Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Seasons of Our Lives

Bismillah.

O son, life is not a bed of roses they say. Wise men do not wish life to be a bed of roses. The wise see Him and His acts in both good times and bad times for he understands both are necessary and good for him. We are either seeing His attributes of Al-Qabdhu (contraction) or Al-Basthu (expansion) as we journey from one state to the other perpetually. If at present you are all smiles and gay, think of the next moment when He manifest His Al-Qabdhu nature to you. Embrace each season of our lives as it passes.














Rumi says:
When a feeling of spiritual contraction comes over you,
O traveler, it's for your own good.
Don't burn with grief,
for in the state of expansion and delight you are spending,
That enthusiasm requires an income of pain to balance it.
If it were always summer,
the sun's blazing heat would burn the garden
to the roots and depths of the soil.
The withered plants never again would become fresh.
If December is sour-faced, yet it is kind.
Summer is laughing, but yet it destroys it.
When spiritual contraction comes,
behold expansion within it;
be cheerful and let your face relax.

Observe the qualities of expansion and contraction
in the fingers of your hand;
surely after the closing of the fist comes the opening.
If the fingers were always closed or always open,
the owner would be crippled.
Your movement is governed by these two qualities;
they are necessary to you
as two wings are to a bird.

God turns you from one feeling to another
and teaches by means of opposites,
so that you will have two wings to fly, not one.
- Rumi
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Related Lisan al-Din's post: Seasons of my life University of Life

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