Usually my writings on this blog are inspired by refuting some negative remark about Islam so for this post I thought I would offer an insight into the religion which I hope will depict Islam in a positive light and which I hope will be of benefit to all readers irrespective of their belief.
How often do we consider our lives and think that we are hard done by? How often do we suffer setbacks and feel sad, depressed and despondent? I would imagine that all of us have feelings of sadness from time to time and that on occasions we feel that we are generally worse off than perhaps we should be. We all have issues, problems, worries and I am sure that we probably worry about the same things, health, wealth, relationships etc.
So what is the Islamic perspective on this? In general, the Qur'an prescribes Mankind to be grateful for what he has, to be thankful to Allah for what Allah has provided and in this context Mankind should not worry - indeed worry has no benefit. I am sure you will agree with this - has worrying ever made any of your problems better?
"If Allah touches you with harm no one can remove it except He, and if He touches you with good, then he is able to do all things"
Indeed, the Qur'an notes that Mankind, by their very nature are ungrateful. Surah Ar Rahman (55) repeats "Then which of the blessings of your Lord will you deny".
Is this true? Are we in denial of the blessings of our Lord? Or is it that our lives are truly miserable and there is nothing to be thankful for? I mean look at the suffering in the World? Should we be thankful for this? What of when we lose a close family member? Lose our job? Lose our health should we be thankful for this?
To assess whether we should be thankful I would like you to try out the following exercise:
Imagine in front of you a large piece of paper. You have a pen in your hand and I would like you to draw a vertical line in the middle of the paper creating two sections. Label the section on the left hand side reasons not to be grateful and on the right hand side reasons to be grateful.
Write away. List whatever you feel should go on either side of the piece of paper.
I am sure when you complete the exercise you will come to a conclusion as to how your life is. I am sure some people who are going through a difficult time at the moment will think that their life is particularly difficult and perhaps on balance nothing to be grateful for.
But wait a minute? Did we do the exercise properly? Did we properly record all the items we should be grateful for? Did we list gratefulness for our eyesight? Sense of smell? Taste, touch, kidney, heart, ability to think, ability to walk, ability to move. Did we list all of our relationships, our family members, our close friends? Did we list all of our capabilities?
To put this into perspective, what if we move a benefit such as a physical ability or a relationship from the right hand side to the left hand side of the page and assume we no longer have it? I am sure for most of us the movement of that item will become the biggest problem on the list on the left hand side of the page.
The point I am trying to make is that by our nature we are ungrateful for what we have - we take it for granted. But as soon as we lose it, we miss it terribly. Just like our families and our relationships. How we take each other for granted. The beauty of the Qur'an is that it encourages us to ponder and contemplate what we have not least so that we can enjoy it while it is here. The Qur'an also teaches us that what we have in this World will leave us so we need to prepare for this however such preparation doesn't mean worry ourselves silly - no - we should reflect on the life we have led and have enjoyed - we should be thankful to Allah and pray for a better life in the Hereafter.
What I find so attractive and appealing about this aspect of Islam - being thankful - is that when you reflect on what you have and that you only have it for a finite period of time - you will feel grateful - you will (or should) feel that there is no benefit to worrying and fretting.
To give another example, a close relative that you love dearly. We can rage against losing such a person but why not reflect on the happy times you spent together? Don't waste your time worrying about what you don't have or what you might lose - use your time now to enjoy what you have.
