Counting the blessings of Allah (swt)

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّ حِيْمِ

Allah says in Surah An Nahl;

‘If ye would count up the favours of Allah, never would ye be able to number them: for Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.’ (16:18)

Allah is telling us that it is near impossible to count the number of favours He has bestowed upon us. From a religious point of view we know that the favours from Allah can be of a material nature, spiritual nature and moral nature. The material blessings Allah bestows are given to all of His creatures, out of His Compassion. He connects Himself to His creation on the basis of His Divine Compassion. So, whether people realise the blessings they are receiving or not; whether or not they are thankful to Allah for His blessings, He still bestows out of His Grace and Mercy. Take for example the relatively simple action of breathing which is done tens of thousands of times a day. And this important action is done with relative comfort and at no cost.

Prophet Muhammad (saw) use to pray as follows; ‘O Allah! All praise is due to You, without being able to sufficiently thank You, nor ever wish to be cut off from You, nor ever feeling rich from relying on You our Lord!’

Prophet (saw) acknowledged that he could not have sufficiently thanked Allah for His many favours that He bestows. It is also reported that Prophet Dawud (as) used to say in his supplication; ‘O Lord! How can I ever duly thank You, when my thanking You is also a favour from You to me’. Allah answered him, ‘Now, you have thanked Me sufficiently, O Dawud’.

This teaches us that even the ability to thank Allah is also a favour and blessing that He has afforded us. Allah is the embodiment of wealth and we are all destitute. Allah is the Possessor of everything and we are in dire need of Him; and He is so Generous that whether or not we show gratitude to Him or not He still bestows upon us. And yet still there are the short-sighted people who believe that their blessings are as a result of their ‘hard work’.

As we have mentioned material blessings are bestowed on all, the Muslims as well as the non-Muslims. How then are we, the believers, different? And why then should we be thankful if everyone is being blessed in a similar manner by Allah . Some people use their material acquisitions for good and others for evil. Those who are guided and possess the understanding of using their wealth for good will gain benefit in both words, and they are the ones that are truly blessed. In connection with this Allah says

‘What is with you must vanish: what is with Allah will and we will certainly bestow, on those who patiently persevere, their reward to the best of their actions.’ (16:96)

So whatever little material blessings you have will vanish one day. The wise person will send a bit for “Allah to keep it”. Do not waste what He has blessed you with in this world. If you have this knowledge and act in accordance to it be extremely thankful to your Lord because not only has He blessed you with some material gain but He has also enlightened you in the appropriate manner of how to utilize it to it maximum.

Morally speaking Allah has blessed the Muslims in a special way in that we possess the strength that enables us to follow His Habeeb, Prophet Muhammad (saw). Prophet (saw) came to perfect moral character. The Arabs lived in a very barbaric manner before the advent of Islam. And these uncultured tribesmen began following him because of his moral character. And if you can uphold your morals be thankful to Allah because He has assured us of the just reward for the morally conscious ones.

Spiritually, Muslims are blessed in such a manner that no other nation possessed this unique blessing. When Hazrat Musa (as) and Isa (as) wanted to meet Allah they had to meet certain requirements and then ascend a mountain. We, ordinary slaves of Allah have the unique opportunity of meeting our Lord and Master a minimum of 5 times a day in the discipline of Salaat. As taught by our beloved leader, Allah comes between a Muslim and the Kaba when he/she stands for salaat. And in it we have the blessed opportunity of glorifying and praising Allah . And we can also beg of Him for forgiveness, comfort etc. So we see it is indeed a difficult task to quantify the blessings being bestowed upon us by the Merciful One. And He has also informed us about the blessings we can obtain in the next world if we adhere to His guidance. In Surah An Nisaa'He has mentioned 4 blessings;

‘All who obey Allah and the Apostle are in the company of those on whom is the Grace of Allah,- of the Prophets (Who teach), the sincere (lovers of Truth), the witnesses (Who testify), and the righteous (Who do good): Ah! what a beautiful fellowship! (4:69)

And to this if further strengthened by Prophet (saw) in the hadith; “amongst my followers some will have the status of the Messengers of the Bani Israel.” Can you imagine walking amongst the Messengers of Allah ?

