Qur'anic Reflections

Dua #8 Alhumdulillah

Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu!

Aren't you just grateful how peaceful this Ramadan has been? It rained a bit so it's been cool and easy, we've seen people come up with so many positive initiatives to help promote harmony between different communities.

Yet more than a thousand miles away from our comfortable homes lie the troubled countries of Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Yemen, Afghanistan, Balochistan, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan, Nigeria, Central African Republic and so many more whose names don't make it to the light of the day, who lose and mourn alone with not a shroud of acknowledgment or empathy from the outside world.

We've seen the pictures. Iftars amid rubble, Salah amid Snipers and overall a life that doesn't hold the guarantee of the next day.

Just because they were born in a certain place and that's not even something you choose. Just because they were born with a certain colour, as if they could help it. Just because they follow a certain religion, as if God didn't create every human equally and gave them a choice.

Closer to home, we see scores of impoverished communities, malnourished children, for whom fasting isn't just a month long ibadah, but a way of life instead.

When we see these people struggling to even survive, suffering for no fault of their own, we must internalize all our own blessings and follow the dua of Dawood (Alayhi Salam) and Suleiman (Alayhi Salam)

وَلَقَدْ آتَيْنَا دَاوُودَ وَسُلَيْمَانَ عِلْمًا ۖ وَقَالَا الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي فَضَّلَنَا عَلَىٰ كَثِيرٍ مِنْ عِبَادِهِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ

(Sahih International)
And We had certainly given to David and Solomon knowledge, and they said, "Praise [is due] to Allah, who has favored us over many of His believing servants."

(Abul A'ala Maududi)
(دوسری طرف) ہم نے داؤدؑ و سلیمانؑ کو علم عطا کیا اور انہوں نے کہا کہ شکر ہے اُس خدا کا جس نے ہم کو اپنے بہت سے مومن بندوں پر فضیلت عطا کی

-Sura An-Naml, Ayah 15

And that's also Dua #8!

"Praise is to Allah who has favoured us over many of His believing servants"

Make a habit to say this when you see someone hurt by affliction or someone who is a victim of circumstances not just in the worldly sense but also in the spiritual sense.

Say this even when you see the well-off slaves of Allah but who have chosen to use that freedom and safety to disobey Him. The ones who commit major or minor sins publicly, someone oblivious to the knowledge of the Deen and someone outright rejecting the Deen.

These are all the kind of people who could just have easily been you and I. You and I could just as easily been there too, breaking our fast among the rubble of our own homes. You and I could just as easily been immersed in the darkness of Jahiliyyah.

If Allah hadn't saved us.

So make it a habit to make these people a reminder of what Allah has favoured for you. Make them a reminder of how Allah has made you among the few lucky slaves of His.

This beauty of the world we live in, is also a trial for us. The only way out is Shukr. 

The only way to save us from losing in this trial is Alhumdulillah, because that helps you internalize your precious time and money and then you start using it to build the abode of Aakhirah.

The poor Muslims, the oppressed Muslims, the Martyred Muslims, the tortured Muslims, the humiliated Muslims are all building their abode in the Aakhirat by enduring these difficulties for the sake of Allah. They will have their due reward in sha Allah, for they had been tested in this world.

Make sure you don't stay behind.

Make sure they don't look at you with the same pity on the Day of Judgement as you are looking at them now.

Save yourself with Shukr.