Mysteries of Provision

A medical doctor from Pakistan in search for a dream job in USA may end up driving a cab in NYC. An illiterate Bangladeshi selling tea outside the Haram during the Haj (pilgrimage) season, may make up a small fortune -- enough to allow him to worship and do tawaaf (circumambulation) around the Kabaa everday for the rest of the year -- until the next year. An Engineering post doc researcher may be overqualified and out of work in times of recession, whereas a highschool drop out might be the richest man in the world. A used book seller in Pakistan might be living out his dreams engrossed in voraciously reading the books he gets hold of, while the amassed wealth of a "sucessful" bussinessman may be a curse as his relatives fight over the inheritance and become enemies for life.

Strange are the ways He distributes His rizq. If one strarts to contemplate on His ways, there are so many factors in its distribution, that the human mind can not encompass it all. The simple fact is that He gives whom He pleases and witholds it from whom He pleases. If this is so, what is this material race for? The driver who does not know his destination might mistakenly believe that filling up the petrol is the aim. In his obsession he may fill up a tanker not knowing that he can enjoy his journey better in a full tank of a sedan car as it will be enough to get him to destination. Our destination is the grave and we should only be concerned in earning enough to sucessfully fulfill our responsibilites until we reach it.

He has promised that if you are thankful He will give you more. So what does it mean to be thankful? It means that we should use all the blessings he has bestowed on us in the best possible way. We should live the life He has given us according to His guidance. We should give up what He has prohibited us. We should be the best son, husband, father, brother, citizen, human, neighbor, colleague, manager, client, customer, etc.

We should use our education to provide a service, to leave a legacy, improve the world, etc.. We should try and uphold all ties of kinship in a honorable manner. If we commit to do what is in our capacity to improve ourselves in these respect, God has promised to bless us in our rizq (provision) in whichever part of the world we happen to be, in whatever family we are born in, whatever degrees we have or don't have, whatever passport we poccess. In doing so, we will truly find genuine pleasure in our lives -- the type of pleasure which chasing after no material goal will ever give us.

Let us try and change what we have the capacity to and leave the mystries of the rizq (provision) to Al Razzaq (The Provider -- God).