On God’s sustenance for Man. We live in a calculated world. Our pains and joys are measured to fit the man-made parameters. We estimate our lifespan and plan for education, profession and the retirement (but not death). We assess our expenses for each stage all by ourselves. We make our guardians or ourselves in charge for our needs in life We depend on parents in our childhood. The dependency later shifts on the earning spouse. The boss in the office becomes the ‘sustainer’ in employees’ lives. The unpredictable market conditions become the worry of the merchants. Bank loans and credit cards also impose lordship over the needy. In short, we assume and convince ourselves that our lives are totally dependent on these agencies for our lives to run, roughly or smoothly. We cannot imagine a day straining our ties with them. It may be strange, though, that many implore God to seek refuge from the wrath of these ‘mini gods’. Irrespective of creed, most forget that there were stages in our lives- or say pre-life days- when we were ignorant of ways to ‘depend’ or request someone to fulfill our needs. Those were the days when our requirements were met even before it was asked for. A Merciful Being cared for us, even when our mothers were unable to feed us. Air, water and food were given in ways only which He knows. He fed us while we lay in the dark womb of mother where even light was out of our reach. We had no job then, no boss and no friends. We crawled, we toddled and then we walked- but food reached our stomachs with no effort from ourselves. He, the Grand Designer, fashioned this world for our sustenance. The atmosphere is filled with our life-gas. Never did we, and neither the whole humanity, pay a single penny as tax to His favors. The sun may be burning in scorching summer days and Man, an advanced form of creation, find it difficult to travel from home to office, even in air-conditioned cars. Yet the primitive date fruit embraces the merciless heat rays and ripens itself so that it becomes tasty for the man who eats it. A wonderful mechanism indeed to convert solar energy to neural electric impulse on our taste-buds! Well done, o Merciful Creator! And that may be the gist of the verse 6 in Sura Hud “There is no moving creature on earth but its sustenance dependent on Allah: He knoweth the time and place of its definite abode and its temporary deposit: All is in a clear Record.” He provided us with all the rizq (sustenance) with no risks attached. He does not want us to unnecessarily worry over our bread. That is His burden. And He shall do it in ways unknown to us. He did not bring Adam and his descendants on this earth for feeding each other. Paradise is not in short of fruits and drinks. Rather, we have to strive for a different purpose: and that is our good deeds. The human ego has to find ways to multiply its virtues manifold. The following verse makes this perfectly clear: He it is Who created the heavens and the earth in six Days – and His Throne was over the waters – that He might try you, which of you is best in conduct. But if thou wert to say to them, “Ye shall indeed be raised up after death”, the Unbelievers would be sure to say, “This is nothing but obvious sorcery!” (Sura Hud: verse 7) He created us so that we compete in ways to please Him. The believers stretch from the days of Adam to this very day. And it is agreed by all that the best of all creations is Humanity. And finest among them, are the believers. And the chosen best of them were the noble Prophets. And ultimately, the best of all Prophets- nay, of all that heard His ‘Kun’- was the final Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. So let the believers re-read the verse above. What was the purpose of the creation of heavens and earth? For whom was the universe created? Qazi Thanaullah Panipati, the eminent commentator of Holy Qur’an of the Mujaddidi Order, seeks evidence in the above verse to prove that the Last Prophet was the answer. No matter from where they start, lovers have their smart practice of finally ending it in their beloved’s favor! Ya Rabb! I knew this world through him ‘I am’ is through the light of ‘Meem’ ‘Laila’ was proven via Majnun’s eyes Without him, the cosmos were deaf and blind Angels, Books, Hereafter… All I believed through him This slave reached his Rabb Through the paths of Yathrib Today if I have names and ways- To call upon You is he my only means! 19 March 2006