Consciousness of Knowledge

Bismillah.

We’ve started the fifth sub-chapter Alhamdulillah,

Fiqh of knowledge of the Lord

فقه علم الرب

Before sharing the excerpt that I want to write about, let’s talk a bit about the vastness and extent of Allah’s knowledge. Just a quick reminder because we know that HE. KNOWS. EVERY. SINGLE. THING. We can’t talk too much about His knowledge because our own knowledge is very limited, in fact, nothing compared to His.

He knows whatever is in the heavens and the earth, the mysteries of the galaxies, the planets, stars, clouds, mountains, rivers, forests, deserts, oceans, sea creatures, dark depths of ocean beds, caves, glaciers, whatever’s in the womb of mothers of humans, big and small animals, insects, whatever’s apparent and hidden, whatever’s past and is yet to come, whatever’s in this world and the next. He knows what’s happening in the day and night, the number of leaves, the hair on our heads, the blinking of our eyes, the beating of our hearts, the breathing of our breaths. He knows our smallest teeniest fear that we’d be too embarrassed to share with anyone, even with our own selves. Our weird thoughts, mixed feelings, confused emotions, tightening of our lips, that little smile, that tiny frown. He knows when the soul leaves the body. He knows every dead body ever buried in the darkness of the mud, along with their every single deed, action, movement and breath. He knows our intentions, our needs, our wants, our problems, our blessings.

When you get to know all of the above and more, this is what happens…

…إن الشعور بعلم الله وعظمته ورقابته على هذا النحو شعور مطمئن ومخيف معاً

[Roughly translated:] “Indeed consciousness of the knowledge of Allah, His Greatness and His Supervision is reassuring and scary at the same time…”

Knowing all this is supposed to make us feel scared and comforted simultaneously. One moment we’re involved in a good deed/thought/gesture, the very next moment in a bad one. So both fear and reassurance are to be a part and parcel of each other. The problem arises when in tough times we forget that He knows and do not do tawakkul enough and so become hopeless. Similarly, when we are involved in an act of His disobedience and forget that He knows, we don’t become fearful of Him and keep on doing it boldly.

The thing to remember is that His knowledge is complete. Nothing, not a thing does He miss. Neither when someone hurts you or speaks a harsh word to you nor when you do the same to someone. Allah knows!

Wassalam.

Why Worry?

Assalamu’alaykum,
Bismillah.

Is worrying a part of your life? Do you get anxious over certain things? If yes, then this post is for you. :)

أحياناً يفعل بالأسباب كما جعل الماء سبباً للحياة، والوطء سبباً للإنجاب.. وأحياناً يظهر قدرته سبحانه بضد الأسباب كما جعل سبحانه النار برداً وسلاماً على إبراهيم.. وأحياناً يظهر قدرته بدون الأسباب كما خلق السموات والأرض: (إِنَّمَا أَمْرُهُ إِذَا أَرَادَ شَيْئًا أَن يَقُولَ لَهُ كُن فَيَكُونُ 

[Roughly translated:] “Sometimes He does things with the asbaab (sources), like He made water a source for life, and intercourse a source for begetting… And sometimes He, Glory be to Him, shows His Power against the asbaab (sources), like He, Glory be to Him, made the fire cool and peaceful over Ibrahim (‘alaihissalam)… And sometimes He shows His Power without the asbaab (sources), like He created the heavens and the earth: ‘His command is only when He intends a thing that He says to it, “Be,” and it is.’ (Yasin 82)”

You read this and you become calm! Relaxed! He is the One with the qudrat (power doesn’t really serve the meaning of qudrat). He is the One with the sources, the reasons, the causes. If we don’t have sources, so what? He can do that thing for you without means. And if the situation is bad enough, He can even do it against them. It’s ONLY a matter of trust, in fact yaqeen (certainty).

We’re weak so we depend on sources, because we can see them. We forget that though the means can be seen, the unseen Creator of those means is the real Controller and Master. So what if it’s a universal law, the Creator of those laws can still change them. We’re absolutely sure that fire burns, but Ibrahim (‘alaihissalam) was more sure of the power of that Creator.

This is the reason we sometimes get confused that how is something happening for us or for someone when there are no apparent means. This is the reason historians can’t figure out today how a handful of Muslims defeated thousands of non-Muslims in various battles.

This sort of clears this verse for me more:

o أَلَا إِنَّ أَوْلِيَاءَ اللَّـهِ لَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ 0 الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَكَانُوا يَتَّقُونَ

“Unquestionably, [for] the allies of Allah there will be no fear concerning them, nor will they grieve. Those who believed and were fearing Allah.” (Yunus 62-63)

This is the reason they have no fear or grief. They know, they believe! Why worry? When they trust Him. Isn’t it an awesome feeling that you can trust and depend on someone so completely and wholly? We’re yearning for weak humans all the time so that we can trust and depend on them. What a lowly approach. :P

Look beyond that. Raise your eyes higher. Trust Him and be at peace. No pills needed. No psychotherapies. Isn’t this cool?

P.S. However, this does not imply that means should not be used. We’re encouraged to put in our best efforts and then trust Allah for the results. And if things still don’t turn out well, then that too appears ‘bad’ to our limited perspective, whereas in reality that would be good for us yet we don’t know.

Fear of Criticism

Bismillah,

While going through the preface there was this thing the author said,

وإن أبيت إلا الملام فبابه مفتوح، وكلنا ظلوم جهول، ولله يعفو عنا وعنكم، والله سبحانه وحده الذي استأثر بالكمال والجمال، واختص بالحمد والثناء، وهو يقول الحق ويهدي السبيل، وهو عالم السر والخفيات، ودافع الشر والبليات.

