Creation

Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day are signs for those of understanding. (3;190)

The Holy Qur’an talks of Creation being a conscious well planned intention by God. It is further mentioned that all of Creation has one purpose, which ‘is the worship of the Almighty-the Creator of this world’. And this worship is restricted to not just prayers, but also encompasses, the appreciation of the wondrous creations around us. Each creation knows fully well the type of praise it needs to do. The birds sing songs of praise, the trees prostrate in adoration. All of nature worships the Almighty in its own ways without a need for reminder. The only one though who needs a frequent reminder, is the Noblest of all Creation-Man.

In Islam it is believed that Allah-God created Prophet Adam in the best form. So being the children of Adam, how can we ever even for a minute believe that we are anything but the beautiful children? The moment you stop believing you are a wonderful creation of the Almighty, you are dropping one of the ways to worship the Creator of all Creators.

You are a masterpiece that the Almighty thought of and executed, He however left the choice of reacting to the environmental factors entirely to you. Resisting the forces of nature is a challenge the toughest often succumb to, but that doesn’t erode away their essence, it only makes them more beautiful. There is an understated beauty in the weathered souls, who have battled the forces of nature, carving out a compelling persona inside out.

Nature takes its time to develop and produce its masterpieces. Seed by seed, leaf by leaf, petal by petal, thorn by thorn, root by root, branch by branch, fruit by fruit. And in that process one can truly accept the magnificence of creation, the wondrous work which, our Creator has put into making Our Big Blue, Our Home. And each element of our existence is in itself a work of art. Patiently the seed must push through to be the sapling before the enormous tree can spread out its magnificent branches, and as the saying goes, from only little acorns do mighty oaks grow.

Let your eyesight wander and feast on the sublime splendour that is Creation. From little critters creeping crawling under the soil, to the magnificent avian swooping down to catch prey, from the majestic trunk waving quadruped to the enormous blue beauty swimming graciously, words fail to capture the infinite creation of nature.

When you look at a crow, it’s just another noisy plain old black bird flying around. There are over 120 members of the common crow family. There is more to Crows than just being black. The Jay bird for example, is a delight to the eyes, sporting the most well put together colour palettes that nature has to offer.

The inconspicuous soil that the grasses and roots of plants hold on to is yet another plain old lump of black, yet there are varieties of soil that we are unaware of, and each variety plays a role in the development of a wide variety of flora and supporting fauna. Not only that, deep beneath the soil, are hidden treasures, a gift to aid our existence, from metals to oils to jewels to adorn our everyday life to fossils that hold key to our past life. The ground beneath our feet as simple as it may look is a treasure trove of things key to our subsistence.

It didn’t however happen overnight. Nature took its own sweet time making all these wonderful gifts for us, some even taking millions of years in the making. We are a gift of nature too, it takes nine months in the womb to take us from a tiny drop to a full-fledged baby, and then the years add on to grow us into a fully grown and formed adult. Then why is it that we forget that our souls and personalities also take time to evolve and grow? In fact, each day is a learning curve. Each day we become a better version of ourselves inside to out. There however also exists this group which believes they are already beyond perfect and don’t need any work. That’s just narcissism. The day you believe you are a perfect version of you, that’s the day you stop learning. We need positive reinforcements in our life, but not at the cost of becoming self-obsessed.

A by-product of our modern world is growing narcissism which is leading to unprecedented levels of depression and anxiety across the spectrum. The world is slowly becoming full of people who think they are the authority on beauty standards. These so called authorities are nothing more than proponents of the commercial cosmetic companies. They trap you in parameters of aesthetics and expect you to comply, a bit like selling your soul to the devil.

True beauty begins from beauty inside which reflects on the outside. We have enough and more “cosmetically beautiful” people in the world, but we don’t have enough of the real raw beautiful souls.

There is a saying attributed to Ali ibn Abi Talib, last of the rightly guided Caliphs of Islam, which helps understand this thought further, “Whoever beautifies himself on the inside, Allah will beautify him on the outside.”

When there is good inside, the good pours on the outside and it acts like a mirror reflecting the goodness onto whoever peeks in. The real raw beauty is edging towards being that thing of beauty we talked of in folklores of those long gone.

