The Magic Ball

“I am resigned to the will of Almighty Allah”, seems to be just a minor phrase but this little phrase is the crux of life.

Since time immemorial this phrase has become the natural essence of human existence, though many are not aware of it. All nature evinces this underlying principle. The falling leaves of autumn; the voiceless pearls in depth of the sea; they ivy, the far horizon, prostrate before its maker and falling stars, all endorse the validity of this phrase. Their transcendental harmony stands high above our artificial means of communicating techniques. But each one spears to be resigned to the will of the Almighty and there lies the difference between the mighty human soul and the beautiful objects of nature. The Best Creation of Allah, human beings have free will and use artificial tools to gain survive and seek their pleasure. The petty natural objects of nature, who do not have the capacity to contemplate and think have got all the intrinsic wisdom that makes them bow their heads down in front of their Creator to seek guidance and to keep communion with Him. Prayer is the mean that connects the Creator with the created. We, humans remain oblivious of the miracles of prayer and the contentment it offers.

The essence of prayer has been misunderstood by many of us. It is not meant to present a list of our desires to Allah, Who is all powerful and thus can bestow any favour on anyone. Thus prayer is an acknowledgement of the fact by humans, who are endowed with self will and various abilities, that actually we are mere puppets and in the ultimate analysis everything comes from that heavenly power – Allah. It is resignation to His will and most significantly, prayer is the networking system that is operated to express our wishes. The more we obey Him, the more He listens and speaks to us. It is like a magic orb that lies within all of us and we neglect the powers this orb holds. No doubt, our Heavenly master wants us to ask Him for heart’s desires; he wants us to talk to Him, and there’s no matter or need too trivial for Him. But if we think of God only as the postal delivery man bringing us fulfillment of our desires, we miss out the spiritual closeness that comes from listening to Him, rather than simply hoping, ‘He will fulfill our list of demands.’ Imagine adolescent girls on a cell phone. She may rattle off several rumours, completely unaware that her conversation may be entirely one-sided. Similarly, god doesn’t always want to be on the receiving end of a one-sided conversation with us. As much as we want to be heard, our Divine Teacher wants us to hear Him even more than that. It’s a well-known fact in academics that the more sense a student uses to learn new ideas, a higher percentage of concepts he will absorb. During prayer, we have the opportunity to use the sense of hearing as well as speaking. If we choose only to use one of these senses, we will short-change our selves. When we’re quiet, we can pay better attention to God’s instructions and can internalize the directions He’s giving us. Contemplative prayer is the buzzword given to a habit of praying in silence. You may be thinking: I’m usually silent when I pray. Are you really? Are you maintaining an inward silence long enough to hear God, speaking to you?

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