Which I understood in a way that,

“If you don’t find this book beneficial and have to criticize then just go on! Because we are stamped to commit mistakes and only Allah is the one who has the perfection & He is the one who deserves all the praises.”

This thing actually clicked me, because the author seems so positive and relaxed after putting his efforts in the book that he is like, if the people have to comment and criticize on the book, they should go on, because he has done his part well and only Allah is the one who is perfect and deserves all the praises and Hamd.

The best part is that all the criticism is not stopping him from doing good, rather he is very much positive. He realizes that even if there are any mistakes in the book, he just knows that humans can commit mistakes and that is normal and the best human is the one who repents whenever he makes a mistake.

This made me think about what we do! Or especially I do, because this statement of him made me do my CRITICAL ANALYSIS.

Some of us have this hypersensitivity to rejection; we are very self-critical about our problems related to others and that ends up that we sometimes we feel inferior to others. And yes! That is so BAD.

How it happens?

We have to do something, we put all our efforts in it and then there it is: we are scared of not letting a single thing go wrong, well that actually does makes us fatigued and stressed out which exactly affects our performance and if something goes wrong, the negativity of devil takes control of us and what happens..

“That one tiny black dot seems HUGE to us”.

And throughout the time we think about why did that go wrong? What were the reasons? If I had done it this way it shouldn’t have been messed up and blah blah blah! -_-

There is another reason that makes things more difficult for us i.e. The immediate *good* response from people that we expect, we do things and expect to be appreciated immediately and when we are not appreciated or even an error is pointed out we take that criticism negatively and instead of being relaxed or trying to figure the error out we start cursing!

And according to our “Wikipedia Guru” this Fear of Criticism and being hypersensitive to rejection are some of the symptoms of a mental disorder called “Avoidant Personality Disorder”, but that is on extreme later stage when we become socially inept and start avoiding social interaction for fear of being ridiculed and humiliated, rejected or sometimes disliked.

So, WHAT to DO?

The solution is just one action i.e. Realization.

Realization of the one thing that humans are stamped for making mistakes and sometimes we just slip off without knowing. We have the examples of our father Adam (`alayhissalaam), who was lured by Iblees and tasted the fruit which was forbidden for him, then it is Musa (`alayhissalaam), that a person died accidentally because of him.

But what were their reactions? They both realized their mistakes and sought forgiveness from Allah (subhaanahu wa ta`aalaa).

The Prophet (sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) said,

All the sons of Adam are sinners and the best among the sinners are those who repent.
(Ahmad and others)

When we realize that we are creatures called “humans” and we can slip or commit mistakes knowingly or unknowingly, things can go wrong sometimes but the best solution is to seek forgiveness from Allah (subhaanahu wa ta`aalaa), He is the Ghafoor-ur-Raheem. He is our Creator and He loves us more than 70 mothers then why would He not like His creation to come back to him after realization of the mistake?

So, instead of being negative and reacting so insanely on things we can just take criticism positively, act like a reasonably sensible person and be the best sinner who whenever happens to make a mistake just goes back to Allah instantly.

Accepting Changes

While we were discussing about the chapters of the book, there was this point when we talked about why we do not accept the change or the new knowledge? So I started brainstorming about the possible hurdles and I came up with one major thing that was “NOT LOOKING FOR THE BETTER SIDE” and majorly the root of everything is LACK OF KNOWLEDGE.

We follow the same old things and same old ways but do not try anything new. I understood it by taking the example of my mother, who is actually scared of “CELLPHONE”. Well, seriously. You all might be like “:O” but yes she is! :p

You know why she doesn’t start using it? Because she says “I understand my diary better than the mobile”. Even though she has to keep a record of people and their contact details very much but she is comfortable with her diaries more than a tiny cellphone which, in fact, is far more better than the diary but she is used to it and doesn’t know about the advantages of using the cellphone.

And then I started thinking why do I find it better? It is because I know how to use it, I know the advantages I can have with it and so many things.

Well that was just a tiny example but when it comes to understanding different new things we learn about DEEN or even DUNIYA, we don’t accept them because of several factors including our INNER MOST DESIRES which actually hold us back from doing something good, and maybe it’s the fear of becoming the MISFIT in the society that becomes the hurdle.

Then another major fact is our OLD PRACTICES that make us rigid in accepting new knowledge, we think whatever we used to do before is right and then our ego becomes the hurdle and we are out of patience for listening to the right things even.

Sometimes we don’t accept the knowledge because of the FEAR OF FAILURE, we are scared of people around us, we think we’ll be the odd one among everyone and hence there is a BLOCKAGE! We stop putting efforts and the fear causes us to do nothing and we stop moving forward, and when we stop moving forward we miss so many great things that can change our lives.

“In order to succeed the desire of success should be more than the fear of failure”. -Bill Cosby

Another hurdle is the SENTIMENTAL INVOLVEMENT, which is one of the reasons we don’t accept the right things, we think our parents are right. We all know the example of the misguided people who had the Quran and Prophet right in front of them and they considered their ancestors right.

All these hurdles do not let us to move forward and we keep on doing the same things in a same way which obviously has the same consequences, and instead of moving towards success and right path we are stuck!

So what is the solution?

All I could think was this one word “INITIATIVE”. To make people go for the new knowledge is to give them the good result and for giving them the good result somebody has to take the initiative and sacrifice the comfort for making things better.

We have the example of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) who was that ODD person who took the initiative; even he had to suffer a lot, but when people found out he is right they followed, and there was the revolution that everyone knows about.

A’aeen-e-nau say darna, tarz-e-kohan peh arrna
Manzil yehi katthan hai qaumon ki zindagi mein

-ALLAMA IQBAL

Heart is like a bird…