on the man with two gardens

Today i'd like to comment on a verse which i think is really significant.


مَا أَصَابَ مِنْ مُصِيبَةٍ إِلَّا بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ وَمَنْ يُؤْمِنْ بِاللَّهِ يَهْدِ قَلْبَهُ وَاللَّهُ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ
No calamity befalls, but with the Leave of Allâh, and whosoever believes in Allâh, He guides his heart and Allâh is the All-Knower of everything. (64:11)

Whoever believes in Allah, He guides his heart.

Tarbiyah (education) can come in the most extraordinary way. Sometimes, you go to a circle where a person talks for hours, and you don't remember a thing he said. But sometimes you're just browsing through facebook, looking at the random things people post, and suddenly you click on a video/post/article. And that video/post/article (magically) seems to have answered the perplexing question in your mind. Or you wanted to do something bad, and that video/post/article warned against that specific act. And it stays in your mind forever.

Coincidence? Far from it. Everything was pre-planned by Allah to guide us. If anything is magical, it is the magic of His will.

Yes Mickey. Even the magic of Disney. What Allah promised in paradise is faaaaaaaaaar more fantastical than any Disneyland.

So this happened to me yesterday. I watched a video on Youtube explaining about a tale in surah al-Kahf. This is the tale of two men who had gardens (credits to allah, by way of Nouman Ali Khan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tnR2ZZUcsc ):

So this story is about two guys. One very rich, one not so. This story made perfect sense to accountants, you see, because to show how rich the guy was, Allah described his assets.

He had two gardens of grapes. Grapes require a lot of care. You need to put stakes in the ground for them to grow on. You need to prune the plant so it directs its energy into fruits and not leaves. You need a good water supply. In fact, there's a whole science dedicated to grape-growing, called viticulture. To do all this, the man surely needs a lot of employees.

And that's not enough. Surrounding the gardens were date palms; these probably protected the grapes from being destroyed by the wind. So he didn't just have enormous assets; he had a security system in place to protect those assets.

And that wasn't all. Between the garden and the date palms were crops. I noticed how farmers usually planted some other crop in the middle of their main crop. This is because you only harvest your crops once or twice a year, so for extra income you sell other stuff in the middle like chillies, lettuce and stuff.

And Allah said that those gardens never failed to produce; so this guy was having good harvests all year round.

artist's impression

But one day, he was in the middle of talking to his neighbour and this sentence slipped in : "I am more than you in wealth and stronger in respect of men"

He was in the middle of a conversation with his friend and that single sentence slipped in. A lot of us do this.

"Aww, i got that Volvo at a bargain, only RM200,000. What about you? You're still using that old proton right? good car, good car."

"My university is..blablabla..and it got this..and this..which university were you from again?"

Allah warns us against this sort of condescending behaviour, thinking we are better because of our material possessions. Who gave them to us in the first place?

And this made the rich guy forget about the hereafter. He began to think "I am blessed with good things in this world. Allah must be keeping some good stuff for me in the hereafter." He started to gauge his success based on his material wealth. Then his friend advised him to turn back to Allah, until

The rich man's gardens were destroyed. How they were destroyed, we weren't told. But the important point is they were wrecked. All of it. Even having a security system doesn't help.

But there's another beautiful lesson here. After seeing his gardens vanish, the man said "Would I had ascribed no partners to my Lord!"

LESSON : If you lose ALL your wealth and you get Allah, that is the most profitable trade you can ever hope for.

The End.

This story struck me. Why? because my life so far has been filled with grapes and palm trees.

getting good results in exams ---> going to boarding school ---> getting a scholarship ---> studying overseas 

So this was probably a warning. 

"O Ikmal. Don't lose your head".

Allah planned everything. What if i was born in another country? What if i was born to different parents? What if i was born in another decade? probably wouldn't be here right now. So there's absolutely nothing to brag about. 

If you're feeling down because you can't get to med school and your mum's saying "but your brother can do it", don't feel so. (be grateful because med school is modern-day torture..teehee) Allah probably has something better in store for you.

Don't lose our heads.

having lots of followers doesn't mean we're better.

reading lots of books and knowing lots of things doesn't make us better.

having lots of deeds doesn't make us better.

If doing all that brings us further from Allah, increases our ego, reduces our humility, then its a curse not a blessing.

Reflect. Don't wait until you lose everything. But then, even that may be a blessing.