A Jolt That Led To An Opening
Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatuLlah wa barakaatuh,
Trust that you are doing great, striving and thriving.
These past few weeks have been so great for me, Alhamdullilahi robbil alameen, I have had sooo many Alhamdullilahi moments and had no problem at all with my gratitude notes, I would write them with so much joy and peace of mind. I was having the time of my life! Then everything changed , I got a jolt, someone had died and he was of a different faith.
As someone who has faced loss more than once, you would think I would know what to do, but death is a trial that is uniquely painful. It hits different, all the time. I searched my toolbox of coping strategies, but couldn’t find a way to wriggle out of this one. Had I faced this kind of loss before? Yes! Did I know how to deal with it? No.
I spent a week in between shock, sadness and just confusion. My mind was running in circles from thoughts of the grave, those left behind and the paralysis of not being able to make Dua for the deceased. My default response for loss is Sadaqah, and a ton of Dua. This time though, I was stuck.
I remember writing to my sisters about the ‘limitations of my coping mechanism’ and how I had no idea how to get through this. Then something happened , one of them responded with a message struck me ‘ We might not be able to make Dua for them , but we can make Dua to Allah for other things’ and with that simple message she reminded me of who Allah is. She also reminded me that this was not really about ‘limitations of my coping mechanism’ but my limitations as a human being generally. Her message reminded me that even though we are limited Allah is limitless.
To top it up, I attended a session on grief and loss with Sheikh Yahya Ibrahim at the 1Ummah conference and his message was clear on how we can express our grief to Allah. He talked about out trust in Allah’s ability to do the best, because He knows what we do not know. He also explained how important it is for us to feel comfortable expressing our pain to Allah (SWT). Being able to express our pain to Allah is acceptable and it is okay.
There are a lot of things in life that we will never understand, many more that we can’t control or get clear answers to. In the in the midst of all this uncertainty though, one thing remains certain and that is Allah. We know that He will always be the most merciful, we know that everything is part of His big plan and He is the best of planners, we know that His mercy and compassion is far more than we can imagine. So when we can’t find answers (and we will find ourselves in this situation many times) we must remember that ‘whoever puts their trust in Allah, then He ˹alone˺ is sufficient for them. Certainly Allah achieves His Will. Allah has already set a destiny for everything. Quran 65:3
May Allah heal us from what we are suffering from emotionally, heal our wounds and bless us with faith that settles deep in our heart.
Ameen.
We leave you in Allah’s Care,
One Of Us at IbadahPlug