Ever toiling...

Sometimes our hearts feel heavy.

We carry a burden of sorrow and distress in our hearts.

A heavy weight tries to crush our lungs and we find it hard to breathe.

Worries seem to cloud our vision as tears well up in our eyes.

Sometimes our hearts feel so heavy, the weight breaks us and we fall down on our path through life.

When we find the courage to stand up, we stumble and fall again. And again.

We seem to trip over every rock or bump in the road.

At those times it’s hard to feel close to Allah and to connect with Him in our prayers.

We feel like we’re the only ones who have ever experienced such a trial and don’t know how to keep carrying this massive weight on our shoulders.

At such times we seem to forget that Allah is in fact the Only One who can lift that burden from our hearts and remove the load we carry.

One day I felt like the load I was carrying for some time became unbearable.

My heart felt heavy and my soul tormented by the worries I felt.

I couldn’t seem to find anything that could relieve my heart from this crushing weight.

Until…

I remembered a verse in the Qur’an.

A verse I read in a book some months before.

A verse that had inspired me, but that I did not fully understand until this moment.

I didn’t remember the chapter or number of the verse in the Qur’an, so I looked for the book in which I was sure it was mentioned.

But was it mentioned in the beginning, the middle or the end? I had no clue.

Hoping to find the soothing words of Allah, most Exalted is He, I opend the book at random.

Soubhan’Allah.

I opened the book and found the title of that chapter in which I knew I would find that specific verse I was looking for.

I turned one page and there it was. The comforting words of my Lord.

“Oh mankind! Verily you are ever toiling on towards your Lord – painfully toiling – but you shall meet Him.” (Qur’an 84:6)

Tears sprung into my eyes as I felt the heavy load being lifted from my chest.

As the understanding of this beautiful verse dawned on me,  Allah replaced my sorrow with strength to help me carry the burden, I thought I had to carry alone.

He loosened the chain around my tormented soul.

All praise is due to Allah.

As humans we are always stumbling on our path through life.

We break, we stumble, we fall.

We are ever toiling.

Our path through life isn’t made easy.

There are rocks and bumps in the road.

Our path is sometimes covered in darkness.

But…

We are not wandering this path alone. Allah is Al-Wali. Our Companion.

We are not completely covered in darkness. Allah is An-Noer. Our Light, that guides the way.

Allah recognises our pain, our suffering, our stumbling and our falling, ‘cause he tells us in the Qur’an that we are ‘ever toiling’. Painfully toiling.

And to ease our pain, our suffering, to soften the stumbling and falling, he reminds us of our destination: Allah, himself.

In these words lies the most comforting thought: we might suffer, we might stumble and we might fall on our path through life. But Ar-Rafi, the One who raises us, will lift us up. But if we persevere, we shall meet Him.

And in the meeting with Our Lord is truly found comfort.