God Way..

With a very troubled mind I once went to meet my Tok Guru in his home. It was cheaper than going for psychotherapy. I was facing a failure in my life and needed to understand how to handle this failure. I was contemplating some very drastic measures and needed guidance on where I take my life from that point on.

“Do you see what you are now facing as a bala (tragedy)?” asked my Tok Guru.

Of course I did.

“Do you see yourself and all things in this world as the creation of God?” asked my Tok Guru.

Again, of course I did.

“So you and all things created in this world are at par in the eyes of God then?” came my Tok Guru’s third question. “You are equally (sama-sama) all creations of God.”

I could not disagree with this as well.

“So, are you looking at things from your eyes or from the eyes of your Creator? Whose perception is it that you have failed? Your perception or God’s perception?”

Mine I suppose.

“So you failed to get something or you lost something that belongs to you. Is that a tragedy for you?”

Yes.

“Why? You said everything in this world was created by God. So nothing belongs to you. Everything belongs to God. How can you lose something or consider yourself having failed if you do not get something when it does not belong to you in the first place but everything belongs to God?”

I remained silent.

“You did not fail. You did not lose anything. It is only that God did not give you what you wanted or took back what He had earlier given you, but for a good reason. God never does things for a bad reason. It is only for good reasons. And that is why we say that God is fair and kind and merciful and loving.”

I did not respond.

“God loves you. And He loves you by not giving you what you want or by taking something away from you. It all belongs to Him anyway so He has a right to decide what He does with what belongs to Him. Sometimes He entrusts (amanah) you with what belongs to Him and sometimes He takes away what He had earlier entrusted to you. That is God’s way.”

I just nodded.

“To feel depressed would mean you disagree with God’s action. That makes you defiant of God’s will. It means you think that God was wrong. Can God be wrong? Would God be so unkind as to punish you for no reason? Or is God, in His love for you, helping you by not giving you what you want or by taking back what He had earlier given you?”

I still needed a bit more clarifying.

“God gave you a chicken. You then slaughter that chicken for dinner and the whole family enjoys a good meal. Is that good or bad? You have now lost your chicken. But you and your whole family enjoyed a good meal. Is the ‘loss’ of your chicken a good or bad thing?”

I begin to see my Tok Guru’s point.

“Bad and good is a matter of perception. It is only what you perceive. It is not the way perceived by God. So what you may consider bad now may actually be good later. You may get something now that could later turn out to be bad. Or you may lose something now and that may turn out later to be a good thing after all. You don’t know, but God knows.”

I nodded.

“So don’t feel depressed. Feel shukur (grateful) and accept that God in His wisdom has decided that today you would face a loss so that later you will benefit. You will not know those details now but later you will look back and say that today was a blessing in disguise and you will thank God that you did not get what you wanted because if you had it would have later been a curse.”

cite from; www.malaysia-today.net