In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful; blessings and peace be upon Prophet Muhammad s.a.w.
Reflection
The Declining Day (Al-'Asr)
1. By the declining day,
2. Lo! Man is in a state of loss,
3. Save those who believe and do good works, and exhort
one another to truth and exhort one another to endurance.
During my journeys to and from work (I live in Melaka but work in KL) by express bus, sometimes I break the silence by talking to the person next to me.
One unforgettable conversation took place recently when I talked to a Chinese guy. He told me he was a university student and he didn't believe in religion. In short he was an atheist.
To attract his attention, I asked him, whenever he was in distress or in an emergency situation, to whom he would cry out? He replied he would cry "mum, mum, mum."
"Well what if you were thrown into the sea and about to drown, to whom would you cry out for help?" I asked him. To my surprise, he would cry; "God help me, God please help me!"
"Then you must believe in God," I said and the student seemed to be taken back by his words.
The fact is that the word 'God' would be on the lips of desperate men and women. Whenever human beings are struggling for their lives, they would ask help from God.
It was also reported the Pharaoh (Firaun) during the time of Prophet Moses (Musa) too acknowledged the existence of God when he was about to die in the waters of the Red Sea.
One article by one Sandra in a local student magazine attracted me to the fact that God is always on the mind of human beings. Sandra wrote: "The words ‘thank God’ reminds me of an incident that happened two years ago at a swimming pool in Shah Alam. After our swimming lesson one day, my friend and I decided to play in the water for a moment longer. Absent mindedly I slowly waded into the deeper pool as it looked as shallow as the children's pool.
"In the deeper pool, however, I lost my balance and could not stand because the water was too deep for me. I struggled to keep afloat. When I realized I was drowning, I tugged at my friend's swimsuit but she merely pulled back, unaware that I had lost my balance.
"I must say that I was extremely lucky because my swimming instructor managed to pull me up in the nick of time. Thank God he had spotted me; otherwise I would have drowned in the pool!"
So surrendering to God is natural for human beings. If you claim you are the most powerful man on earth, you too have to acknowledge this fact. Remember how the cruel President George W Bush had his face thrown down the drain when an Arab reporter (Muntazer al-Zaidi) threw a pair of shoes into his face a few weeks before his term expires on 20th January?
Who gave the idea, determination & so on until the reporter had the courage to do that? God had His hand on this event that pushed Muntazer as the new hero in the Arab world.
Believing in the one God is the fundamental teaching of Islam. Islam means complete submission or surrender to the will of Allah. Islam also means; peace, the way to achieve peace and submission or surrender.
"Islam teaches that there is only one God, Who is called Allah in Arabic. He has created all and is above all things in the universe, and there is no one and nothing like Him or can be compared to Him. God loves us, and for our guidance and benefit has sent his commandments & laws through persons specially chosen by Him who are called prophets or messengers of God." - Essence of Islamic Outreach ABIM.
It is natural for human beings to seek help from God. To learn about God, human beings need guidance. The true path was shown by the prophets, men cannot think about things that are beyond their imagination. For example, the human mind cannot think what is beyond the skies.
"Since the time of the emergence of the first man on the earth, God in His mercy has raised from among men numerous prophets or messengers, such as Abraham (Ibrahim), Isaac (Ishak), Jacob (Yaakob), Joseph (Yusof), Moses (Musa), David (Daud) and Jesus (Isa). The last of all the messengers was Muhammad (peace be on them all).
Islam is not a new religion. It consists of the same basic message which God has given in all true religions, and all prophets brought the same message for our guidance. Muhammad (peace be upon him), the last Prophet of God, taught us the full and complete meaning of Islam (surrender & commitment to the will of God) through his words, his actions & the revealed Book, the Holy Qur'an." - Essence of Islam.
So to the university guy I met in the express bus, Sandra and several other individuals who had had already thought about God, it is timely to seek for the true and one God, that is Allah the Almighty.
Naturally all human beings are seeking their Creator. He is God, the Almighty, we seek His companionship not only in distress, emergency or crisis but at any time of our lives.
A Muslim must believe that Allah is the Creator of the universe and everything in it. The Qur'an says: "He it is Who created the heavens and earth in truth." (Qur'an 6:73).
Everything, including the earth we live on and the heavens we see above, has been created by the Almighty God.
God does not merely create and abandon His creatures. God is active as the Creator, the Life Giver and Life Remover, the Sustainer and the sole Controller of all creations.
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