A lot of emphasis is placed on material blessings; and to the true believer this is neither here nor there. What is important is for us to understand the importance of showing gratitude to Allah . Even though we can never count His favours upon us and even though we can never thank Him as He ought to be thanked still demonstrate submission and understanding.

Keep in mind you only have one life to live and we are not sure of what is in store for us tomorrow. So make use of the time as it comes and don’t wait until you’re older to “start following the religion”. Remember we will never have this time again so use it wisely. Make the effort, and leave the rest to Him and you will have no regrets on that Day. Whether or not you see or experience the favours being bestowed always remember that Allah will never let you down.

We beg of Him to forgive us bless us and bestow on us His Divine Grace and Mercy and may He enable us to rise with the righteous.

The Beauty of the Qur’an

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّ حِيْمِ

There is no doubting the beauty of the Qur’an, and upon close examination of the Messages contained in each verse one will begin to see and understand why its beauty is unmatched.

One of the beauties of the Qur’an is that a person can connect the words in a verse and; with each way the words will be put together a person will get a different shade of meaning; and one of the mysteries of this Book is that one meaning will not contradict with the original meaning. For example, in the first verse in Surah Kahf. Allah says;

‘Praise be to Allah, Who hath sent to His servant the Book, and hath allowed therein no Crookedness’. (18:1)

The first part of the verse is clear, i.e. ‘Praise be to Allah, Who hath sent to His servant the Book’. As we all know Allah is The One Who revealed the Glorious Qur’an to His slave, Prophet Muhammad (saw).

When the latter part of the verse is studied, i.e. 'and hath allowed in it no Crookedness’. ‘La hu’ can mean "he" or "it". It is commonly translated to mean the Holy Qur’an; i.e. "it". So if we take the meaning to mean it, that part of the verse will mean that Allah has sent down the Qur’an and it contains no crookedness, defects, etc.

‘La hu’ in the above verse can also refer to Prophet Muhammad (saw). So if we read the and translate that "hu" to mean the Messenger (saw), it will read like this: Praise be to Allah Who hath sent to His Servant the Book; and you will not find in "him" any crookedness.

How will you know what or who Allah is referring to? Remember ‘the Qur’an explains itself’ so the other places in the Qur’an aid in your understanding. This is why no one is authorised to explain the Qur’an.

With reference to the verse quoted above if you want to find support that Allah is speaking of the Qur’an when He attested that it contained no crookedness we can look at the following verse;

It is the Quran in Arabic, without any crookedness therein; in order that they may guard against evil. (39:28)

If you want take the word La hu to mean the Prophet (saw) we can find support for this in the following verses;

‘And Verily, You (O Muhammad) are on an exalted standard of character’. (68:4)
‘that Allah may forgive you your sins of the past and the future’. (48:2)

Look at this one word when expounded upon has so many dimensions.

It is important to understand the flawlessness of the Qur’an; and just as Allah produced a Book free from all kinds of defects; and the Messenger who brought the Book is also free from every form of defects, we too need to make our book, that we are producing (i.e. our book of deeds) pure and as free from as much defects as possible.

When a person requires a character certificate he needs to go to someone in authority such as a police officer. And in order for the policeman to produce the certificate he will go through the records to see whether there were any ‘defects or crookedness’ in the person’s life. So too, on the Day of Judgement; in order to get into Paradise your book will be brought forward to see whether you have defects or good in it.

Prophet (saw) is our leader and exemplar and he was sinless which means that his book will contain no wrong or reprehensive deeds. We must also aspire to purify our personalities so that on that Day our book will be one that we can feel proud of as a book free from records of crookedness will grant us access to the Garden of bliss.

May Allah enable us to understand more and more of His Glorious Words and may He grant us the ability to cultivate our personalities in accordance with what is permissible, so that our book of deeds will be one that contains neither crookedness nor defects.