Free of All Needs, Worthy of All Praise

In Islam, you sing praises of Allah, the Almighty.  You sing with happiness and sadness, in easy and difficult times, with your lips and your hearbeats, alone and with others.

Today my mom sang Allah's praises with her tears.  She sobbed continuously, copiously, visibly, sat amongst all of us. 

Around the time of Eid last year, my mom started crying.  At that time, it alarmed me to see her cry. 

Today, seeing her cry, I was less alarmed.  See, my mom is sad.  In  fact, she has plenty to be sad about and she has all the good reasons for that too.  Reasons born of present circumstances, past events and future uncertainties. 

If a person has all the good reasons to be happy and is not  happy, something is not quite right.  In the same way, if a person has all the good reasons to be sad and is not sad, something is not quite right either.

Sadness is a profound emotion.  It takes courage and humility to be sad.  It is not an emotion you let in.    Sadness takes you in. 

So my mom cried.  She is sad.  That is as it should be. It is right. 

See, one of the absolute, sublime beauties of Islam is that the human condition does not matter.  What matters is whether you sing Allah's praises.

Allah, Most High, who is Ghaniyul Hamid.  The One free of all needs, worthy of all praise. May we sing Your Praises endlessly My Allah. Ameen.