The Bigger Picture!

Ivividly remember some days back when I was raging over a very travail matter and my brother delivered an interminable monologue in order to calm my nerves. Although I was not paying keen attention, one vital information I grasped from his “monotonous” speech was “always look at the bigger picture”. Perhaps I took note of that because of how he kept repeating it…I’m not so sure.

Nevertheless with time, his statement diffused into my head and a realization struck me, which I intend to share with you my dear readers, so stay with me till the end of this article.

Remember the favours of your Lord upon you and how they surround you from above and below-undoubtedly, from all directions. In fact, from my personal experiences in life, sometimes it just seems the entire universe is conspiring to help you. You find different factors and people around you sacrificing a lot for you to benefit.

Health, safety, nourishment, clothing, air, and water-these are endless blessings that are showered upon us daily, yet we do not realize it. We possess all the bounties life can offer, yet we remain ignorant. Most of us have at our disposal our five senses working accurately. There are several individuals out there who struggle to see, hear, breath, eat, walk, talk.. and the list goes on- these people pray earnestly for the blessings we take for granted.

What baffles me the most today is

the extent to which the world values money, people do unimaginable things for money today. However, they neglect one vital thing which keeps us all alive regardless of our financial and social status and it is that one thing money can never buy-Happiness!

Certainly some of readers may disagree with me on this, you may ask “how can money bring happiness?” but let me tell you something which I am sure will change your perspective.

There are a lot of affluent people who are disabled, despondent, depressed, they have broken homes and shattered hearts, their minds are not at ease at all. More so, some of them even have to mask their agony and pretend to be blissful when they are in public, perhaps due to their social status or other pressurizing factors upon them which compels them to pretend to be cheerful. You can see that they have a lot of money, yet they are not happy.

On the other hand there are a lot of paupers in the world who have all their five senses working accurately, they have their families with them, they only get to eat at least one meal a day, there are not the richest of men financially but they are very rich at heart, they do what makes them happy and induce laughter in the world around them. Some of them were even once rich and lost all of their money. However, they mustered the strength to remain patient, prayerful and faithful.

They know that Allah will never forsake them because he says in Quran 2:155 “And surely We shall test you with something of fear and hunger, and loss of wealth and lives and crops; but give glad tidings to the steadfast”. I must say from my experiences in life, people who remain prayerful are never disappointed, it might take some time for their wishes to come true, but with prayer they surely will.

These categories of people are very content and they have full faith in their Lord. They are people who focus on their blessings and this helps them to attain constant bliss, despite some of the inevitable daunting challenges they encounter in life. Dear readers, some of us have not experienced “a mustard seed sized problem” out of the problems some people less privileged than us have faced. Yet why is it that we whine more than them?

The infinite bounties upon us cannot be over emphasized. It is really important that we do not ignore the favours of Allah upon us, otherwise, why would He the Almighty repeatedly make this statement “And which of the favours of your lord will you deny?” Quran 55:13

Having said that, it is evident that we MUST cherish our blessings, show gratitude, and try to maintain a constant level of glee. And one way to do this is by ‘Looking at the bigger picture’!

Maryam Mufidah Abdulkadir mufidah_maryam15@yahoo.com