Three Conversations

Three Conversations

Have you ever thought to yourself, how strong am I? If you are a bodybuilder, you most likely look in the mirror several times, checking out those biceps and them pecs. If you’re an aerobics master, you're pretty much always looking at your abs. If you’re a teen age girl, when you look into that mirror, you are all that aren't you?! If you’re a successful, accomplished woman, your most probably never go to sleep at night before thinking to yourself about what you've accomplished or who you've helped that day. But have you ever thought truthfully, what all that really weighs on the big scale? I got to thinking the other day about how human beings compare to other creatures and creations of God, only to come to the conclusion that we humans were, by far, the most sophisticated, most convoluted beings on this earth. But something bothered me. Something denied me ease or satisfaction with that thought. This "thing" itched, it tapped at my brain cells endlessly. What if you're wrong? How can you be so sure? So I thought to myself about Allah's greatest creations. His miraculous masterpieces laying here on earth since the beginning of time.

I was walking, thinking along that same string of thoughts, when I bumped into the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. It was the red sea. So I sat, with no one to talk to, for it was too early in the morning for many. But not me, I had a dilemma to be resolved. So I decided to ask this beautiful being, I doubted it had enough wisdom for such a debate, but I figured: what did I have to lose? Oh my beautiful red sea, tell me about yourself. So she replied, she responded, with a voice calmer than the sound of the wind on the even calmer surface of her waters: I am simple , yet grand. I am not boring, nor bland. I have all the energy you could imagine yet, remain conservative and sound. My two ends are a horizon, straighter the straightest line, and a sea shore or rocks, rigid and rough. I can be the most peaceful site you've ever seen, when I'm calm and asleep. So calm, even the hottest of suns, lies in my cool blankets at the end of the day. But I can also be the roughest and the toughest, when that storm comes along. I am to a fisherman, the difference between a good day, and complete destruction. My waves can be soothing enough to carry a peaceful floater, or tall enough to swallow the greatest of ships. But it's all in control my dear human. I am patient. If you look at any one point, you will see that small wave carrying along. That small wave is my secret, my currency of energy. That small wave no sooner breaks, only to find his fellow wave come right along and push him back to life. Discipline, control, team-work. And then I asked her, already so amazed at her answer: But you cannot fly like eagles, or sing like birds, or run like cheetas, or mate like mammals. How can you live like that? And then she said those magic words : Al- Hamdulillah!

I could not believe what simplicity, but great wisdom the sea had. But I decided to move along.

Trying to get over how much the sea threw me off, I sat in a valley next to a mountain. Now I was sure this time, that a solid rock was not going to have the answer to my problem, but again I found no choice but to ask: Oh dear mountain, tell me about yourself. So the mountain replied with a voice deeper and wiser than ever: I am great but mysterious. I am tall but down to earth. God put me here to stabilize your earth my friend. And I proudly serve that purpose everyday. I choose not to reveal what great mysteries I have within me. I am high on top, but even taller down below. My roots are much taller than my body if u may. I show different-colored rocks; red, brown, black. But I hide even more colors inside me. Gold, silver, copper, carbon. I am so great I am feared by almost anybody, for I am the source of volcanoes, except he who shelters in my caves or under my shade, to which I am the kindest of beings. You see, I know how great I am, but I do not reveal myself except to those who will appreciate. I treat like I want to be treated. It's that simple. So again, at complete awe and surprise, I asked: But my friend mountain, you cannot run like a river, or grow like a tree. You cannot build like a beaver, or feed like a mother bird. And before I could catch my self from making the same naïve mistake again, he beat me to it and said : Al-Hamdulillah.

My ears rung of music, for his word were wise and neat, and his voice was most soothing. But I decided to continue on, for as they say: Third time is the charm.

Still hearing the melody of the mountain's great words, I found myself sitting under a huge oak tree. It was scary at first, but with that beautiful green, it could have not fooled me one bit. So I said: Dear oak tree, tell me about yourself. And so the oak tree began with that oh so soothing, motherly tone, with the most compassionate of looks. Already I felt that she, like the sea and mountain, was going to throw me off, btu I decided to gather my excitement and listen. Dear human, as if it were not enough that I was green –the color of life-, I will be glad to tell you. When you came along, I was already here in heaven. I was what covered u up after u sinned. When you came down to earth, and forgot about earth, I did not. I am the only hope this earth has left. I am what cleans up your destructive habits. I am what gives you shade on a sunny day. I take pride in turning good into bad, in finding the silver lining in every days problems, without minding or griping at all. That which you get rid of, which you so selflessly throw away and expire constantly everyday, I take in with my motherly arms and turn into oxygen, the sign of life. I make my own, and depend on no other. Wise, independent and beautiful. I started telling myself, after an answer like that I dare not ask the question. But despite my silence, the tree also said : Al-Hamdulillah.

It took three conversations, but I finally got my answer. We are NOT the most sophisticated beings. Where is that calmness when we need it? Where is that wild rage of the ocean when we need it? Where is that modesty of the mountain when we need it? Where is that positive attitude of that beautiful tree when we need it? But what bothered me the most, and stood there to prove that humans will always remain humans, is that I thought to myself what the real purpose of these creatures was. Sure they were beautiful, biologically and geologically beneficial, but what was there real purpose of being?? When I eventually found the answer, I felt complete anger and disgust at myself. Allah created these great seas and mountains and trees saying to you the human being: I am your creator. You should obey me and pray to me. But just in case you doubt, as I know humans do, I gave u seas and oceans to admire. I built you a tall mountain to think about. I planted endless trees for you to live off of and at the same time remember that every creation has a creator. Yet, we with our human egos manage somehow to think we know all and that we are the greatest, which is what brought me to write this in the first place. Look, watch, listen. If we could all just overcome our pride and look around. If you are a mother, let your child teach you. If you are a captain let your soldiers talk to you. If you are a student, let those you think less of share with you, and maybe then, and only then, will you be calmer than the sea, more modest than the mountain and more productive than a tree. Finally, take their words, their answers to my questions. When you feel that your not what you want to be, that you're going in the wrong direction, that your no satisfied, that you ar less fortunate than others, be like that tree, and that sea and mountain and say: Al Hamdulillah. You are what you are, and that is perfectly fine. La Ilaha illa Allah.

Rayan A. Karkadan