The Message of Nature
Al-Risala (English), March 1991, p. 5
By Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan is named as the default author of the periodical; a piece that carries another writer’s byline is credited to that writer.
The Message of Nature
1991 3 March 5 The Message of Nature (303) It is a very dear wish of mine that Muslims should try to understand nature’s signals and hear the message it relays at every moment throughout the entire universe. It would be a very great thing if they could appreciate that nature’s constant message is one of hope.
Remember that the approaching night means not just darkness, but also the brightness of morning, which will appear just a few hours later. Just as night is always a prelude to morning, so is the winter the harbinger of spring. This is an eternal law of nature. Just as this law applies to the material world, so does it apply to the human world – and it certainly does not leave out Muslims!
Muslims at the moment are apparently facing highly adverse circumstances. But these circumstances are a blessing in disguise. They are part of a divine scheme to turn base metals into gold, i.e. to turn the weak and the inept into the strong and the successful.
The Hadith states that ‘patience is the weapon of the believer.” It is a ‘weapon’ in the sense of being a kind of training course which awakens and perfects man’s hidden potential. Patience brings maturity of capability. Patience makes man the possessor of a high moral character. It gives man the strength to come up to the high standard set by Islamic ethics. In short patience turns the ordinary into the extraordinary. Patience, indeed, is the greatest treasure an individual or a group may possess.
Patience is in no way synonymous with pessimism. It is the harbinger of good tidings, and a sign that God’s succour has come nigh. The Qur’an dearly states that God is with those who are patient. Those who prove themselves to be so will, by God’s grace, become the leaders of the world.