The battles of existing everyday leave behind their mark on our lives, sometimes apparent sometimes not. And it’s these marks making us the person we are today. And some may find those marks beautiful and yet there will be many to call them names of the worst kind. Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. I only truly understood what love is when my little one had the chicken pox. It was the worst breakout I had ever seen and heard off. Looking at her in suffering made me realise, that underneath all that scary horrible pox was still my beautiful little girl. The pox sure altered her physical appearance, but it was my baby all the same. And in that moment I truly grasped the meaning of beauty lies in the eye of the beholder.

The entire world has known and heard of the Grand Canyon, it’s a valley weathered down exquisitely by the forces of nature. The gorgeousness of the Fjords of Scandinavia are also a result of weathering over many million years by various elements of nature, and the world flocks to see them in their splendidness. The Alpine mountains and valleys are a similar result as well and they are known as one of the ultimate Romantic Destinations of the world. The beautiful moon that we witness each night has had its fair share of bombardment by the elements of the universe, yet it mesmerizes each pair of eyes laying sight, and if that isn’t enough, the female of our species are often likened to it in beauty by their ardent admirers. Some may call it spots on the moon, but they are those “spots” that add an enigmatic charm around it.

Likewise, each one of is truly beautiful in the way our Creator created us. Even the ‘ugly duckling’ grew up to be a beautiful swan. Our Creator created us all differently to show us that beauty lies in diversity. The rainbow is a spectrum of seven, the flowers are plentiful in each hue, the plants and trees are so many, that we don’t even know them all, the jungle is a home to bugs, cubs, a hiss, a roar and some more. And all of this make a beautiful world, and remind us each day we are different, but a unique kind of beautiful together.

That layer of pretence,

That layer of powder,

That layer of paint,

That layer of charades,

That layer of air,

That layer of fabric,

It all washes away,

It all fades away,

It all falls apart,

It all drifts apart.

The foundations stay strong,

The foundations cannot go wrong,

The unshakeable,

The unbreakable.

So stay strong and pure,

The dust is the undeniable end for sure,

And return with beauty in your heart and soul,

To bask in the eternal reward from the Creator of us All.

-SpiritualZain

Faith

 

With empty stomachs they fly at the first light,

By the fading light they return to the roost with a satisfied appetite.

They attempted several times before their plans took flight,

They sailed several times before the World discovered the sailors might,

The sumptuous spices slowly made themselves known to palettes near, far and wide.

The night is always darkest before dawn and it will always come,

But if it weren’t for this faith, we would all be long gone.

All it takes is a little faith. Faith in our selves, faith in our strengths and faith in making it to the very end; and that my friends, makes all the difference. Belief predates faith in the matter, that it is what makes it possible to have faith. If you just believe, you will have faith in how the cosmos conspires under the commands of its Creator to make this moment exist for you.

Some of the greatest journeys have been made possible because of this faith. Some of our world’s greatest inventions are a result of a little faith. It wasn’t by chance that Columbus discovered new lands; he had faith in his talents and he believed he would make that discovery.

The bombardment of different spices each time somebody in the western hemisphere experiences eating a spoonful of “Chicken Tikka Masala” or that scrumptious “Biryani”, wouldn’t have been possible, had the traders on the spice route lost faith and stopped believing their wonderful procurements would reach far and wide. History is loaded with instances of this extraordinary faith and the historic changes made to our existence all because of that little faith.

Today quite a substantial percentage of the world can trace its origins back to the family of Prophet Abraham. But if it weren’t for his faith in the Almighty quite a few of us wouldn’t be here. He had faith in the magnanimous grace of the Almighty, that even when he was thrown into the blazing fire by King Nimrod, he knew no harm would come to him. In that moment his faith made him believe truly, that his Creator is enough for him. The Almighty cooled the fire down for him to come out unscathed and go on to become the founding father of the three Abrahamic faiths;-Judaism, Christianity and Islam. This friend of Allah/God (Khaleel-ullah as he’s known in Islam) was a man of exceptional and unwavering faith. He was an old man, when the first heir to his legacy arrived, and thereafter he was soon commanded by the Almighty to sacrifice his first born- Prophet Ishmael, as a test of faith. The son demonstrated a faith which allayed the father’s apprehensions and the rest is history. The Muslim celebration of the annual pilgrimage-Hajj commemorates this extraordinary faith. Each step taken in fulfilling the obligations of the Pilgrimage is homage to the legacy of Prophet Abraham, his wife and their first son-Prophet Ishmael.

