Skip to main content

The Priceless Blessings We Never Count

Is it a small thing that you go out of your home shaking both your hands, walking with steady steps, filling up your chest with early morning breath, and enjoying the sunshine in your eyes?

If you are heedless to the healthiness of your body, the integrity of your organs, and the perfection of your faculties… wake up quickly.

Our Priceless Blessings

In this life, your capital is not the gold and silver you have. Your true capital, your real wealth, are the faculties that God has given you, such as intellect, ability, freedom, and the highest of these gifts – good health.

“Would you sell both your eyes for a billion dollars?” Dale Carnegie wondered:

“What would you take for your two legs and your hands? Your hearing? Your children or your family?

Add up your assets, and you will find that you won’t sell what you have for all the gold ever amassed. But do we appreciate all this?

Ah, no.

As Schopenhauer said:

“We seldom think of what we have but always of what we lack.’ Yes, the tendency to ‘seldom think of what we have but always of what we lack’ is the greatest tragedy on earth.”

It was narrated that Ibn Al-Samak, a righteous religious scholar, was attending the counsel of Caliph Harun Al-Rashid who, having asked for water, said to him:

“Advise me.”

With the cup raised to his mouth, Ibn Al-Samak asked him:

“O Emir of the Believers, were this drink of water withheld from you, would you pay your kingdom for it?”

The Caliph said:

“Yes.”

Having drunk it, Ibn Al-Samak asked him:

“Were it held inside you and you could not void it (could not urinate), would you pay your kingdom to void it?”

The Caliph replied:

“Yes.”

Ibn Al-Samak said:

“There is no goodness in a kingdom that is not worth drinking or voiding a gulp of water.”

Without attention, we have, and without effort, we get that which a king might sacrifice his kingdom for – drinking water and passing it out.

Remember the Blessings of God

Do we remember such a bounty of God upon us? Or do we appreciate it and thank Him for it?

Getting used to being healthy makes us forget or belittle how good being healthy is; sometimes, it takes a crisis or loss of health to appreciate it. But no matter how little or slight it is in the sight of people, it remains complete in the Sight of God and will be wholly, with all its elements, accounted for before Him.

Prophet Muhammad said:

By the One in Whose Hand is my soul, a person will come on the Day of Resurrection with good deeds which, if placed on a mountain, would weigh it down; then only one of Allah’s Blessings is to come forth (and take what it deserves from the servant’s good deeds) and almost exhausts them all, if not for the Mercy that Allah bestows. (Al-Tabarani)

Hence, God says in the Quran:

And if you would count (the numerous benefits of) a Blessing of Allah, never could you be able to count it. Truly, Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful. (16: 18)

All life is a gift for which God deserves thanking for endowing us with, soul and sensation; and a whole universe abundantly furnished with supplies and replete with signs pointing to the Creator:  

How can you disbelieve in God who gave you life when you initially had no life? Then He will cause you to die, then He will bring you (back) to life, and then to Him you will be returned. (2: 28)

Our senses are our tools for interacting with this universe, exploring it, and learning from it, and should, when flooded by its power, beauty, and immensity all around, shake with gratitude to He who honored us with life:

And God has brought you forth from the wombs of your mothers knowing nothing, and given you hearing, sight, and hearts that you might give thanks (to Allah). (16: 78)

Whenever our sensibilities grow blunt, indifferent, or careless; whenever we no longer value the incessant flow of God’s blessings, a good contemplation, after freeing the mind from the dullness of familiarity and inattention, will help awaken the senses; it will help renew the feelings and open up our eyes to the heavens and earth; all this put in our service, which helps the mind better understand God’s Call:

O mankind, worship your Lord, Who created you and those before you, that you may become pious. He Who has made for you the earth a bed (spread out), and the sky a canopy; and sent down water (rain) from the sky, and brought forth therewith fruits as a provision for you. So do not set up rivals (equals) to Allah while you know (that He has no partner, peer, or equal). (2: 21-2)

Works Cited:

Carnegie, Dale. How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990

 
This article is a translated excerpt from Sheikh Muhammad Al-Ghazali’s book: “Renew Your Life”. It is translated and adapted by Haya Muhammad Eid & edited by Emily Katharine Richardson.

(From Discovering Islam archive)

The post The Priceless Blessings We Never Count appeared first on About Islam.



source https://aboutislam.net/reading-islam/living-islam/the-priceless-blessings-that-we-never-count/
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

List of Times and Places Where Dua is Accepted

A short reminder regarding the recommended times of dua . And I think what you need to know here is that the recommended times of dua or recommended things that can cause your dua to be accepted, can be divided into two sort of large groups: Am I Good Enough to Make Dua for Myself? Situations where your dua is accepted. Times where your dua is accepted So I’m going to very briefly mention them one after the other as much as possible. As for situations where your dua has been accepted: – The person who has been wronged or oppressed . – A person who finds themselves in severe difficulty after a calamity has struck. – The person who is traveling. – Someone who is fasting. – The one who is reciting the Quran or has just recited the Quran – Someone who is performing Hajj or Umrah or jihad. – The one who is making dua for someone in their absence . Because we know that when you make dua for someone in his absence an angel says: “ Ameen and to you”. – A person...
Post a Comment
Read More »

Derechos de Las Mujeres en Islam

Durante el Tiempo del Profeta (la paz sea con él) Veamos cómo fueron tratadas las mujeres de todo el mundo durante la época del Profeta (la paz sea con él). En la Europa del siglo VIII, la religión principal era el catolicismo y durante este tiempo debatían si las mujeres tenían alma. Dijeron que las mujeres eran impuras y que no tenían derecho a la herencia. A las mujeres tampoco se les permitía tocar la Biblia. No era como ahora en el Islam, donde ellas no pueden tocar el Corán durante la menstruación, pero a las mujeres en la Europa del siglo VIII nunca se les permitió tocar la Biblia. En China e India, fueron quemadas vivas cuando murieron sus maridos. En Arabia Saudita practicaron infanticidio femenino en el que, si nacía una niña, la enterrarían viva. Si el marido de una mujer muere, un miembro de su familia se unirá a ella para demostrar que ahora es de su propiedad. Mujeres en el Islam Con el Islam llegó una nueva era para las mujeres. En el Islam, las mujeres tienen la...
Post a Comment
Read More »

Ghuraba (The Strangers): Nasheed with English Subtitles

Islam began as something strange, and it shall return to being something strange, so give glad tidings the strangers. (Sahih Muslim 145) This famous nasheed has many versions; this one is from Muhammad al-Salman and has the subtitles in English embedded. [We are] strangers and we do not bow the foreheads to anyone besides Allah  […] Transliteration to help in the pronounciation:  Ghurabaa’ wa li ghairillaahi laa nahnil jibaa Aisha Stacey  wrote in an article for Aboutislam.net : “I think that many of you would agree that being Muslim in the 21st century makes you well acquainted with being strange. It might even be a metaphor for random, as in you have been randomly selected. […] many converts to Islam will tell you about feeling as if they were strangers, before finding Islam. They will speak of feeling that they belonged somewhere else that their lives were just slightly off center. They often speak about a vague sense of knowing they were not like everyone else...
Post a Comment
Read More »