Monday, September 10, 2012

Never Despair The Mercy of Your Lord

"Never Despair The Mercy of Your Lord!"
Left 2008 / Right 2012
AtoZ Market



LIFE'S UNEXPECTED TWIST AND TURNS

A.K.A. DESTINY

Sometimes you may feel like things are never going to go  your way or that life is so unfair. In reality it is not what it seems. There is a force behind the changes in ones life. It is an unseen, but yet carefully planned force. The wisdom of the Creator is far more reaching and seeing than one could ever even begin to comprehend. He knows what you reveal and what you conceal in the deep recesses of your heart.

Quran: 2:32 They said, "Exalted are You; we have no knowledge except what You have taught us. Indeed, it is You who is the Knowing, the Wise."

     In 2008 I was in the 2nd year of my journey through life as a Muslim. I was enthusiastic when it came to learning and practicing my new found way of life, i.e. religion. There were times that I went months walking 2 miles a day just to make it to the morning prayer. Often, I would be overcome with this sweet and wonder feeling of something similar to what is best described as an Ecstasy like feeling. Islamic sources call it "tasting the sweetness of faith". There is nothing like calling on God and watching the answer to your prayer manifest before your very eyes! (Once I had left my backpack, which contained my new Quran, notes from my first ever serious course in Islamic Aqeedah, a language CD and all that was dear to me. My mom asked me on the bus, a day that I will never forget. She asked, "What does Islam teach you to do in this situation?". I smiled and replied, "to ask God to bring it back to me or replace it with that which is better", and I did. Later that night a man came into my hotel with a story that left me speachless. He explained to me, "I found this backpack at a bus stop today, and I just couldn't let it go. I thought about turning it in to lost and found, but I forgot. Finally, I ended up here, where I opened it up and saw a book with a foreign language written on the cover. I figured the hotel worker was foreign and he might like to have it. He opened the book and said he knew the persons whose name was written inside. He rang your room, and here we are."

     What an amazing story! So, I had seen with my own eyes the outcomes of fallowing the commandments and advises in my new found way of life, but also knew that I could expect many a test. I knew that my Creator would not always let things go so easily, and that He would do what was best for me and my life. What I did not know and often wondered about was what that would en tale. What would be my destiny?!!!

     I often tried to search for a wife and a job, but it always seemed a dead end. There were times that I wondered if I was destine to be alone and that my reward and ease would be in the hereafter, after my death. The picture above and on the left is during that time period in my life.... Now I sit in the same store, with another story to tale. In this story,  I am a small business owner, work a night job as a manager, the father of three beautiful kids, married and loving life! In this story, I am rewarded for my continuous and endless march, towards the end of my life...

NEVER DESPAIR THE MERCY OF YOUR LORD....

"Keep your head up and  your goals high..." Joseph S. Sneed 2012

     



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