Day 1: A Little Inspiration
I wish you blessings beyond measure. What is a blessing? A blessing is often defined as an abundance of something good or an increase in favor. God blesses people in many different ways according to their circumstance and to the desires of their heart. So, if God blesses your family, He’ll add to the number of family members, whether children or in-laws (Yes, in-laws are a blessing!). God may even add friends like family. These are ways God blesses people through people. God can bless a person with wealth (increased income or possessions). God can bless students with high marks, not just one A + but many.
But, I find fault in my opening statement. Why blessings beyond measure? Why not count your blessings? We count what is precious to us. What if our bankers were not precise in recording our account activity and told us we had somewhere between one hundred dollars and one million dollars in our account? Would we trust the banker? Would we trust ourselves to make the right decisions day-to-day? For example, depending on the state of my bank account, I could buy a luxury car or a less expensive vehicle. Everyone has different constraints. In my family, we had the best of both worlds (my immediate needs were met and we managed to afford the finer things in life): luxury and basic human survival.
Growing up, my family had two cars: a Dodge Dart and an Infiniti. One day I was walking to our car in the grocery store parking lot and I saw a black Infiniti that looked like ours, so I tried to open the car door when the owner of the car came up to me and looked vexed. Was I trying to steal their car? No, I was innocent. So, I noticed the car belonged to someone else and I apologized. I said, “Oh, I’m sorry! Your car looks like ours.” Then they watched me regroup with my family congregated around a Dodge Dart and the strangers shook their head in disbelief. I think everyone should be able to tell the difference between a Dodge Dart and an Infiniti, but however unconvincing I was, it was an innocent mistake.
How do we make the most of each of blessing? If you have modest means, you behave differently than if you live with an abundance of purchasing power. It is important to live within your means. Each soul is of inestimable worth, but each person must budget. Allah allots for each one of us a rizk, a level of sustenance. We are meant to stay within certain boundaries. One symptom of bipolar disorder is spending excessively or beyond one’s means (it’s a clinical condition), like indulging in a shopping spree involving buying a thousand-dollar pair of jeans and charging up a credit card with other unnecessary purchases at exorbitant prices.
I carry my adornments on my soul, not on my sleeve (Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand). Our outer garments beautify us. But imagine your soul is visible. What if you’re a beautiful soul, not just a pretty face? We must honor the way we were designed, not just decorate ourselves in a superficial way (unless decoration means honors won, as in a decorated soldier). The soul that hungers and thirsts for righteousness will be filled (Matthew 5:6). Like tears that well up and stream down our face, when revelation comes, there is an outpouring of faith. We pray to God. We are in communication with God. We speak to God with our soul. Having an active relationship with the Lord, our Creator, transforms our lives inwardly and outwardly. Here are several quotes from the Holy Books that assure us that God gives us good in exchange for a relationship with Him.
”How abundant are the good things that you have stored up for those who fear you, that you bestow in the sight of all, on those who take refuge in you (Psalm 31:19 New International Version (NIV)). We must love and fear the Lord. Love and fear are opposite sides of the emotional spectrum. God deserves our reverential awe. Seek refuge in Him by reciting His word, aligning our will with His will, and by submitting to Him prayerfully.
God is the source of all good. We belong to Him and we return to Him. Can we be good? When someone asks you, how are you? Can we honestly say, “I’m good?” Jesus said that no one is good but God (Mark 10:18). If God completes each day of creation with the assessment that it was good or as in the case of the creation of humankind, that it was very good (tov meod), shouldn’t we hold ourselves to the same standard? How many of us produce art? Can we say that it is good? In French, the term good is qualified by the statement – the answer to the question: good for what? I grew up studying art for art’s sake (ars gratia artis). Is that not self-indulgent? God gives life and a place to dwell. We should also adopt policies that inspire and that are inclusive. For example, one policy a nation or community could put in place is access to affordable housing opportunities for every member of society without oppressive prices that limit home ownership.
There is no such thing as good without God. There is no life outside God’s will. God is life, existence. We cannot exist without Him. We are dependent on Him. God is not dependent on us for existence. We profess our faith, but we do not create God. We can create false gods, but we cannot create the Creator. How can our will align with His will? For instance, when a loving husband and wife have a baby, it is with God’s blessing. When you accept a promotion, travel overseas, graduate with distinction, it is with God’s blessing.
However, we have an open enemy: the evil one. In Judaism, Ha-Satan (the Accuser) plays a small role, but humans contend with what is known as yetzer hara (i.e., the evil inclination) – this struggle to overcome the evil inclination is a powerful battle or rather it is all out war. In Islam, it is known as Shaytan (the devil) who refused to bow down in respect to Adam Alaihis Salam at the bidding of Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala and was outcast. Shaytan seeks to misguide as many souls from humankind as possible, and he has been given reprieve until the Day of Judgment before he resides in Hell-Fire with all those who will burn with him. In the Bahai Faith, evil is the absence of God or more often an occurrence of the misdeeds of the corrupt human ego. In the Lord’s Prayer, which Jesus taught his disciples, we pray to God, “…and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” Evil exists. We must be watchful and protect ourselves. God, the Protector, can bless and protect us. We should invoke His name.
We must protect ourselves – our homes, our families, our sanity. “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10 New King James Version (NKJV)). Freedom from the fiery darts of Shaytan – freedom from harm on the earth and in the Hereafter – is possible by God’s grace. One name of God we can rely on in prayer is Al-Mannan (The Benevolent). Here is a simple prayer we can say to our loved ones who embark on an endeavor in which they would like God’s blessing.
May Allah put barakah in it.
Barakah means blessing in Arabic. May you recite this prayer in a time of need and may it give you wings to soar above circumstance, so you receive Allah’s favor in the sight of all.
Homework:
Count your blessings until you lose count.
Study the life of Abraham. All nations will be blessed through him (Genesis 18:18).
An angel said to Abraham: “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count” (Genesis 16:10).
An angel said to Abraham, “I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore” (Genesis 22:17)
What God promised to Abraham, He helped him visualize through imagery (i.e., sands on the seashore and stars in the sky). What’s the difference between the words measurable and immeasurable, countable or uncountable, knowable and unknowable?