slip-sliding away…..

For a long time, I’ve been attached to the verse quoted above – which comes from the 67th surah of the Quran.

In the past, I took it to mean that we look at certain physical things and assume they are the cause of other physical things happening. In this case, we see the birds flapping their wings and we assume that this is the reason they fly. But in reality, it’s not that flapping that allows them to fly. It’s their Almighty Creator that holds them up.

I’ve been listening to Nouman Ali Khan’s explanation of the surah, and his build-up to this verse, along with his explanation, hit me personally because of recent mundane yet stressful events in my life.

He explains that the birds’ default position is not flight. It’s to actually be grounded. So when we see them flapping their wings and flying, it’s a departure from their default. And it’s their Creator that is ACTIVELY keeping them up in the air as they fly. Which is pretty much what my previous thinking was too.

But somewhere around this passage, he points out that the analogy extends to us as humans too. Our default position is not being alive. We live and breathe and think that our hearts are beating all by themselves. But that’s not the case. We are all on life support. Every heartbeat. Every breath – is actually Allah ACTIVELY keeping us alive.

And for that, we need to be grateful.

The silly relation to my recent events is my car, which had mechanical problems for the second time in a few weeks. I was so annoyed when it happened – not just for the inconvenience, but more for the heavy financial cost it saddles me with, at a time when I really am being stretched quite thin.

So I extended the analogy to thinking about the car. How ITS default position, too, is not functioning – but a state of not functioning. And though it has all the internal mechanical and electrical parts, and fuel, etc, the reality is that those things have no power at all. It’s nothing but the Almighty that makes that car drive, and keeps it going.

And so, in the last few days, I’ve been actively reminding myself – each time I drive – to be grateful that when this vehicle works as it should. That it doesn’t break down or have some issue. Because a million things could go wrong, yet it’s so very rare that something does go wrong.

So too, the same can be said for any other thing in our homes, cars, or lives. Because they all operate as expected so often, when they don’t, we are troubled. But our default position should be to expect that they WON’T work…hence we are grateful when they do.

It’s maybe a silly idea to put forward, but one that I truly believe in, because we know that all power and all ability come only from Almighty Allah.

How long I’ll be able to hold onto this feeling, I don’t know.

But for now, I’m grateful that it’s a lesson from Quran which resonated with me in the course of everyday life.

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