? Or are you supposed to cope with them and channelize them towards a better end? Keep reminding yourself that you have a whole lot of things to be thankful for. That isn’t so hard to do, is it? Well, not if your mind is at peace. But what if there’s this grueling debate going on in your mind every time you seem even a teeny bit ungrateful? You get this nagging voice in your head that when every time you complain or rant out in front of family and friends, says ‘how dare you?’ (And I’m pretty sure it’s with that spooky hissing sound!) Well, you should just try and shut it out too. It’s because it takes you to another extreme. It might just push you over the edge and make you really mad. At whom, you ask? Well, at yourself! For being logical all the time! 

So you should be allowed to feel sorry for your own self some time in your life, right? Umm, not exactly. Because once you open that gate, it can lead you to this really dark and depressing valley. It can steer you to recount all the bad incidents that have ever occurred in your life – even the ones that don’t relate to this current bad event in your life! It can get you to a point that you begin to start feeling like a loser – as if you have not achieved anything in your life – which, by the way, is not true. If you’ve ever caused happiness in the life of even just one person around you, your life is most definitely worth living, my friend. So the question that arises is – why? Why does it have to be so simple to sink into this hole of self-pity? It’s because it’s effortless to feel negative. It’s like second nature. Unless, you condition yourself to be positive all the time. So how do you do that?

We’re all regular human beings, we have this natural instinct of being hopeful – even when we’re not exactly in the mood to be optimistic. Your heart would be down in the dumps, you would be ‘basking’ in misery, agonizing yourself over how there’s not even a glimmer of hope in your life. But even then, your heart knows that there’s still hope. It’s hope against hope but it’s there! Because no matter how despondent and dejected you feel, you know your Lord is there. He’s Watching over you, He Knows you’re hurt and He Knows how much. He’s got some good things Planned for you. He doesn’t want you to have them now because it’s not the time. It’s not your time – yet.

So this tiny gleam of confidence, of faith, of positivity – where does this come from? It comes from the very Source your (perceived) misery (a disguised Blessing or trial) has come from – the Almighty. He basically Guides you towards Himself. He Illuminates your path and drives away the darkness that you insist upon embracing, provided that you enact upon that slight sparkle of brightness, on the condition that you convince yourself to hold on to that light and that hope.

So what can you learn from that? It is to direct your expectations. It teaches you to subject all your hopes and pine all your expectations against that One Supreme Being. Your disappointments, failures, tears as well as victories, achievements and happiness are all from Him. Your expectations can either make or break you. They can make you if they’re from Allah but if you keep awaiting fulfillment of your dreams based on your anticipations from any lesser being, be sure that they would end up failing you in one way or another. Even when things slip out of your hands and it seems as if another person is to blame for it – be certain that it is the part of your Lord’s Magnificent Plan for you. You just need to keep faith and keep expecting but down the correct route and in the right direction.