Here I am
All night, a man called “Allah”
Until his lips were bleeding.
Then the Devil said, “Hey! Mr Gullible!
How comes you’ve been calling all night
And never once heard Allah say, “Here, I am”?
You call out so earnestly and, in reply, what?
I’ll tell you what. Nothing!”
The man suddenly felt empty and abandoned.
Depressed, he threw himself on the ground
And fell into a deep sleep.
In a dream, he met Abraham, who asked,
“Why are you regretting praising Allah?”
The man said, “ I called and called
But Allah never replied, “Here I am.”
Abraham explained, “Allah has said,
“Your calling my name is My reply.
Your longing for Me is My message to you.
All your attempts to reach Me
Are in reality My attempts to reach you.
Your fear and love are a noose to catch Me.
In the silence surrounding every call of “Allah”
Waits a thousand replies of “Here I am.”
~ Rumi
Often times we call to ALLAH expecting a vision or a response that is to our level. We forget that Allah is above us, His answers are above our expectations. He always answers to our call even when we do not realize it. Just remembering Him is a blessing! We should feel blessed having the opportunity to remember and call on our Lord. How many people go on through their lives without remembering Him? In the Quran, Allah, the Almighty says:"Therefore remember Me. I will remember you. Be grateful to Me and never show Me ingratitude" - Al-Baqarah 2:152 But how can we remember Allah when we cannot see Him and cannot even visualize His Entity? 'There are two answers. First, we look at His creations, for the creation reminds one of the Creator.The more we look at the grand design of the universe, the more we are reminded of the Designer. How many forces must come together with perfect coordination before a seed can sprout? What keeps this immensely complex and constantly expanding universe work so flawlessly? From the simplest to the most complex things there are pointers to the Creator on every square inch of this universe. Second, we recall Allah's blessings on us. The fact is that we cannot fully encompass the blessings of a single moment in our life. Right now somebody is reading these lines. We take the act for granted and think nothing of it. But let us pause and reflect on it. The eyes have to be working for us to recognize the printed characters. The brain has to be working for us to translate the images of characters we see on the screen into meaningful statements that they stand for. We need peace of mind to reflect on it. We need available time to even begin the process. None of these is of our own making.'
The Prophet (pbuh) said: "He who remembers his Lord and he who does not remember his Lord are like the living and the dead." - Al-Bukhari, cf., Al-Asqalani, Fathul-Bari 11/208; Muslim 1/539 with the wording "The house in which Allah is remembered and the house in which Allah is not remembered is like the living and the dead."
And he said, "Allah the Most High says, 'I am with my slave when he thinks of Me and I am with him when he mentions Me. For if he mentions Me to himself, I mention him to Myself; and if he mentions Me in a gathering, I mention him in superior gathering. If he approaches Me by a hand's width, I approach him by an arm's length, I approach him by two arms length. And if he comes to me walking, I hasten to him swiftly.'"
So let's remember our Lord on this Jummah and ask for His forgiveness, His guidance and May He Grant us Happiness in this Life and the next inshallah!
