Breathing

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum

Dear Friends

I pray that you are well.

What comes to your mind when you hear the word "breathe"? Labor and delivery room, lamaze class, yoga, asthma patients, ...? Breathing... it’s pretty much every moment of our lives, waking and sleeping. That's a lot of breathing. When have you ever done something with that excess? Or when has something become so second nature that you don’t even think about it, similar to the way we don’t think about the next breath we need to take. It's automatic. It just happens because it’s such a part of what you know you need to do and who you are.

Breathing...one of the many blessings we should be thankful for constantly. Alhamdulillah (All Praise belongs to Allah). Even if we devote all our time with saying Alhamdulillah till we die, it won't be enough showing of thanks to Allah, Al-Muhyi (the Giver of life). In fact our ability to say Alhamdulillah is from Him, and in itself a blessing, for which we should be thankful, but we do as much as we can in all of our states.

If we fall short, try to imagine the number of people in the hospitals all over the world sick and are on breathing tubes or other breathing apparatus. No doubt there are so many of them. And here we are, we are not gasping for air like the fish out of water. This is a great blessing. Try imagine the lives of people who have to carry oxygen tank around. I once had a client who breathed from an oxygen tank which got replenished a few times a week. I didn't know at first she had a terminal illness until I interviewed to prepare her estate planning documents. Although she was able to move around, she could become very tired/sick after a while. She died about a year later. If you cannot imagine how difficult the lives of people like her and their families, it is a good idea to visit a hospital nearby. Hospitals are to care for the sick as much as for the healthy, the latter is voluntary. In fact, it is more important for the healthy ones to go to the hospital and visit the sick. Perhaps it will remind us that every breath we take is a blessing and a cause for praise and gratitude.

If we can pause for a moment from what that keep us so busy, and just reflect only on the blessing of breathing, we will have to love Allah, and Allah Alone.

Gratitude is the heart’s joy at receiving blessings whilst the body is devoted to obedience of the Blesser. Or, it is to acknowledge the blessings of the Blesser with devotion. It has three forms: The gratitude of the tongue, which is to vocally acknowledge the blessing with resignation, which is itself a blessing; and the gratitude of the body, which is to devote it to God’s service; and the gratitude of the heart, which is to see the Blesser in every blessing. The foundation of all of these is contained in Junayd’s words: ‘One must not disobey God by means of His blessings.’ Ordinary people are grateful when they praise God with their tongues; the elite are grateful when they serve God with their bodies; and the elite of the elite are grateful when they immerse themselves completely in the vision of the Giver. [Ibn Ajiba]

May Allah not leave us alone even for a blinking of an eye and make us His thankful servants. Ameen.

Please don't forget us in your night prayers. Jazakallahu khairan.

And Allah knows best.
Wassalaam