By
Ælfwine Mischler
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Just
say “Al-hamdulillah” |
What
do you say when you stub your toe or pinch your finger or worse?
Is
the first word that comes out of your mouth “Damn!” or “Sh__!” or “F__!” (or their
equivalent in your language if English is not your mother tongue)?
Would
it ever occur to you to say “Praise God!” instead?
And
why would you praise God when you just got hurt?
To
begin with, you can praise Him that you only stubbed your toe and didn’t break it. You say you did
break it? Then you can praise Him that you didn’t break the whole foot! You can praise Him that
you have a toe and foot to begin with. You can praise Him that He created the rock on which you just
stubbed it. (OK, so it was a chair you stubbed it on. God still created the tree from which the
chair was made.) You can praise Him for the laws of physics He created, for that same hardness of
the rock (or wood) allows you to use it for building and other purposes.
The
Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) taught us that any trouble that comes to a Muslim
— even something as small as the pricking of a thorn — is an expiation for him.
So
the next time you stub your toe (or worse), try saying, “Praise God!” or, as we say in Arabic,
“Al-hamdulillah — all praise be to Allah (God)!”
And
just how are you supposed to think of saying that when you’re hopping around on the remaining
foot?
That’s
where frequent remembrance of Allah comes in. You can do this remembrance, called dhikr, in
many ways. You can count on your fingers (or on prayer beads) and say certain formulas over and
over. You can just think about Allah and all the blessings He has given you while you are doing some
mindless task. You can also ask forgiveness for your sins. Or you can ask Allah for help with
whatever task or worry you have. You don’t have to be in any particular position or face the qiblah,
or say the words in Arabic. You don’t even have to raise your hands in the usual palms up gesture
of supplicating.
When
you remember Allah, you draw nearer to Him. Remembering Allah — making dhikr —expresses
your confidence in His mercy, grace and blessings. It reminds you of your total submission to and
dependence on Him. If you make it a habit to remember Him frequently, the words will come to your
tongue easily. If you make it a habit to remember Him all the time, even when things are going well,
it will be easier to remember Him first when things go wrong.
Prophet
Muhammad stated that Allah said, “I am near to the thought of My servant as he thinks about Me,
and I am with him as he remembers Me. And if her remembers Me in his heart, I also remember him in
My Heart, and if he remembers Me in assembly I remember him in assembly, better than his
(remembrance), and if he draws near Me by the span of a palm, I draw near him by the cubit, and if
he draws near Me by the cubit I draw near him by the space (covered by) two hands. And if he walks
towards Me, I rush towards him.”
