Like your heart can come back to life with the word of Allah like the rain brings the grass back to life.
That's what it says. Now what does that have to do with you and me? Let's come back to that. All of you have different crises.
Everyone of you has a different drama going on in your life. And when I say drama some of you looked at the person next to you like
"This is the drama I just drove with them to جمعة." But on a more serious note whatever struggles we are going through.
Whatever we are experiencing in this life we have to first understand that none of it would have been happening if
Allah's command wasn't there. And there was some purpose. There was a reason for which it was happening.
And everything we're going through. Imam Al-Qurtubi commenting said something so beautiful.
"Why did Allah make me focus so much on water? Because water doesn't stay in the same place."
Water mixes with other things. Water is constantly moving and changing. And if you try to keep water in the same place it goes bad.
So actually Allah designed this life to constantly go through changes. So those of you that got uprooted from your home
and you're in a different place and you say "I miss my village I miss my home? Why can't I just go back? Why can't I do this?
Why can't I have that old job back? why do we have to move to this neighborhood?....etc. I hate change."
Allah says He made life full of change. You can't keep anything the same.
Anything that Allah's command came into like the the water that came into a fruit. If you look at that fruit what's happening slowly?
It's losing its water and it's getting dry and it's eventually going to die. It's going to go. So the experiences we have in this life
the good that we have in this life is temporary. And the bad that we have in this life is also temporary.
The tough stuff is also temporary. And all of that is a command of Allah. So then if that's all temporary then what's permanent?
If everything is just going to go. The good is going to go. The bad is going to go.
What you think is a huge problem today tomorrow you look back like "Oh my god. I used to think that was a huge.
This is a huge problem. I prefer that problem." Because that's gone now and you have something new to deal with.
But human beings forget that the beginning of all is water. And what did Allah mention the in the first part?
He mentioned water and what did he mention at the end? Completely dried up. The lack of water.
There's something in between. In between is the greenery is the good things in life. It's the ups and downs of life.
It's the changes in life. But you know what? It becomes easier to deal with that stuff when you go back and you realise
you and I were just drops of water too. That's all we were. And eventually we're going to be reduced to nothing inside of the dirt.
That's beginning and the end. And everything else we are experiencing is just the stuff in between.
This is just an episode in between. Or multiple episodes in between and they will come to pass.
They will go. These experiences will come and go. Nothing is permanent.
What happens to some of us. Somebody sitting here had something bad happen to them.
And they think about that everyday. And they review it in their head everyday. And they get sad about it everyday.
And they talk about it everyday. And they remind others about it everyday. They are stuck in it over and over and over again.
You're stagnating. This is not how Allah meant life to be. You had a tough experience yes nobody is denying it.
But it's time for you to take today and not live in yesterday. You have to keep moving. Or you're rotting yourself.
Because if you try to keep it the same and preserve it nothing stays preserved. No matter how bad you want the flower to live forever
the flower will wither. But what's incredible about those flowers that die on a tree Every time one dries
another one grows in the next season. And this is the nature with which Allah made things.
Where one problem happens or something is taken away from you Allah replaces it with something else.
When one good thing starts getting weaker another good thing comes in from a different place in a different form.
And that's the nature with which Allah created life {...فَاخْتَلَطَ بِهِ نَبَاتُ الْأَرْضِ فَأَصْبَحَ هَشِيمًا تَذْرُوهُ الرِّيَاحُ} [18:45]
This ‏نبات الأرض ‏اختلاط there's another dimension to it too. The visual image is that of leaves intertwined
grass blades intertwined like our lives get intertwined. And you get caught up in everyday things Little things.
And you're thinking about them so much that they become such a huge deal to you "Oh my god I was supposed to buy
those new shoes for that wedding. Because if I don't wear those new shoes people are going to think I belong to a third rate society.
And I don't fit in and now." And you're thinking about these stupid shoes for eight hours.
Life is a lot bigger than your shoes. but you're so intertwined. And these are just leaves on a tree.
Leaves fall and they go and another leaf takes its place. It's okay. Life keeps moving forward.
So it's these petty things that Allah removed my focus from. And he just gives me perspective that life is a lot bigger than that.
So I leave you with this {الْبَاقِيَاتُ الصَّالِحَاتُ} [18:46]. Then what is it that's going to actually last?
You would think ‏الصالحات الباقيات. But He actually says الْبَاقِيَاتُ الصَّالِحَاتُ good things that you do everyday
even the smallest things. Those are the things that are actually going to last. So whether we have an easy life or a tough life
it is actually the good. If I can find some way of doing something good everyday. Something that wasn't about me.
It was about someone else. It was for Allah. Then I have lived a meaningful purposeful life and that's what water does.
Water doesn't serve itself. Water serves everything else. And so if we have the command of Allah in us.
The guidance of Allah in us we're not just there to serve ourselves and our feelings. We're there to be of service to somebody else.
May Allah give us that and give us a constant sense of purpose and of service to other.