Eyes Wide Open

While strolling uptown, I bumped into an acquaintance after more than a decade or so.  Big cities can be hard to spot faces that once looked familiar and this one was not an easy one either.  You know what follows next, catching up on all updates in our lives since that last meeting.    What stood out to me was the following sentence from the conversation (bolded and underlined below): “…yea, she is been good, she has two kids…, remember blah blah, he started his own company…, O her, she ended up dying because she got ill…”

Don’t we all end up dying?  On my way back home, I am thinking…  Isn’t that our reality here?  Yes, you and I are all candidates for death, which makes one think about the purpose of our existence in this universe.  The more I am reflecting on this reality, the more it makes me realize the seriousness of this existence.  Being given existence cannot be a joke, can it?  Do you think our being given existence is a haphazard happening, a mere coincidence?  Being brought here for some time frame, given certain experiences and then being given death without our consent, what is going on here?  What am I to do here?

I know that the earth is made to rotate around the sun, I do not need you to tell me that, after all, I have been living here for x number of years and have gone through elementary science education.  That is the attitude most of us carry.  “Yes, I know!”  If you know something, then what are you doing carrying that knowledge or information?  Do you even need it?  Am I even to do something with what I know?  What am I supposed to do with what I know?  This is the question we should be asking ourselves, because if you know something, then you must need it.

What do we know?  Let’s start…

I am given life every morning, same pattern repeats itself in the universe for all inhabitants of this planet, sunrise/sunset, season change, moments come and go, my baby girl just grew…  Have we gotten so used to this scene that we now do not even question it?  If I do not question it, then I cannot do anything with it, yet this scene/knowledge is presented to us every day.  Yes, I am observing it, but I am just not questioning it because I have become so familiar with it.  Unfortunately, that is how most of us understand life, which is just the informational side of life.

• This “I know!” attitude has made us numb and dull.
• This “I know!” attitude is killing our human-ness, after all, we are not created to become zombies or robots.

This universe has become a closed box for many people and everything in a way then becomes boring.  Same old sky, same old ocean, same old forest (although we may feel at peace there), same old Pina Colada, hey let us try something new to hype me up and that list never ends.  But still that habit of having familiarity with creation never stops.  (jokes aside but hoping that none of us had “same old family” on that list ?)

How do we break out of this old pattern of familiarity with things?  We are all engaging with creation at some level, aren’t we?  I think that we are not fully engaging with creation the way we ought to.  That means being fully present with what is being presented to you at a given moment.  Example: Aren’t you grateful to the Creator of the clouds for mesmerizing you and sending you rain?  Do you even know the time of the arrival of rain? Can we or anything else really establish the order of the creation of the clouds as we wish?  What do the various displays in the universe signify?

I cannot live a day here without being connected to my past (lived experiences) and future (i.e. death).  What does all this signify?  I am made to realize something but why?  I am presented with all these marvelous displays to experience what exactly?  There is something at play in this universe that I need to engage with.  It is as if something keeps knocking to my consciousness to recognize it through the experiences.

“Do they not look at the sky above them? – How we have made it.” Quran (50:6)

Bottom line, we need to shift our way of thinking about life.  There is something mysterious going on here.  Can we just be given life for no purpose?  Eat, be merry and die.  No!  It cannot be.  Have I accepted eat, be merry and die as my reality here?  Hope not!  Maybe I have and that is why I do not see meaning in the existence of this universe.  I am to see the meaning in the existence of things which points to something meaningful, a need for Eternal Happiness because the transient nature of this universe does not satisfy my human expectations.  At least, that is the news that the institution of Messengership introduces to us.  Click here to check out that series (still in progress) https://ifw.ha-mim.org/tag/arguments-for-messengership-series/)

It seems that we are created with the need to not accept boredom.  Capiche?  It is not in my human nature to accept boredom.  This is an exciting discovery, at least it puts my heart at peace, so I do not have to venture out on different adventures here and there to solve my boredom dilemma (mind you, outings and fine dining can be pricey!  Not to mention the hangovers from all the gossips!).

What can bring me excitement here?  In this quest, nothing of this world really brings any ever-lasting excitement, can you name anything?  Yes, we need excitement but an ever-lasting one.  In other words, our human side desires Eternal Happiness.  Isn’t this eye-opening?!  Wake up, sleeping beauty!  Stop hopping around from one experience to another in search of happiness like a living dead.  In other words, experiencing temporary happiness is living as a dead person!  Yikes!  Rather, let us work on the following:

How can I make things “un-boring” for me?

1. Get out of the “familiarity” mindset which seems to be the root cause of all human problems.
2. Experience life as a brand-new gift everyday i.e. new sun, new sky, new breakfast and new you…
3. Question your experiences from engaging with creation, example, why do you feel happy watching rain drops and connect this feeling to the One that gives you the need for Eternal Happiness.
4. Since you are given the need for Eternal Happiness, then definitely it must be fulfilled as a promise from the One that makes you realize this need, otherwise existence here would be meaningless and getting engaged with creation would be futile.

Finally, my human side seems not to be attuned to what this type of existence really means.  I need to wake up and make things un-boring for me and bring in value to my being.  Someone cared to give me existence today which I realize after getting engaged with breakfast, work/school, family/friends and dinner…  all of this is creation pointing to its Creator.  At least let me thank this Creator of my existence for providing me with existence through which I acquaint my spirit to the Source of my existence, that is all I can do for now which is a very human need.

“For indeed in the remembrance of God do hearts find rest.”  Quran (13:28)