REANIMATION
The pantheon of time has returned superabundant answers to the question, “What is life?”
“What gives meaning to your life?” is another closely linked query.
“What will give you life?” is a rarer question, which I believe is far more crucial.
The latter question explicitly proposes that we are walking dead and implicitly that the biological conditions and processes powering our physical existence are merely energy forces without guidance systems, something akin to a dumb bomb, and that the force that can enliven and resurrect us from a living death is far superior: ‘O believers! Respond to Allah and His Messenger when He calls you to that which gives you life. And know that Allah stands between a person and their heart and that to Him you will all be gathered‘ [8:24].
The beauty of the above verse is extraordinary.
Yusuf Ali, when commenting on it, points out that the pronoun and the verb in the clause following the mentioning of God and His Messenger (s) are singular: ‘O believers! Respond to Allah and His Messenger when He calls.’
So, why not the plural, they?
Firstly, Allah is One and does not share in His Unity.
Secondly, what the Messenger (s) calls us to is inspiration from God1, and since the Prophet made his will align entirely with God’s, his (s) call is essentially God’s, too. When He (God) calls, the Prophet (s), without reservation, joins in. The Prophet (s) is thus the first responder to Allah’s call, which he (s) then also disseminates, setting the example of how to attain real life by fully submitting the heart, mind and body to Divine Truth.
Almost universally, the heart has become the symbol of physical and metaphorical life. In the Quran, the heart is the epicentre of elevated life. Allah reminds us that only a sound heart will prosper on a Day when wealth and children will not avail2. The obstinate heart that turns from the call of Allah and His Messenger (s) because it refuses to forego the pleasures of its proclivities is doomed to atrophy, leading to its disease, hardening and ultimately, its spiritual death.
John Mason, the author of Why Ask Why?, opines that we are where we are because of the questions we ask or don’t ask.
The foremost question for us all, thus, is: On a scale of one to ten, how alive am I?
[1] Q, 53:3
[2] Q, 26:88-89
THE BITTER EMBRACE
You will fail, and so will I. And with each failure, we will be one step closer to success.
The opposite of success is not failure. It is giving up and turning on our heels: ‘Muhammad is no more than a messenger: many were the Messengers that passed away before him. If he died or was slain, will you then turn back on your heels? If any did turn back on his heels, not the least harm will he do to Allah; but Allah (on the other hand) will swiftly reward those who (serve Him) with gratitude’ [3:144].
We may consider it reasonable to give up a cause if its leader died or was slain, especially if he was the best leader to have ever been. Even then, God urges us to press on. It would thus stand to reason that surrendering for lesser setbacks is even more blameworthy.
The difference between the successful and the resigned is that the prosperous have learned to embrace setbacks. They see failure as a process of endless refinement, necessary steps in the journey to becoming.
The more you show up, the more you refine yourself, even if you miss the mark. The more you show up, the sharper you become.
Success is not just about reaching a target. It is an attitude, a way of being in the world, just like the Prophet (s), who only surrendered to God, never to failure.
There is a powerful link between what we say and who we become.
Therefore, it is vital to distinguish between our essence, that which is immutable, and our identity, which our habits shape.
Mel Robbins, author of The Let Them Theory, speaks to this crucial distinction:
“You are not a procrastinator. You have a habit of procrastinating. Big difference. If you have a habit, I can teach you the science to break it.”
Until next week, InshaAllah
Zaahied Sallie
Author of The Beloved Prophet – An Illustrated Biography in Rhyme
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