Most people would make more or less the same comments about “the life of this world.” In general the majority of people depict life as a monotonous cycle. They simply tell that life is made up of routine developments and classical expectations. Indeed their outlook on their own lives utterly reflects this description. Whether desirable or not, they get accustomed to everything they experience in life and rapidly adapt themselves to them. They react as if they have lost all their senses of excitement. They interpret all these beauties to be ordinary developments that must occur in the normal course of life. For this reason they cannot notice their extraordinary aspects and beauties.
In the Qur’an Allah depicts the situation of these people as follows:
On the Day when those who were disbelievers are exposed to the Fire: ‘You dissipated the good things you had in your worldly life and enjoyed yourself in it. So today you are being repaid with the punishment of humiliation for being arrogant in the earth without any right and for being deviators.’ (Surat al-Ahqaf, 20)
Allah relates that in the Hereafter He will not grant any blessings to those who approach all the beauties, goodness, joyful and pleasing events they experience in life with some kind of heedlessness and are not affected by them.
The outlook of believers to the life of this world is entirely different from these people who perceive events almost behind a veil of sleep. For believers the “life of this world” is a life full of surprises, beauties, goodness and wisdom. The fact that Allah encloses them with the manifestations of His infinitely beautiful morality and uniquely superior attributes make believers experience their lives with great excitement and enthusiasm. At every moment they taste the joy of recognizing another beauty Allah creates and the manifestations of His infinite mercy.
Unbelievers are simply unaware of this very great blessing and they are deprived of it. At every moment Allah creates unexpected beauties with many details that can only be perceived with faith and conscience. With these incidents that only those people who have a faithful outlook can see, Allah makes His servants feel His closeness to them. Having a sense of this closeness is a great pleasure and blessing for a believer. Sometimes coming into existence of a seemingly ordinary, daily incident that occurs to one’s mind; sometimes coming face to face with a blessing in an unanticipated way that one wished by prayer; sometimes meeting pleasing incidents preordained by Allah are great blessings, food for thought and instruments for drawing close to Allah.
In the Qur’an Allah reminds His sincere servants about His infinite mercy on people; relates that He is believers’ absolute protector and helper and He answers sincere prayers. Consequently a believer is constantly conscious of Allah’s manifestations of mercy. Even in the face of suffering and difficulties he knows that these are the beauties especially created for him. However Allah also creates special beauties, signs showing the existence of preordination and details that will dispel his accustomed way of perception, astonish him and grant him a great fervent of faith. In each one of these events a believer tastes the profound exuberance and pleasure of seeing the manifestation of Allah’s infinite mercy, love and His closeness and warm bond to His servants. His soul and body is covered with love of Allah and His passion. As he continues to see the manifestations of Allah’s infinite might, that our Lord is capable of doing everything, that He is infinitely merciful and compassionate, his closeness to Allah increases even more.
But for a believer to experience such an exuberance of faith, he does not need to witness great events or meet unprecedented blessings. Sometimes seemingly ordinary or insignificant incidents such as meeting something very desirable at the very moment that occurs to one’s mind, hearing the answer of a question at a time one is desperately in need of it or being offered a food he likes at an unexpected time may also occur. The incidents themselves may be insignificant but the meaning of these incidents which are actually preordained plans by Allah are very great. These occurrences are all manifestations of Allah’s infinite predominance, His infinite mercy. They reveal that He is all the time with His servants and that He sees and knows everything. Each one of these details are the unexpected beauties that Allah creates to make His servants who fervently love him to show His closeness to them. Witnessing this great fact is an instrument that stirs great excitement for believers and draws them close to Allah.
If My servants ask you about Me, I am near. I answer the call of the caller when he calls on Me. They should therefore respond to Me and believe in Me so that hopefully they will be rightly guided. (Surat al-Baqara, 186)
Most people would make more or less the same comments about “the life of this world.” In general the majority of people depict life as a monotonous cycle. They simply tell that life is made up of routine developments and classical expectations. Indeed their outlook on their own lives utterly reflects this description. Whether desirable or not, they get accustomed to everything they experience in life and rapidly adapt themselves to them. They react as if they have lost all their senses of excitement. They interpret all these beauties to be ordinary developments that must occur in the normal course of life. For this reason they cannot notice their extraordinary aspects and beauties.
In the Qur’an Allah depicts the situation of these people as follows:
On the Day when those who were disbelievers are exposed to the Fire: ‘You dissipated the good things you had in your worldly life and enjoyed yourself in it. So today you are being repaid with the punishment of humiliation for being arrogant in the earth without any right and for being deviators.’ (Surat al-Ahqaf, 20)
Allah relates that in the Hereafter He will not grant any blessings to those who approach all the beauties, goodness, joyful and pleasing events they experience in life with some kind of heedlessness and are not affected by them.
The outlook of believers to the life of this world is entirely different from these people who perceive events almost behind a veil of sleep. For believers the “life of this world” is a life full of surprises, beauties, goodness and wisdom. The fact that Allah encloses them with the manifestations of His infinitely beautiful morality and uniquely superior attributes make believers experience their lives with great excitement and enthusiasm. At every moment they taste the joy of recognizing another beauty Allah creates and the manifestations of His infinite mercy.
Unbelievers are simply unaware of this very great blessing and they are deprived of it. At every moment Allah creates unexpected beauties with many details that can only be perceived with faith and conscience. With these incidents that only those people who have a faithful outlook can see, Allah makes His servants feel His closeness to them. Having a sense of this closeness is a great pleasure and blessing for a believer. Sometimes coming into existence of a seemingly ordinary, daily incident that occurs to one’s mind; sometimes coming face to face with a blessing in an unanticipated way that one wished by prayer; sometimes meeting pleasing incidents preordained by Allah are great blessings, food for thought and instruments for drawing close to Allah.
In the Qur’an Allah reminds His sincere servants about His infinite mercy on people; relates that He is believers’ absolute protector and helper and He answers sincere prayers. Consequently a believer is constantly conscious of Allah’s manifestations of mercy. Even in the face of suffering and difficulties he knows that these are the beauties especially created for him. However Allah also creates special beauties, signs showing the existence of preordination and details that will dispel his accustomed way of perception, astonish him and grant him a great fervent of faith. In each one of these events a believer tastes the profound exuberance and pleasure of seeing the manifestation of Allah’s infinite mercy, love and His closeness and warm bond to His servants. His soul and body is covered with love of Allah and His passion. As he continues to see the manifestations of Allah’s infinite might, that our Lord is capable of doing everything, that He is infinitely merciful and compassionate, his closeness to Allah increases even more.
But for a believer to experience such an exuberance of faith, he does not need to witness great events or meet unprecedented blessings. Sometimes seemingly ordinary or insignificant incidents such as meeting something very desirable at the very moment that occurs to one’s mind, hearing the answer of a question at a time one is desperately in need of it or being offered a food he likes at an unexpected time may also occur. The incidents themselves may be insignificant but the meaning of these incidents which are actually preordained plans by Allah are very great. These occurrences are all manifestations of Allah’s infinite predominance, His infinite mercy. They reveal that He is all the time with His servants and that He sees and knows everything. Each one of these details are the unexpected beauties that Allah
creates to make His servants who fervently love him to show His closeness to them. Witnessing this great fact is an instrument that stirs great excitement for believers and draws them close to Allah.
If My servants ask you about Me, I am near. I answer the call of the caller when he calls on Me. They should therefore respond to Me and believe in Me so that hopefully they will be rightly guided. (Surat al-Baqara, 186)