Life, as it plays out is an interesting game with the unknown, in the unknown. And as it gradually unfolds, bit by bit, unfolds the mystery with it. We find that our life is intricately laced with experiences that often evoke emotions like joy, excitement, surprise, disappointment, despair, anguish, adventure, pain and hurt. It’s how we process each experience that displays our connection with the divine and our degree of surrender.
Let’s explore what is implied by surrender, it’s very similar to the total trust we display in the; the surgeon operating on us, once on the operating table. We totally give up on the what if’s and what if nots and surrender.
Let’s super impose this experience on life in general, the surgeon here is the Almighty and we mortals are the patients on the operating table and the experiences in life is the focus of operation. Do we find it as easy to trust the Almighty to take us from birth to death just like we trust the surgeon to take us from illness to wellness?
If not let’s explore the missing part of the puzzle and try putting it together.
We are often afraid to surrender because we fear things will not line up with our expectations, we believe that without our intervention the outcome would be disastrous, we might have to face major down fall, incur losses or our relations would fall apart, but is it really so, if we look closely we will discover that it is exactly the opposite. We often get in the way of our progress, each time we doubt the divine planning and intervene.
If we look around what role does a seed play in becoming a plant, what role does a bud play in becoming a flower, what role does a foetus play in becoming the baby, it simply allows the innately installed program to express itself without interception .Who fuses a fractured bone, the plaster around the broken bone simply allows the process of healing and fusing to proceed un- interrupted, takes our unnecessary intervention out of the way of the natural process of healing and becoming whole .
We are all programmed to reach our highest version, by our Beloved Creator. It’s only because we feel the need to do something ourselves and doubt our Creator’s acumen, His vision, His love , His wisdom , that we disallow the immaculate program to run and mess with our otherwise perfect lives.
Here it would help revisiting the source of this restricting fear, introspecting and recalibrating.
There are only two basic consciousnesses we function from. It’s either fear or love that drives every action. Long lasting satisfying success is a product of actions emerging out of love. Imagine yourself working on a project that you love versus the one you are working on because of fear of getting a bad review. Which would be free flowing , gratifying and a source of joy? Undoubtedly the one driven by love. The number of hours we spend on our passion seem like minutes and the minutes spent on a project driven by fear seem to be hours. Similarly any action emerging out of fear is restricting, nevertheless fear is of vital importance to our survival, if not for fear, we would happily jump off a cliff. Some quantum of fear is mandatory to keep us going. Life is all about the perfect blend of both.
Our dear Prophet(SWT) has clearly instructed; “Tie your camel and put your trust in Allah “.
Similarly it would suffice to say that do your best and leave the rest to our Creator Allah swt.
If the fulcrum of every action is love than life transforms into an experience of beauty. Then we can see beauty in an apparent tragedy like our beloved Sayyida Zaynab AS, emphatically declared in the court of yazid “ Maa Ra’aitu illa Jamilah”,I saw nothing but beauty .
The law of the universe is, ‘where focus goes, energy flows and results show ’. Fear undoubtedly is required to survive but when we decide to thrive we expand beyond survival .Our horizon expands and so does our vision. When we move from fear into love we begin our journey to expansion. Maarifah of our Almighty Allah is the magic portion that facilitates Tawakkul ,trust in the Almighty. If it’s Tawakkul, that is the wind below our wings we become unstoppable.
If we consider the case of our Dear prophet Moosa A.S and Fir’awn, when Moosa AS was being followed by the army of the Fir’awn and he reached the ocean. On one side was the ocean and the other was the massive army of Fir’awn. Where did each operate from and what was the outcome? Prophet Moosa AS was relaxed as he turned his attention to the Almighty swt invoked Divine assistance ,whereas, as Fir’awn thought he was enough and could destroy the army.
Weren’t the elephants of Abraha destroyed by the stones in the beaks of the birds ,weren’t the 313 believers enough to defeat the massive army of Abu jahl in the battle of Badr.
History reminds us over and over again do your best and leave the rest.
It’s a law that where focus goes energy flows and results show, if our focus is on the Lord of the worlds, wouldn’t surrender be natural? Its only when we shift our focus from our Lord that we find surrender a challenge.
Doesn’t the ayah in the Surah Al Fatiha of the Holy Quran “Iyyaka Na’budu Wa Iyyaka Nasta’een” if we were to put emphasis on just that aren’t we telling our Rabb that to You only do we serve and to You only do we place our affairs. Isn’t this a complete prescription for Life. Our Loving Creator has been asking us to rest our matters in His hands and relax, but we find this reliance daunting and difficult. He nudges us over and over again to let go but we seem to feel we can do better when in charge.
Let’s pause for a moment here and think who are we better than? ALLAH ?our Creator!
When we are faced with challenges, have we been told in Surah Al-Inshirah(94:5)
“Fa inna ma’ al yusri yusra ”, Verily with every hardship there is reliefs”. It is emphasised here that there’s indeed EASE Hidden in our so called CALAMITIES. Another emphatic point to note here is that the Arabic word used for hardship is in the singular but the word used for ease is plural suggesting that the hardship is often smaller in magnitude when compared to the ease with it. We are reminded explicitly that its not after the hardship, but with the hardship that there’s ease as declared by our loving Lord of the worlds our beloved creator.
Surrendering to the will of the Almighty is declaring to our beloved lord that I have done my best and relax and rejoice in the knowing that irrespective of how the outcome is displayed physically, you My Lord of the worlds is doing the best in my best interest because My Merciful Lord loves me more than you my creator.
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