When it comes to the responsibility of faith they ought to shoulder in their lives, the believers are like the swimmers swimming amid a strong and rip current before which only the strong, who master swimming in turbulent uproarious waves and who have strong muscles that enable them to force their way through the aggressive current bearing all its strikes, can hold. As for the weak who got used to swimming in the calm waters and with the flow, not bothering about the points of weakness in their anxious personalities or weak muscles, they will fall right into the core of waves that will push them into the depth of the sea.
In the same sense, Allah wants to say to those who believed in Islam nominally that belonging to Islam is not a picnic where man can wander in the vast green meadows and roam in the flowery fields, nor a recreational trip in which man surrenders to slackness and laziness and experiences delightful daydreams or goes into a deep sleep, nor an evasion from a reality in which the problems of life mount to another reality that lacks any problems. Belonging to Islam is a movement overwhelmed with suffering and a long journey to Allah beset with thorny paths and dangerous roads at the sides of which obstacles and trouble lurk, and beleaguered by deep valleys and steep mountains in the dark nights and long gloomy days. This state demands the followers of this path to bear up the pains, rebel against deprivation, stay on the straight path and keep away from the psychological parasites that drain out the spirituality of the Muslim and drive him away from Allah’ wide spiritual horizons.
In the path towards Allah that the Muslim takes, he might encounter forces dominating over the entire reality, at the intellectual, political, economic and social levels. These forces try their best to control all the Muslims and to force them to adopt their concepts and subdue so as to leave them with no willpower. They [the forces] would also plant the seeds of fear, anxiety and defeat in their [the Muslims’] souls to rid them of any feeling of Islamic authenticity as an invariable line that embraces man and life. Thus, they would live on the margin sidelines of the others’ roads. Thus, many might fail to continue, while others might stand firmly and remain steadfast, balanced, determined and unwavering, living the openness of the soul and the wide horizons by opening up to Allah, the Most Exalted.
Amidst all that, faith cannot but be tested wherever any intellectual, spiritual or physical temptations exist, so that a believer’s true faith and authentic core would stand out in the movement of righteousness and falsehood in life.
[(Interpretations) inspired from the Quran]
When it comes to the responsibility of faith they ought to shoulder in their lives, the believers are like the swimmers swimming amid a strong and rip current before which only the strong, who master swimming in turbulent uproarious waves and who have strong muscles that enable them to force their way through the aggressive current bearing all its strikes, can hold. As for the weak who got used to swimming in the calm waters and with the flow, not bothering about the points of weakness in their anxious personalities or weak muscles, they will fall right into the core of waves that will push them into the depth of the sea.
In the same sense, Allah wants to say to those who believed in Islam nominally that belonging to Islam is not a picnic where man can wander in the vast green meadows and roam in the flowery fields, nor a recreational trip in which man surrenders to slackness and laziness and experiences delightful daydreams or goes into a deep sleep, nor an evasion from a reality in which the problems of life mount to another reality that lacks any problems. Belonging to Islam is a movement overwhelmed with suffering and a long journey to Allah beset with thorny paths and dangerous roads at the sides of which obstacles and trouble lurk, and beleaguered by deep valleys and steep mountains in the dark nights and long gloomy days. This state demands the followers of this path to bear up the pains, rebel against deprivation, stay on the straight path and keep away from the psychological parasites that drain out the spirituality of the Muslim and drive him away from Allah’ wide spiritual horizons.
In the path towards Allah that the Muslim takes, he might encounter forces dominating over the entire reality, at the intellectual, political, economic and social levels. These forces try their best to control all the Muslims and to force them to adopt their concepts and subdue so as to leave them with no willpower. They [the forces] would also plant the seeds of fear, anxiety and defeat in their [the Muslims’] souls to rid them of any feeling of Islamic authenticity as an invariable line that embraces man and life. Thus, they would live on the margin sidelines of the others’ roads. Thus, many might fail to continue, while others might stand firmly and remain steadfast, balanced, determined and unwavering, living the openness of the soul and the wide horizons by opening up to Allah, the Most Exalted.
Amidst all that, faith cannot but be tested wherever any intellectual, spiritual or physical temptations exist, so that a believer’s true faith and authentic core would stand out in the movement of righteousness and falsehood in life.
[(Interpretations) inspired from the Quran]