بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum
Dear Friends
I pray that you are well.
A story is a meaningful narrative. It has a beginning--an exposition, a middle--conflicts and climax, and an ending--resolution. Otherwise you don't call it a story--it would be a blog, blab, snippets, events, history, news.
If you read a good romantic novel, you want to jump to last page and see what the ending is. Sometimes the ending can be like this "...and they live happily ever after," and sometimes it can be like this "...and she swallowed the poison and fell by his lifeless body." And you closed the book with a sense of satisfaction or dissatisfaction depending on the ending. But you missed all the excitement in the middle and the story is meaningless for you because you didn't take the time to read the entire book.
Allah tells us the best of stories.
"We relate to you the best of stories by revealing this Qur'an to you, though before it you were one of the heedless." Qur'an Yusuf 12:3
"..so, relate stories, haply they will reflect." Qur'an Al-'Araf 7:176
Our life is a story. A life without meaning is not worth living. We will self-destruct if life is stripped of meaning.
Someone who experiences life as a mere "series of events"--get up, take the kids to school, go to work, work, come home, fight with wife (or wife fight with him), go to sleep, get up, take kids to school, go to work, work, come home, make up with spouse, go to sleep--he doesn't know what the meaning of life is.
Someone who experiences life as a small part of a larger story has found meaning, and this will satisfy a deep psychological need.
Different stories resonate to different degrees, but the story that will resonate the most powerfully is the story that we are psychologically wired to belief in, which is the true and wonderful story that Allah tells us in the Qur'an. The degree to which the story resonates within us is commensurate with the degree to which we realize our slavehood to our Lord. The meaning of life is found in our slavehood to our Lord, which is what the "Primoridal Covenant" was all about.
"And when thy Lord took from the Children of Adam, from their loins, their seed, and made them testify touching themselves, 'Am I not your Lord?' They said, 'Yes, we testify'-- lest you should say on the Day of Resurrection, 'As for us, we were heedless of this,...'" Qur'an Al-'Araf 7:172
If you turn away from your selfish desires, you will live a more pleasurable life. Someone without a slavehood-mindset cannot imagine humbling himself to his Lord. He equates submission to his Lord with the deprivation of pleasure. He doesn't realize that his frenzied pursuit of pleasure desensitizes him from feeling pleasure (that's why he gets bored) and keeps him from grateful contentment, which brings a delight to pleasure that cannot be found anywhere else.
Someone with a slavehood-mindset will enjoy the pleasures of life with a deep feeling of gratitude, which will accentuate the pleasures of the world. If he lets desires overcome him, he will sense first-hand that the pleasurable feeling leaves him
Our lives is but a part of the story of creation. The ending is told, and to remind us, Allah shows us signs along the way. The signs are meant for you to stop and refocus your life towards Allah for a good ending. Just like the red light you see ahead of you and if you keep accelerating, it doesn't help you in the slightest, ignoring Allah's signs and continue busy yourselves with this world, your story won't end with happily ever after.
"What, did you think that We created you only for sport, and that you would not be returned to Us?' Then high exalted be God, the King, the True! There is no god but He? the Lord of the noble Throne." Qur'an The Faithful 23:115-116
"We have not created the heavens and earth, and what between them is, for vanity; such is the thought of the unbelievers, wherefore woe unto the unbelievers because of the Fire! Or shall We make those who believe and do righteous deeds as the workers of corruption in the earth, or shall We make the Godfearing as the transgressors? A Book We have sent down to thee, Blessed, that men possessed of minds may ponder its signs and so remember." Qur'an Sad 38:27-29
May Allah make us His obedient slaves and make our ending better than our beginning at the highest of Iman. Ameen. Please don't forget us in your night prayers. Jazakallahu khairan.
Wassalaam
