Lost and found

Bismillah.

"O my Lord, the one who has lost You,
what else has he found?
And the one who has found You,
what else has he lost?"
- Ibn ‘Attaillah as-Sakandari

O son, today, let us reflect on this seemingly short yet piercing saying, especially to a thinking mind. There is an opposite to that - Mawlana Shaykh Nazim often says - 'no-thinking mind'. A mind must be programmed to seek Allah. So is the heart. But for most people Allah is a vague idea about God in their mind which they often take for granted. Likewise, a heart must be set to look for Allah or else it would not notice if it had lost Him because He is not there in the first place.

Perhaps, we should ask ourselves each day, at the end of the day, every day, what we have found and lost. Per chance, today, we have found a partner we have been searching and desiring for a long time, but in finding him/her what have we lost or will lose? Most youth sets on an adventure to look for their mates, indeed they will find one. But compare him to a youth who starts his life journey in searching for Allah. Most likely he too will find a mate at some point in his journey because it is Allah's promise that He makes us in pairs. The latter will InshaAllah continue his journey in search of Allah, but the former whose goal is only to find a mate will just stop there and not find anything more.

 

O son, remember this, make sure your goal is a worthy one, one which is eternal. Do not let your goal be set upon a mortal or a fleeting thing because if you do, you will eventually lose it. Instead, we should all seek Allah and He will take care of everything else along the way. So, find Him.

 

Pic credit: Sh Parveez Rouf/Haqqani Fellowship