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[89:19] And consuming the inheritance of helpless orphans. [89:20] And loving the money too much.
First and foremost, implore God. Implore God in everything. The more we implore God, the more we uphold His authority. We admit to God that we cannot get out of a situation without His help. We admit that we need God.
[6:42] We have sent (messengers) to communities before you, and we put them to the test through adversity and hardship, that they may implore.
From the prophet David’s example, we learn to implore God for forgiveness when God is testing us (38:24). The test can be a gentle and loving reminder from God to help us return.
From the prophet Solomon we learn to appreciate God when we are tested with blessings (27:40). We have so much to appreciate and thank God for each moment. There is something called the power of the present moment. The past moment is gone; the future moment is yet to come. What’s really in our hand is the present moment. If we learn to thank God and appreciate the present moment, life will be much simpler. When we should be enjoying the crunchiness of an apple or loving its colour or appreciating God for the taste, we usually waste the moment of opportunity by thinking about the past or the future.
One more important thing that we can do during tests is meditation on God. It’s extremely effective. Consider Jonah.
[37:142] Consequently, the fish swallowed him, and he was the one to blame. [37:143] If it were not that he resorted to meditation (on God), [37:144] he would have stayed in its belly until the Day of Resurrection.
When sincere meditation on God can save Jonah from the belly of the fish, it can certainly help us in our test.
Praise be to God!
As a young, naïve actor, I dreamt about making it, about landing that breakout role, and for several years, that was where my focus lay. The acting industry heavily emphasizes doing anything one needs to in order to get their foot in the door, which means taking any kind of roles you’re offered, and schmoozing the people you need to. Once you make it, then you have some autonomy and say in what kind of roles you take and who you associate with. But until then, it’s essentially cutthroat and you do what’s required of you.
Four years ago, and already a couple of years into my acting career, I was introduced to Submission. I initially thought that Submitters were these perfect people who had all the answers to life. I quickly realized that everyone is also going through their own challenges and are also trying to figure it out. I looked for answers that I did not necessarily receive. It was easy for me to veer away from the community in search of a place where such perfect people existed. I looked to other scriptures, I visited temples, I wanted to find these “perfect” people because if they could give me the answers, then I wouldn’t need to do any of the work for myself. Essentially, I wanted the seemingly easy way out.
Ironically, this way wasn’t easy at all. And I’ll fill you in on a little secret that I discovered: people aren’t perfect, no matter where in the world you go. So, on this bizarre quest, I hit numerous rock bottoms. However, two years ago, God inspired me to relook into Submission and to really understand it. But this time, not for anyone else, not in search of the perfect people, but to do my own work, to figure out what this message was really all about. And purely by God’s Grace, He opened my heart to learning and understanding. As some time went by, and now with a deeper understanding of what Submission meant, my values began to change, my perspective on my lifestyle began to change and now I didn’t know if being a part of an industry that was so cutthroat in so many ways was what was right for me while I was growing in this new way.
This was scary, terrifying actually.
The thought of giving up what I had known for so long, what I had worked so hard for, my dreams, my aspirations, was difficult to do. But while I had really enjoyed the craft of acting, I didn’t know if I could feel comfortable in an industry that seemed so disconnected to my new understanding of life. At the time, I was still shaky as many are, in new territory, like a newborn deer trying to stand for the first time. I didn’t know if it was okay for me to portray roles and ideologies that didn’t coincide with what I believed in; but being an actor, I had to carry out someone else’s vision; I couldn’t just say, “Actually, I don’t like what my character has to do on this page, could you just rip it right out of the script?” I was at an internal war, between what I had known for so long and what I was just learning and in the ways I wanted to change.
So, at the time, I made the decision to leave acting behind. I had to trust God that He had a plan for me. I’d like to point out though, that in hindsight, it wasn’t really about acting. It was about me needing to make a decision. And my recognition now that whether I chose to stay with acting, or try a different career, God would have guided me to what was truly best for me. And that leads me to my first big lesson that I wanted to share: We can’t be scared of not knowing what to do in a given situation, especially when faced with an important decision because when God says to be steadfast, it means you just have to keep going, even if it’s unclear, even if the road ahead seems murky, even if you have no idea what you’re doing, which I absolutely didn’t, He will show you the way. A phenomenal example of this in the Quran is in 28:7 when God inspires Moses’ mother to throw her child into the river to keep him safe. The anxiety and turmoil that she likely felt may have made her wary about her decision to do so, but she had to trust in God and He strengthened her heart. We, too, must trust that in time, God will strengthen our hearts.
[8:10] GOD gave you this good news to strengthen your hearts. Victory comes only from GOD. GOD is Almighty, Most Wise.
[3:159] … Once you make a decision, carry out your plan, and trust in GOD. GOD loves those who trust in Him.
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