SINCERITY LOST
Nothing in life concentrates our connection to the Divine more than raw calamity does.
Regardless of our circumstances, a nurturing umbilical tethering to God should be our default. Unfortunately, when life’s waters are tranquil, many of us live as if we are independent of Him.
Thankfully, God has consigned to His servants a portion of affliction to elevate the already mindful and to rouse the somnolent: ‘We shall certainly test you with fear and hunger, and loss of property, lives, and crops’ [2:155].
Many of the afflicted, failing to read the signs, will lament. But others with hearts awakened and wide-eyed from the distress will call upon their Lord with all sincerity: ‘Whenever they go on board a ship, they call on God and dedicate their faith to Him alone, but once He has delivered them safely back to land, see how they ascribe partners to Him! Let them show their ingratitude for what We have given them; let them take their enjoyment–soon they will know’ [29:65-66].
Even though this is an indictment, it is also a gift. The awakening summons us to be both repentant and grateful, penitent for living as if we were self-sustaining and thankful for the newfound awareness and sincerity.
We come to realise that calamity is thus a profound trigger for sincere worship. However, the dilemma is maintaining the perspective because once our lives equalise, our sincerity tends to fade.
Once gained, sincerity lost is truly calamitous. Those who sever the cord knowingly, once having been restored by it, snub God’s truth, providential care and generosity. Such rebellion against God can lead to utter ruin in this life and the next.
To guard against such an outcome, we must remind ourselves that God, the Razzāq (Provider), alone owns all the storehouses of the heavens and the earth and that He extends and withholds according to His perfect Wisdom. And that whatever we have of good in this world is but an entrustment and gift from our Lord.
Allah, and only He, is the source of all the forms of our sustenance. Not you, your parents, a saint, corporation, brand, influencer, connected person you or someone you know knows, and neither your family nor friends.
Say, O believers, HasbunAllah wa ni’mal-Wakil, ‘Sufficient for us is Allah and the best Disposer of affairs’ [3:173].
RECLAIM YOUR PROPERTY
Everyone encounters wisdom, but not everyone values the finding. Only those who surrender themselves in humility do.
About this, the Prophet (s) said, ‘The word of wisdom is the lost property of the believer. Wherever he finds it, he is most worthy of it.’
One of the best decisions I made in early fatherhood was disinvesting from television, which resulted in the indirect blessing of not having Barney, the purple dinosaur, raise my kids. That, right there, is enough reason to toss the telly.
I believe television and its modern equivalents truncate your life. If you disagree, search ‘The benefits of not watching TV’, and soon you’ll know the truth.
Palestinians are losing their lives to genocide, and the rest of the world is losing theirs to screens.
Our TV-less home allowed our children to explore life on their own terms.
Free from the ultimate time thief, they could invest thousands of hours in sound endeavours, which in the main included devouring books. By not dangling them as defenceless bait for corporate programmers’ manufacturing consent, they developed into independent thinkers.
There are many other benefits, but I believe these two to be the most significant.
Nature and books became their playground, and they naturally gravitated towards the liberal arts.
Their mom and I involved them in human rights activism when they were but toddlers in their strollers. This exposure and their liberal arts appetite developed them into fierce little activists who used their writing, voices and art for just causes.
Long before the genocide of the Palestinians broke our family’s hearts into a million pieces, our hearts ached for the injustice and inequality in our own country. But through their art, they somehow sewed it up again, and my second love, Maryam, eleven, moved by twelve courageous souls, painted the Madleen.
Until next week, InshaAllah
Zaahied Sallie
Author of The Beloved Prophet – An Illustrated Biography in Rhyme
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