Another exceptional man of faith was Prophet Moses. He stood in front of the Sea, the army of the tyrant Phiraun (King Ramsis II)with his army on his heels, and not a single drop of anxiety trickled down his forehead. It is because he had “Faith” in the plans of the Almighty. He knew deep in his soul, his Lord didn’t bring him this far to desert him. And that “Faith” tore apart the sea and He with the rest of the tribe crossed safely on to the other side.

Our trials and tribulations in this world cannot surpass the ones mentioned above, so let that be a reminder to ourselves to have faith in the workings of the Almighty. In this world of SATNAV, we like to know our paths beforehand and prefer the shortest route to our destination. Thus, the patience in the workings of the Almighty is slowly dissipating as we drive forwards. Impatience is a gift of our modern times and we find that our capability of accepting the divine wisdom in our everyday life becomes a task we most often fail. More often than we would like to admit, our knee jerk reaction to adversity is to blame God. We lose faith in the workings of destiny. It seems to be the Armageddon of our life. Sure, we are mere mortals and liable to feel dejected occasionally, but it’s in these very moments we need to remind ourselves, the Grand Canyon wasn’t formed in a day. It’s a result of shaping by multitude factors over a prolonged period of time. Some of those factors may have felt like our Armageddon’s to the Grand Canyon, yet today it’s one of Earths most beautiful natural wonders. Our problems in life are like Gods tools of chiselling us to this beautiful perfection.

Faith doesn’t imply the absence of the will to challenge the status quo. It’s merely realigning the neuro-networking of the cerebral system into a more productive thought process. Wisdom comes from using our past as a yardstick to plan the best route forward undeterred by the hurdles that made us stumble previously.

Faith and belief go hand in hand while hope ensures the element of positivity remains to resurrect the lost selves. In the Holy Book-Qur’an, numerous times God-Allah has said, “Put your trust in Allah”; it’s this trust in the doings of the Almighty which makes “Faith complete”.

Our minds are a powerful tool gifted to us by our creator. They are capable of achieving what may seem impossible. Likening it to a machine, whatever data you feed it, the output is determined accordingly. Reiterating the concept of faith and belief everyday makes that difference which we all want in our lives.

Faith builds confidence.

Faith grows self-esteem.

Faith gives strength.

Faith moves mountains.

In the words of the great Philosopher Confucius, “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” So don’t stop believing that you are capable of so much more. Remember the people around Prophet David had little faith in him to defeat Goliath, but he didn’t stop believing he could. He had faith in himself and that the Almighty would help him achieve that victory. So tonight and every night now on, remind yourself to have faith in you.

Have faith in your wonderfulness, faith in yourself to make it to the end.

Have faith in your rainbows to sparkle through the greyest skies,

Have faith in the sun to shine through after those dark nights,

Have faith in the justice that will be delivered, by the one ultimate Judge-God.

Peace- II

We are blessed with beautiful pure souls by our Creator which thrives on peace. So why would should that be tarnished with the madness of everyday? Our innate thoughts and ideas manifest into the world we create for ourselves. It’s like as you sow, so shall you reap. The input affects the output. When there is peace inside, there is peace outside. And we could definitely do with some “World Peace” but not the kind you hear on beauty pageants. It’s the little drops of water which make those majestic oceans, we are all those little droplets pooling in together to make that world we live in a truly wonderful place. It will become our legacy that we leave behind for our future.

Daunting as it may seem, I do have a few suggestions which may hopefully help you usher in the inner peace we all search for and also further translate into world peace. Before reading further, try blocking out the pessimistic thoughts which often likes to discourage us from being the better version of ourselves.

