Daily Times

No matter how many times my head bows in sujood (prostration), I cannot thank Him enough. He, who has created me from a mere drop and into a perfect human being. He, who looks after me with every breath that I take. I am a mere speck in this vast universe, just a grain of sand but He never fails to listen to me. His kindness is a mystery to me.

Maulana Rumi unravels this mystery a bit by saying, “you are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop”.

All our childhood we were forced to fear Him, and I have always wondered why. Why weren’t we told that He loves us more than 70 mothers? His mercy comes before His anger. He finds reasons to forgive us, and is closer to us than our jugular vein. He knows everything about us yet, He loves us, covers us, always giving us a second chance. Why weren’t we told that He is all love

Perhaps, it could be explained because our elders had been taught in the same way. To fear Allah so they don’t deviate from the righteous path. But to understand His love and the beauty of our religion, one must see Him beyond this fear. We must look for Him like a love-maddened lover, looking for his beloved.

To reveal the mysteries that surround us, we need to read the Holy Quran in the language we understand. Pick it up like we would our favourite book. Discover for ourselves how much He loves us, protects us and wants to forgive us. He does not need us, we need Him. For all He needs to say is, Kun (be) and it is Kun Fa Ya Kun (done).

At the end, I come back to the beginning. As my forehead touches down in sujood, a peace hits me and it travels from my forehead to my whole being. And to my ordinary homespun brain, comes the thought, that we were put on this earth, to submit. To place our forehead on earth and realize- where all life comes from, and where it will finally rest. Only then do we understand our nothingness, and the magnanimity of the One who created it. In that nothingness is the beauty that sets us free. We don’t own anything, or anyone, we aren’t in control of anything, or anyone. All we are responsible for is our own actions and ourselves. And then we are free, freed from the bondage of earthly desires, no longer caged by thoughts of self grandeur. Only a drop in the ocean, yet at one with His whole creation, in submission and glorification, of The One who created it all, from nothingness…

Published in Daily Times, April 4^th 2018.