2:7 Khatama Allahu AAala quloobihimwaAAala samAAihim waAAala absarihim ghishawatunwalahum AAathabun AAatheem
Allah has set a seal on their hearts and on their hearing, and on their vision, is a veil; for them is a great punishment.
I know I can be clueless in life. So, I often wonder how I can relate to this verse. There is no doubt there were many times in my life that I just couldn’t see, hear, or feel the wisdom and barakah of Allah’s words, His ways. I thought I had all it took within me to navigate through this life.
That level of self assurance is dangerous, I later came to understand. How I led myself to traps. Not knowing the difficulties that existed, I walked right into them.
When you think you have it all but you’re actually clueless in life!
All because somehow, though I believed in Allah, I genuinely thought that He had given me all the faculties to figure things out on my own. Why would I need to learn anything from the Quran, when I inherently have it in me? And eventually, when I did take up studying the Quran, to assume I knew things as a result was also dangerous. It takes time.
It takes a lot of reflecting. So to think we know, that is a very dangerous place to be. And I was there. In many ways maybe I still am, because I often wonder what else don’t I know? What else, that is critical to a proper life, am I missing out on. So the daily asking is a regular part of my 5 prayers: show me the truth and help me to be a part of truth only.
It’s only when I could start seeing that I really was clueless in life, that’s when one difficulty after another, ironically, ended up being the blessing that I needed to turn myself to Him in a more complete way. “OK”, I thought “let me figure this out. What does he really want from me?”. And the journey began.
Marry the King
One thing I can tell you, to be blocked from being able to fully comprehend something as important as attaining the optimal life, is a horrible place to be. Because you’re not happy, even when you think you are. You don’t know why you’re not happy. You just know something is missing, and so you convince yourself “when I have a spouse, it’ll get fixed”, “When I have kids…”, “when I have more money…” and so on.
But it never does get fixed with all those things, does it? How many of us are smart enough to recognise it? You can marry a King and your happiness may just get more challenged. You can have perfect kids, and your struggles may only increase. You may have the wealth of a King, and your anxiety may shoot through the roof. No, it’s something else, and you know this inherently.
Not sure you’re unhappy, clueless in life?
Or worse, you actually often don’t even know that you’re unhappy. There’s so many masks we wear where we just convince ourselves that it’s all cool, we are going to be just ok. Please. I can tell you. It never gets ok without embracing Allah fully. And that’s really not a difficult task, don’t let anyone tell you that it is. People make it sound like reading the quran is a big deal.
They want you to believe that understanding it takes a lot. While it is always a great idea to find ways to learn it thoroughly from our scholars, know that if you sit with the Quran with a sincere heart, Allah knows with what intention you are there. And He will create openings for you unlike anyone else. Allah is the only one to guide you, and that is no small thing.
When you have that, the world is yours, to understand, to navigate through, to enjoy and to avoid. The gift is directly from Allah. It may be through bringing you a great teacher, or that perfect book on the Quran, or even an amazing translation (very difficult to find). Just start your relationship with the Quran any sincere way you can, that’s the first step. Make that moment now.
Don’t do any favours, puh-lease!
Remember, you’re not doing anyone a favor by praying or reading the Quran. That would really mean you’re clueless in life! It’s a privilege and a gift. And if you don’t get that, you are a fool. To think that you do 3 salats out of your 5, or 4 out of 5, and well you’re just amazing for keeping that up, is such a misguided person that it’s hard to even relay this to them.
Because they are busy commending themselves for doing such a big deal thing. No, you are lucky you can pray, so honor God’s recommendation to do all 5 prayers. If you believe, then you understand why 5 is the key.
What got us here?
If a doctor told you to take 5 pills a day to see maximum benefits to your health, would you say, “well I took 3, that’s good enough”. No, you wouldn’t (although I would never take pills without first exploring the cure through my high fat red meat diet, which is so healing!).
It’s time to ask yourself, where am I sealed? What can’t I see, hear, or feel? And more importantly, why. What have I done that got me here in God’s estimation of me. This type of reflection is huge.
