The Friend

By Aasiya Maryam

Bismillah

Do you have a Best Friend or someone who knows you best? A person whose company you enjoy the most. Someone you love spending time with. They are with you through thick and thin. They understand you better than your family. They lend you a ear when you are down and you share everything about your life with them.

A person we are so close to, that we start depending on them for everything. When they are with us life seems good, pain seems light… and without them everything feels incomplete. We believe that they are going to be with us forever, always by our side! But… Nothing lasts forever, does it? At some point they are pulled apart from us, for whatever reason that may be, and we are left feeling miserable like never before.

Along my journey in this world, I’ve had a few best friends too. No, not all of them are still with me. However short or long, it is through them that my creator thought me the lessons of life, so, alhumdulillah for their presence in my life. These were the people who meant everything to me! Everything! But soon the time came for them to leave and they left; everyone had their own reasons for it.

I would gather the broken pieces of me, hide my tears and start again. Every time promising myself that I’ll never ever get close to anyone but eventually I would end up in the same cycle.

But, that was until I befriended HIM.

I had known Him all my life. He had seen me when I smiled and had known the reason behind every frown of mine. He had seen me when I had a good laugh and would quietly watch over me when I cried a million tears complaining about my life. He was always there for me. He understood me and loved me; He was everything a best friend could be, I wonder how was it then that I never noticed Him?!

When He would gift me with something that I always wanted I had failed to thank Him but yet I had the audacity to question Him and blame him every time I lost something.

Eventually at one point I recognized how important He was to me, alhumdulillah. I understood He loved me and always will. When I had finally realized His essence in my life, all I had to do was recognize my fault and apologize to Him.

Yes, He is the One. The Loving ( Al-Wadud)... The Guardian (Al-Muhaymin)…The Protecting Friend (Al- Waliyy) - Allah subhaana wa ta'aala.

Allahu Akbar!

Allah, the Exalted, tells us in the Quran –

“Allah is the Protecting Friend of those who have faith: from the depth of darkness He will lead them forth into light...” (2:257)

Our entire life is spent longing for people of this dunya, who can never love us and understand us the way this Friend of ours can; not because someone is good or bad but because they do not know us the way He knows us. They do not know and never will know every single detail of our life; but He does! He knows what we go through every second of our life; that’s why He understands us better than anyone ever can or ever will! He loves us like no one else in this world. If we were to put together the love everyone in this dunya has for us, we would still not be able to equate it to the love Allah has for us. SubhanAllah!

I believe that the dunya has blinded us. Why else would we seek comfort from anyone other than Him, when we know the only place we can find comfort is with Allah?

It’s weird how we can get so wrapped up in this life and the people around us that we begin to forget He exists. When something good happens to us, we have a reason to party but no time to send thanks to Him, astaghfirullah! Really, how hard can it be for us to say ‘alhumdulillah’ or pray 2 rakat nafl prayers?! Yet when things go wrong and we are left alone we never think twice before questioning Him. We run behind people in hope of a better life in this world (and trust me we will never find that from them), even though all we have to do is turn to Him with a sincere heart!

The Prophet, sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam, related to us that Allah says:

“I am as My servant thinks of Me. I am with him when he remembers Me. If he mentions Me within himself, I mention him within Myself. If he mentions Me in an assembly, I mention him in a better assembly. If he comes near to Me a hand span, I come near to him the distance of a cubit. If he comes near to Me the distance of a cubit, I come near to him the distance of two outspread arms. If he comes to Me walking, I come to him running.” [Sahîh al-Bukhârî (6856) and Sahîh Muslim (4832)]

So, starting from today, let’s work on our relationship with Him.

All of us who are blessed - let’s take out a few minutes every day to thank Allah, subhaana wa ta'aala!

All of us who feel we do not have anyone to share our pain with - Why not try sharing it with Him? He is always there to listen to us!

All of us who are in need of help – Let’s lift our hands up in dua and ask Him, He is more than happy when we turn to Him for help!

And finally all those who feel all alone in this world and are in need of a friend - Befriend Allah subhaana wa ta'aala and believe me, you’ll never regret it, inshaAllah!

Posted in: Allah,feelings,Islam,potential hijabi,Relationships,Spirituality,Worship