Hardships Can Make Us Shine (like a glow stick!)
by Kiran Zulfiqar (from her Beautified Sabr blog)
When you buy a glowstick, it’s just a tube of inert plastic with some liquid inside. It doesn’t look like anything special. It certainly does not glow.
When you put it under pressure, however ~ when you bend it ~ a transformation occurs. A capsule inside the glowstick is crushed, and the stick begins to shine.
This is a good example for the mu’min ~ the Believer. Life puts us under pressure, but if we rise to the challenge then we become better than we once were. We become stronger, wiser, and more compassionate to others (because we know what pain feels like). We begin to shine with a new inner light.
Maybe, just like the glowstick, there’s something inside us that needs to be crushed in order for us to reach our full potential. Ego? Arrogance? Selfishness? Greed? Attachment to material goods?
And maybe the pressures of life are Allah’s ﷻ way of crushing that obstacle inside us, so that our true light can start to shine and we become the best we can be.
“Do the people think that they will be left to say, “We believe” and they will not be tried? But we have certainly tried those before them, & Allahﷻ will surely make evident those who are truthful, He will surely make evident the liars.”
[Quran, Al-Ankaboot (The Spider) 29:2-3]
The key is that Allahﷻ does not try us in order to hurt us. Allahﷻ Himself is not in need of our character development, or our striving, or the results of our trials. It’s for us. How He tests us, (the process He puts us through), is for our own benefit.
Perhaps Allahﷻ wants such a rank for a person in Jannah that one cannot attain with their own good deeds. So Allahﷻ puts that person through trial after trial so they walk off this Earth sinless.
So, the next time you feel yourself being pressured and bent, remember: it’s just a bend, not the end. Good things are coming, and with Sabr (patience) you will come out better than before, In’sha’Allah.
Love, light, peace,
Kiran.
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Kiran Zulfiqar
Writer at the 'Beautified Sabr' blog
“I love to help people that are going through hardships stay positive/stay strong and be patient because it makes me happy making an impact on someone’s life, even if it’s just for a few minutes. I tweet a lot of stuff on my twitter and have helped people personally and lots of them have asked me to start a blog so I can help motivate more people on a larger scale, so I thought why not?”
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