the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum
Dear Friends
I pray that you are well.
The world we live in feels normal and ordinary. It feels like this is just how humans exist and always existed. But it is not. Never before has humans lived in a world as sophisticated and as engineered to our needs as today, giving us the luxury to forget ourselves and don't worry about survival. Food, shelter, security, all these are more or less taken for granted.
About 500 years ago the scientific revolution began. Mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, physics, biology and chemistry transformed everything we thought we knew. The industrial revolution followed soon after, laying the foundation for the modern world. As our overall efficiency grew exponentially, more people could spend their lifetime contributing to the progress of humanity.
Revolutions kept happening. The invention of the computer, its evolution into a medium that we all use on a daily basis and the rise of the internet shape our world. It is hard to grasp how fast all of that happen. 7500 generations since the physiological modern human saw the light of day. 500 generations since civilization began; 20 generations ago we learned how to do science, and the internet became available to most people only one generation ago.
Today we live in the most prosperous age humanity had ever experienced. We have transformed this planet from the composition of its atmosphere to large scale changes of its landscape and also in terms of other animals in existence. We light up the nights with artificial stars and put people in a metal box in the sky, some have even walked on the moon. We put robots in other planets. We have looked deep into the past of the universe with mechanical eyes. Our knowledge and our way of acquiring and storing more of it has exploded. The average high school students today know more about the universe than a scholar a few centuries ago.
But remember, no matter how sophisticated this world and our brains are, it will not stand Allah's anger.
After Allah has removed all the threats of nature from you, after Allah has given you shelter from the elements of nature, after Allah has removed from the darkness of the land and sea, after Allah has given you ease from all difficulties of life, Allah can still bring punishment from above and from below and from ourselves.
قُلْ هُوَ ٱلْقَادِرُ عَلَىٰٓ أَن يَبْعَثَ عَلَيْكُمْ عَذَابًا مِّن فَوْقِكُمْ أَوْ مِن تَحْتِ أَرْجُلِكُمْ أَوْ يَلْبِسَكُمْ شِيَعًا وَيُذِيقَ بَعْضَكُم بَأْسَ بَعْضٍ ۗ ٱنظُرْ كَيْفَ نُصَرِّفُ ٱلْءَايَـٰتِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَفْقَهُونَ ﴿٦٥﴾ وَكَذَّبَ بِهِۦ قَوْمُكَ وَهُوَ ٱلْحَقُّ ۚ قُل لَّسْتُ عَلَيْكُم بِوَكِيلٍ ﴿٦٦﴾ لِّكُلِّ نَبَإٍ مُّسْتَقَرٌّ ۚ وَسَوْفَ تَعْلَمُونَ ﴿٦٧[Qur'an, Al-An'am 6:65-67]
Say, "He is the [one] Able to send upon you affliction from above you or from beneath your feet or to confuse you [so you become] sects and make you taste the violence of one another." Look how We diversify the signs that they might understand. (65) But your people have denied it while it is the truth. Say, "I am not over you a manager." (66) For every happening is a finality; and you are going to know. (67)
وَدَخَلَ جَنَّتَهُۥ وَهُوَ ظَالِمٌ لِّنَفْسِهِۦ قَالَ مَآ أَظُنُّ أَن تَبِيدَ هَـٰذِهِۦٓ أَبَدًا ﴿٣٥(35) [Qur'an, Al-Kahf 18:35]
And he entered his garden while he was unjust to himself. He said, "I do not think that this will perish - ever.
There are many of us who think this way, and this is how they can lose everything. Don't take things for granted.
رَبَّنَآ ءَاتِنَا مِن لَّدُنكَ رَحْمَةً وَهَيِّئْ لَنَا مِنْ أَمْرِنَا رَشَدًا
Our Lord, grant us from Yourself mercy and prepare for us from our affair right guidance. [Qur'an, Al-Kahf 18:10]
Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammad wa 'ala aalihi wa sahbihi wasallam.
And Allah knows best and He alone grants success.
Wassalaam
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