beautiful, but don’t deprive me of my skinny jeans—because society told me that’s beauty.
This happens because the gift is in our heart, while Allah is in our hand. And what is in the hand can
be put aside easily. What is in the heart, we cannot live without—and would sacrifice anything to
have. But sooner or later we need to ask ourselves what it is that we really worship: The gift or the
Giver? The beauty or the Source and Definition of Beauty? The provision or the Provider?
The creation or the Creator?
The tragedy of our choice is that we chain our necks with attachments, and then ask why we choke.
We put aside our Real air, and then wonder why we can’t breathe. We give up our only food, and then
complain when we’re dying of starvation. After all, we stick the knife in our chest and then cry
because it hurts. So much. But what we have done, we have done to ourselves.
Allah says:
“And whatever affliction befalls you, it is on account of what your hands have wrought, and (yet) He
pardons most (of your faults).” (Qur’an, 42:30)
Yes. What we have done, we have done to ourselves, but look how the ayah ends: “He pardons
most.” The word used here is ya’foo’ from God’s attribute Al-A’foo. This denotes not just forgiving
or pardoning, but completely erasing! So no matter how many times we stick that knife in our own
chest, God can heal us—as if the stab had never occurred! Al Jabbar (the One who mends) can mend
it.
If you seek Him.
But how foolish is the one who exchanges air for a necklace? He is the one who says, “Give me the
necklace, and then you can take away my air after that. Suffocate me, but just make sure I’m wearing
the necklace when I die.” And the irony of it all is that it is the necklace itself that suffocates us. It is
our own objects of attachment—the things we love more than God— that kill us.
Our problem began because we saw the gift as the air, instead of just that: a gift. So in our blindness,
we became dependent on the gift, and put aside the Real air. As a result when the gift was taken back,
or never given at all, we thought we could not go on. But, this was a lie that we told ourselves, until
we believed it. It isn’t true. There’s only one loss that we can’t recover from. There’s only one reason
we wouldn’t be able to go on: If we lost God in our lives. The irony is that many of us have lost God
in our lives and we think we’re still alive. Our false dependencies on His gifts have deceived us, so
much.
Only God is our survival. Not His gifts. God is our support and our only true necessity. Allah says:
“Is not God enough for His Servant? But they try to frighten thee with other (gods) besides Him! For
such as God leaves to stray, there can be no guide.” (Qur’an, 39:36)