And a few of My servants are thankful....

If there is ever an aayah that should put us to shame when it is recited, it should be the verse in Q34 vs 13 where Allah says 'And few of My servants are thankful'. 

There are so many blessings that Allah SWT blesses us with.

By night and by day, Allah is providing for us and protecting us and giving us from His bounties and yet, very few people thank Allah SWT. 

This is sad because Allah describes His blessings in the Qur'an saying 'And if you try to count the blessings of Allah Azza wa Jalla, you wouldn't be able to enumerate them'. Yet, very few people thank Allah SWT. 

There are so many blessings of Allah that we take for granted.

How many people thank Allah for having a good skin? It is something we have taken for granted but there are people who have very bad or irritable skin.

Who opens his/her wardrobe in the morning and look at all the clothes in it and thank Allah for that? Most people look and complain that they have nothing to wear.

Who thanks Allah for having a good teeth? We take things like that for granted don't we? But the fact is if a tooth gives us some trouble and causes severe headache, we run to the dentist and complain to him. The dentist removes it and throws it away and we thank him for that.

In one hadith, the Prophet described a man who worshipped Allah so much that he had 70 years of ibaadah of good quality and quantity. Then on the day of judgement, Allah would ask His angels to take him to paradise based on the mercy of Allah. When this man hears this, he would asked to be judged not based on the mercy of Allah. Allah would then give him the choice of whether to be judged based on His mercy or his deeds. The man, thinking he has 70 years of worship with good quality and quantity, chooses to be judged based on his worship. 

Allah then asks the angels to take just one of the many blessings that we cannot count, the blessing of eyesight, and they put it in the scale on one side of the balance and his seventy years of good worship on the other side of the balance and the sole blessing of eyesight outweighs the seventy years of worship, Subhanallah! 

Yet, we take all these blessings for granted. May Allah assist us. 

And few of My servants are thankful....

NEVER SAY NEVER

A lesson from the life of the Prophet: Never say never.

Oneday, a companion by the name of Rabi'ah ibn Malik al-Aslaami did something which really pleased the prophet (SAW) so the prophet said to him "Ask (anything)". Rabi'ah said "I ask of you to be your companion in Jannah" so the prophet said "or anything else" to which Rabi'ah replied "that is it" so the prophet told him "a'inni ala kathratis-sujud (assist me with a lot of prostration)" - Muslim.

perhaps, you are yet to see anything extraordinary in this hadith. Let's examine it.

Why did the prophet say "or something else" i.e he should ask for something else?
Rabi'ah asked for something very special, something that we might say, he was not entitled to. You still don't understand? Come along.

Rabi'ah knew that the prophet has a special place in Jannah so he wanted to be with the prophet there. This is a place, the likes of which, other prophets would not have the privilege of staying, not to talk of a Sahaabah. But Rabi'ah didn't think anything was impossible. The prophet told him to ask for something and he asked without thinking "that would be too much".

That action of Rabi'ah is the major message of this post.

Don't you Ever look down on yourself or put yourself down, don't do that. Learn a lesson from Rabi'ah who didn't think anything was impossible.
Tell yourself you can do it and don't allow anyone to tell you otherwise. Although this doesn't mean doing away with good counsel.

LEARNED HELPLESSNESS;
In psychology, there is a concept of 'learned helplessness' which was discovered in circus elephants.

It is a common knowledge that the elephant is an animal with incredible strength, but in the circus, the 'all mighty' elephant is tied to a small short stick that is driven into the ground. The amazing thing is that the elephant, with it's brute strength, doesn't even try to break free.

Why? you might wonder. The answer is really simple.
When the elephant was younger, it was tied to something similar and despite exerting all its effort, it failed to free itself. So the elephant, though stronger now, thinks he still cannot break free so it doesn't even try. In other words, it learned to be helpless.

So don't do that to yourself, don't tell yourself that you can't do something. Put all the necessary things in place and hope for the best from Allah.

May Allah awaken the Rabi'ah in us and suppress the little elephant.

Jazak Allahu khairan. I hope this was of some benefit to you. If it was, please drop a comment and don't forget to share.

PEARLY WORDS

Are you sad, feeling down or in a fix?

Why don't you ruminate on this pearly words from the Qur'an;

وَلَنَبْلُوَنَّكُم بِشَىْءٍ مِّنَ ٱلْخَوْفِ وَٱلْجُوعِ وَنَقْصٍ مِّنَ ٱلْأَمْوَٰلِ وَٱلْأَنفُسِ وَٱلثَّمَرَٰتِ ۗ وَبَشِّرِ ٱلصَّٰبِرِينَ

And certainly, We shall test you with something of fear, hunger, loss of wealth, lives and fruits, but give glad tidings to As-Sabirin (the patient ones, etc.).

(Quran 2:155)

Allah Azza wa Jalla promises us in the above verse that He, from time to time, is going to test us. That we'd go through things that'd scare us, we'd experience hunger, we'd also be afflicted with the calamity of loss of wealth, life and fruits.

Three things that are common to calamities as seen in the above verse are;

1. They would all come from Allah

2. They would all be saddening 

3. Beautiful patience is needed to get through 

Insha Allah, at PW (pearly words), the first point shall be reinforced and reiterated while there shall be motivation to get through the second and encouragement to hold fast to the third.

May Allah assist us as we commence this journey.