You are special

بسم الرحمن الرحيم

 

Every single soul is precious to God. Allah gave us amazing capabilities and the potential to do great things in whatever capacity. This story made me reflect on that:

And there came from the farthest end of the city a man, running. He said, “O my people, follow the messengers. Follow those who do not ask of you [any] payment, and they are [rightly] guided. And why should I not worship He who created me and to whom you will be returned? Should I take other than Him [false] deities [while], if the Most Merciful intends for me some adversity, their intercession will not avail me at all, nor can they save me? Indeed, I would then be in manifest error. Indeed, I have believed in your Lord, so listen to me.” It was said, “Enter Paradise.” He said, “I wish my people could know Of how my Lord has forgiven me and placed me among the honored.” [Surat Yasin, 36:21-27]

 

Preceding these verses, Allah was telling us how He sent not one, not two but THREE messengers to a people because they were so terrible. So one could think, God sent three messengers, why the heck is this random man leaving the comfort of his home, running no less, to speak to his people?

He knew you didn’t have to be a messenger to do what is right, especially in his own context. He didn’t think “what can I do if God sent messengers and even they couldn’t change my people’s ways?” He was moved by his conviction.

Everyone of us should be moved to do good. Faith should inspire that in us- to do good for people. God did not create you in vain. Find what you love to do, and do it because you can.

Another point about this is that doing good can be in so many ways. For this man, it was helping out the messengers. For us, it could be helping out our families. It could be something bigger for the community. Unfortunately, some of us need validation by other people. It’s not special enough if other people don’t think it’s special enough. So we put ourselves down because we can’t do what other people have done or because it does not seem impressive. But faith should inspire us to only care what God thinks of us. Seek validation from Allah only.

So don’t belittle yourself. You are special.