Reality

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

The Reality (i.e. the Day of Resurrection)!

What is the Reality?

And what will make you know what the Reality is?

(The tribes of) Thamud and ‘Ad denied the Qaari’ah [the striking Hour (of Judgement)]!

As for Thamud, they were destroyed by the awful cry!

And as for ‘Ad, they were destroyed by a furious violent wind;

Which Allaah imposed on them for seven nights and eight days in succession, so that you could see men lying overthrown (destroyed), as if they were hollow trunks of date-palms!

Do you see any remnants of them?

And Fir’aun (Pharaoh), and those before him, and the cities overthrown committed sin,

And they disobeyed their Lord’s Messenger, so He punished them with a strong punishment.

Verily! When the water rose beyond its limits, We carried you (mankind) in the floating [ship].

That We might make it a remembrance for you, so that attentive ears may take heed.

Then when the Trumpet will be blown with one blowing,

And the earth and the mountains shall be removed from their places, and crushed with a single crushing,

Then on that Day shall the (Great) Event befall,

And the heaven will split asunder, for that Day it (the heaven will be frail (weak), and torn up,

And the angels will be on its sides, and eight angels will, that Day, bear the Throne of your Lord above them.

That Day shall you be brought to Judgment, not a secret of you will be hidden.

Then as for him who will be given his Record in his right hand will say: “Take, read my Record!

“Surely, I did believe that I shall meet my Account!”

So he shall be in a life of pleasure,

In a Garden on high,

The Fruits whereof (will hang in bunches) low and near.

Eat and drink at ease for what you did beforehand in the days gone by.

But as for him who will be given his Record in his left hand, will say: “Ah! Would that my Record had not been given to me!

“And that I had never known, how my Account is?

“I wish, would that it had been my end (death)!

“My wealth has not availed me,

“My power and arguments (to defend myself) have gone from me!”

(The stern command will say): “Seize him, and bind him,

Then throw him in the blazing Fire.

“Further, make him march in a chain, whereof the length is seventy cubits!

Verily, He used not to believe in Allah, the Most Great,

And urged not on the feeding of the poor,

So no friend has he here this Day,

Nor any food except filth from the washing of wounds,

None will eat except the sinners.

So I swear by whatsoever you see,

And by whatsoever you see not,

That this is verily the word of an honoured Messenger.

It is not the word of a poet, little is that you believe!

Nor is it the word of a soothsayer, little is that you remember!

This is the Revelation sent down from the Lord of the Worlds.

And if the messenger were to invent any sayings in Our name,

We would certainly have seized him by the right hand,

And then severed his life-artery,

And none of you could withhold Us from (punishing) him.

And verily, this Qur’an is a Reminder for the pious.

And We certainly know that there are amongst you those that reject it.

But truly (Revelation) is a cause of sorrow for the Unbelievers.

And Verily, it (this Qur’an) is an absolute truth with certainty.

So glorify the name of thy Lord Most High.

Surah 69, Al-Haqqah

Metamorphosis

The most elementary requirement for growth is the willingness to let go of what you believe will make you happy.

Because when you do change, you are no longer the person who thought you knew what you would change into. You will be a different person. The needs of a larva are not the same as the needs of the butterfly it turns into. Maybe a larva needs, lets say, two cats and a dog, and a butterfly does not.

So there is a need for an attitude of allowing, allowing things to emerge, to change, to transform, without anticipating how this should happen.

You can direct things only according to the way you are now. You can conceive of the future only according to the blueprints you already know. But real change means that the blueprint will change.

The only thing you can do is to be open and allow things to happen, allow the butterfly to emerge out of the larva and be a different being.

You might be amazed, saying, “All this time I thought I had to crawl faster! I didn’t know it was possible to fly.” It is possible to fly, but if you just want to remain a larva, you can learn to crawl a little faster. You can even learn to crawl sideways.

But it will never occur to you that you can fly.

You see things flying around you, but don’t think of flying because you haven’t got wings. If you allow things to happen, you might find that you do have wings and you are, in reality, flying.