Blessings of Peace and Food

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

Dear Friends

I pray that you are well.

There is no single blessing you possess but it is from Allah. Just open your fridge.

That leftover food in the fridge waiting for you to eat is a big blessing, but you don't know it and you don't like leftovers, so you throw them in the garbage. Then suddenly there is a big earthquake and the second storey of your house collapsed and your fridge and your pantry are smashed. You cannot get to the stores, everywhere is chaos--sirens, roadblocks, accidents, fires, roads flooded by broken fire hydrants. Imagine the disaster! You have to wait for the red cross helicopters to drop you food packages. Now your stomach is crying, your children are laying there like fish out of the water--they haven't eaten for 2 days. You wish for that leftover in the garbage would come back but the flies have gotten to it first!

There are two blessings that we cannot truly understand them until we lose them: blessings of peace and blessings of being fed.

For those who are living in the western Europe, North America, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and most of the fully developed countries, you are so blessed that you can stick your head out the car window for directions when you lost your way, without having the fear of being robbed, raped or shot at. You were so appreciative of the guy who was nice enough to stop and give you the direction--you said "Thank you." But no thank you to Allah, the One Who gives you speech to ask for direction, the One Who made it possible for the guy to give you the direction, the One Who sent the earthquake to Haiti instead of to your area, the One Who gives your country peace and stability so that you can move around freely.

The smallest of things that we take for granted in this life is a blessing from Allah and many are not grateful.

Allah Almighty says,

وَلَقَدْ مَكَّنَّاكُمْ فِي الْأَرْضِ وَجَعَلْنَا لَكُمْ فِيهَا مَعَايِشَ ۗ قَلِيلًا مَّا تَشْكُرُونَ ﴿١٠

And We have certainly established you upon the earth and made for you therein ways of livelihood. Little are you grateful. (10)

[Qur'an Al-A'raf 7:10]

But Ar-Rahman, Ar-Rahim, Al-Karim (the Generous), As-Sabur (the Patient One), Al-Halim (the Forbearing) still shower His slaves with abundant blessings despite the slaves' ingratitude and heedlessness.

When there is no peace, people are afraid of each other and movements are restricted or banned, and killings and brutality run rampant, and food supply becomes low. You may not be able to imagine any of these because you have never been outside your comfort zone. But be prepared, because this can happen to anyone and any place. We don't know, only Allah knows. Allah can destroy a nation and can build a nation. Kun fa yakun. Be and it is. The Qur'an has many examples of this. Tomorrow we could wind up in the ocean--remember the 2004 Bandar Acheh Tsunami? Tomorrow a civil war could break out. When all these happen, there is nothing we can do.

So while we are still free to move, go ahead, live--but with a different attitude, the attitude should be of gratitude and living for the next life. So Allah will remember us and not let us perish in the disaster just like that.

When you look at your food next time, when you break your fast, appreciate what Allah has given you. Have a heart full of appreciation and gratitude of what is in front of you. If you can't, remember those fishermen in Gaza who can't bring fish to their families because they are not free to fish in the sea, and remember those farmers in Gaza who lost their crops to some missiles that had landed on their farms, and remember many Gaza families and children are being deprived of even basic foods due to border and supply tunnel closures.

The mark of appreciation and gratitude is that you are humble and lower yourself in front of the blessing. All the sunnah of the Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, is speaking to us--that we are so small, undeserving of the blessings of Allah, and the very food in front us is a treasure and we are blessed to have it and we really respect it. We are not merely saying on the tongue "Bismillah" at the beginning and "Alhamdulillah" at the end. We feel this before we eat and all the way beyond eating to the leftovers. All these have to be covered in deep veneration of Allah.

Don't cook too much that you have leftovers that food wind up in the garbage cans. Suffice to cook less for the stomachs then throwing food away. There is so much waste everywhere and it is very sad to see food go into the garbage--you see this a lot at the masjid! We tend not to respect food anymore. When I was a young girl learning how to cook, my mother would not even let me drop a grain of rice when washing the rice before cooking it. If there was a grain of rice in the drain that fell out of the pot while I was washing it, she would tell me to pick it up and give it to the chickens. But nowadays, we callously throw enormous amount of food. That is being disrespectful to food. Make a conscious effort not to waste food, the gift of Allah to us.

We must have a sense why we are doing something, what the purpose is, why we are eating. If you are eating for no purpose, then this is a big problem because this means you are living to eat instead of eating to live. Allah created the world for us, not us for the world, and He created us for Him. So we partake the world within His guidelines.

We eat to worship Him. Ultimately you are what you eat. Food and eating must be in line with the teachings and the sunnah of Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace. Otherwise, this most basic blessing and act that we enjoy can turn into a curse, ruin one's heart, ruins one's worship, becomes an obsession and many other matters that push us away from Allah.

The way the Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, acted was reflecting a state that we meant to be following, to be slavely. We are expected to take this attitude from the Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace. How best to incorporate them other than to approach blessings the way he approached blessings. The more we can approach things the way our Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, approached things, the easier it is to be like him in state. So learn the sunnah of the Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, and incorporate them in your life as much as you can.

Let the waves of love for Allah, not the chain of afflictions, push us towards Him--show Him our gratitude for all His blessings.

May Allah give you tawfiq and accept your fasting and good deeds. Ameen.

Please make du'a for Egypt and the people of Egypt. Jazakallahu khairan.

And Allah knows best.
Wassalaam