SEEING DISASTERS AS DISASTERS
I remember reading a text by a famous mullah. I don’t quite remember his name, but he was talking about a new perspective on the world. I was beginning to internalize the kind of worldview that scares secularists and that defies the dualistic view of the world that I so despise. I saw God’s Hand in everything. I saw disasters as benefits. I saw failures as lessons to learn from - even if I didn’t want to learn from them, I knew what they were there for. Maybe God kept me miserably longing for a girl because He (1) knew it would continue to spark my creativity. Maybe my sadness in this respect would be the only thing that would make me keep writing.
Some people, when they’re blessed, only ignore God. And if God loves you, and doesn’t want you to ignore Him, he won’t give you anything you want -- if the lack of it is what keeps you coming back to Him.
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1. The Arabic pronoun huwa is used to describe God. Huwa is generally translated as 'he' - however, it does not have to refer to necessarily masculine properties. Islam rejects the idea that God has a color, a body, or a gender. God is the Ultimate Reality, the Highest Being, Absolutely One and Omnipotent and Omniscient in all respects. The idea that God can even be casually referred to as 'Father' is considered biased and degrading by a Muslim. God is above gender, and, hence, men and women are equal (though different) sides of the same human race. Muslims furthermore reject the Trinity, not just because it violates our standard of total monotheism, but also because it refers to God in terms that imply God is male. God is not male or female. God has qualities "traditionally" associated with males (power, domination) and females (mercy, love, compassion) and refers to Himself with both qualities. Thus, whenever I use 'He' to describe God, I beg of you, the reader, to not think of this as a gender-descriptive term.