Basics first… focus on bringing back the humility in our approach to life, as it defines our approach to striving to achieve peace. By humbleness one isn’t supposed to assume that they are incapable, it’s avoiding the trap of arrogance. A quote I found which sums its relevance,

“Humility is the foundation of all the other virtues hence, in the soul in which this virtue does not exist there cannot be any other virtue except in mere appearance.” Saint Augustine

For perspective, here’s a thought, in this great big planet that we live in, we are just another one of the “Homo Sapiens” walking about. In the plethora of flora and fauna created by our Creator, just one specie we are. So brush off that arrogance and look at life again. Humility becomes thus the first step to achieving a clear heart. A clear Heart finds peace swifter.

Next step is working with patience in come what may. This is tricky. Some days we work well, some days we don’t, it’s the days we don’t that augment the agitation of the soul. Find the cause and work out plan B for that situation and feel the difference. Have a sip of water, count, sit down, look away, wash your face, any little action which will calm you down and distract your seething storm. It will help you gain focus again and find your plan B.

Following the base built by Humility and Patience, comes in gratitude. This not only strengthens the other two but also paves the way for peace to start making a permanent nest in our lives. Thankfulness reminds you of the good already present in your life and in that process, you draw closer to contentment. Gratitude also extends to the wonderful favours of our Lord on our lives too. Breathing, being alive, the wonderful eyes that you’re reading with, the pet you have or the wonderful world the Creator created just so you could have that picture perfect sunset. It’s mentioned about the Prophet David, when he sang songs of praise of the Lord, all of nature sang with him. That is the ultimate manifestation of gratitude. It’s contagious. A chain reaction whose effervescence goes on with goodness after goodness.

Share! There is a huge gap in the world between the haves and have nots, (Not just in the economic sense).Start with food, it’s the easiest to share, In Islam there is a saying, “food for one, is enough for two, the food for two is enough for four..” So go on. Gladden your heart with the exultation of sharing, share a joke, share a laugh, share a smile, share a load, share the joys, share the lows, share courage, share trust, or simply share your wonderful company. The satisfaction of having done that will hearten your heart and strengthen the foundation of that peace you yearn for. After all what goes around, comes back around. Share some love around, it will find a way back to you, for the world is round after all.

Simplify, simplify, simplify. We all run after the big things and in that great big run up we overlook the little things that make all the difference. Have you seen a little child, whose happiness lies only in a cuddle from the parents, or splashing in that puddle of water? Have you seen the happiest people are often the ones with the least amount of things? Have you seen that the most generous are the ones who have little to call their own? Opulence makes us stingy and lazy more often than the other way around. So try simplifying your life and you’re one more step closer to Peace!

Make a peace corner. A little drama can sometimes go a long way in encouraging the pretence to become part of the reality of the character. Bring the outdoors in, some pretty plants and flowers, a water feature, some scented lights or just some soft furnishings on your favourite chair, sit down relax and unwind. Half an hour of that Zen-like setup works wonders on the nerves and brings back the Peace you thought you lost battling the great big world.

But above all, we all need to learn to be fair. Empathy is often misunderstood as its cousin, sympathy. We can’t truly find peace, if our hearts and souls are unfair. You can’t really be fair without bringing empathy in the picture. Empathy is about putting ourselves in the spot of others and walking that mile, feeling each little pebble underfoot and the distance between each footstep. Till we truly empathise its hard to be fair. But we can all try and eventually we will get there. We need to break the selfish mould the world likes to throw us in as we run along in the rat race. In the end we all have to die, so let us leave the world behind a little happier, a little better, a little more at peace than yesterday.

Little changes to our lives can go a long way in bringing the inner calm to our souls. Once you have found your inner peace, you become that symbol of serenity slowly spreading that wonderfulness we crave called, “World Peace”.

I hope to see you there,

Peace and tranquillity reign where,

Across the stormy seas of turmoil and restlessness,

Beyond the plain of unreasonableness,

Past the valley of selfishness,

I hope to see you there,

Peace and tranquillity reign where,

Sublime splendour enraptures the eye,

Serenity descends from the sky,

Sincerest spirit of amity becomes the glue to our tie,

I hope to see you there,

Peace and tranquillity reign where.

-SpiritualZain