Allah gives us gifts, but then we come to love them as weshould only love Him. We take those gifts and inject theminto our hearts, until they take over. Soon we cannot livewithout them. Every waking moment is spent incontemplation of them, in submission and worship to them.The mind and the heart that was created by Allah, forAllah, becomes the property of someone or somethingelse. And then the fear comes, the fear of loss begins tocripple us. The gift—that should have remained in ourhands—takes over our heart, so the fear of losing itconsumes us. Soon, what was once a gift becomes a weapon of torture and a prison of our own making. Howcan we be freed of this? At times, in His infinite mercy,
Allah frees us…by taking it away.
As a result of it being taken, we turn to Allahwholeheartedly. In that desperation and need, we ask, webeg, we pray. Through the loss, we reach a level of
sincerity and humility and dependence on Him which wewould otherwise not reach—had it not been taken from us.Through the loss, our hearts turn entirely to face Him.
What happens when you first give a child a toy or the newvideo game he’s always wanted? He becomes consumedby it. Soon he wants to do nothing else. He sees nothingelse. He doesn’t want to do his work or even eat. He’s hypnotized to his own detriment. So what do you do, as aloving parent? Do you leave him to drown in his addictionand complete loss of focus and balance? No.You take it away.
Then, once the child has regained focus of his priorities,regained sanity and balance, once things are put in theirproper place in his heart and mind and life, what happens?You give the gift back. Or perhaps something better. Butthis time, the gift is no longer in his heart. It is in its properplace. It is in his hand.
