Human hearts are the instruments upon which Mother Nature plays the great symphony of our lives; a harmonious melody of rising ambitions and rigorous trials, of breaking dreams and burning desires; a bittersweet song of lingering joys and fading sorrows. If you just listen with enough care to the rhythmic beauty of these rising and falling notes of your life, you will hear the heavenly voice of His love for you. A love that heals all wounds and gives you strength to see beyond the barriers of your sight, to hear the silent pains and pleasures of all other creatures, a love that befriends you when all others have forsaken you, a love that waits for you till the very end even when you are heedless of its affections, a love whose enslavement brings you the mastery of this entire universe. Such is the love of your Lord and Creator. “Say! He is Allah the One. Allah, the Eternal the Absolute: He does not beget nor is he begotten. And there is nothing like Him.” But alas, our hearts are hardened by ignorance and disbelief, our eyes are blinded by the glamorous illusions of our futures, and thus, our ears are deafened to the eternal bliss of His ever loving voice.
Nevertheless, in my four and twenty years of life, I have learnt that His Mercy far exceeds His wrath. His love for us is always prevalent over His anger at our disobedience. For such is the nature of His love for us, the children of Adam and Eve (peace be upon them both), the Ummah of Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وعلى آله وسلم), and His deputies on earth. Even so, we always forget our significance in the great unfolding of this universe. So to teach us the nobility of our kind, He makes us walk on the scorching paths of pains and difficulties, so that we may call on Him and finally bow down in submission to the fact that the only truth and salvation in this world lies in His love and mercy.
However, under the burden of our trials, it often happens that we begin to wonder, if He ever loved us at all? In the intense pain of our sufferings, an agonizing uncertainty begins to break us from within, and poisons our faith with a sense of abandonment. We cannot feel His love any more, and eventually, we lose ourselves to the misery of our unhappiness.
What exactly is the nature of this placid but powerful force of love? Is it a desire to be precious to somebody? Is it an affection which compels us to sacrifice everything for the sake of those we love? Such a desire and affection are the sustenance of love, but not its nature.
The nature of love is nothing but the will of our Master, The Most Loving: For science has only inadequate, sometimes even despicable explanations for this noble passion, whose existence is sublime in nature. Every kind of pure affection that colors our existence in this world is an expression of His love for us. The cool shade of our familial bonds, the warmth of our friendship, even the ties of courtesy that we make with our colleagues and mere acquaintances, all are different manifestations of His love for us as individuals.
In essence, each and every one of us has a unique connection with our Creator, which no one else shares. Even those who believe themselves to be all alone in this world are touched by His mercy one way or another. His Beloved Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وعلى آله وسلم) was an orphan, who never knew a father’s love, lost the love of his mother when he was a mere child, And in succession; the love of his grandfather, his uncle, and his wife. Yet at every step He did not let him stumble once, holding his hands by the hands of others in his life. Consequently, every bond and relationship that makes life worth living is a reflection of His mercy upon us, and as such, the soul of life itself.