Adopt the pace of nature

As-salamu `alaykum wa rahmatullah

Something interesting one of our teachers mentioned in his tafsir class.

“By the night as it closes in,

And by the dawn as it brightens…”

[al-Takwir: 17-18]

Allah `azza wa jall swears by the transition of the night and the day. But it’s very interesting how He describes this transition and the verbs used…

The night is described as being عَسْعَس [`as`asa], meaning that it comes in very slowly. `As`asa is how you would describe someone walking with caution e.g. when you attempt to walk in a very dark room – you do it slowly, carefully and step by step.

The day/dawn is described as being تَنَفَّس [tanaffasa]; one of the meanings for this is also a gradual approach (the other meaning is ‘to breathe’). Dawn also rises in a very slow, gradual way and it brightens the sky bit by bit.

At this point, the shaykh mentioned a great fa’idah and said that Allah `azza wa jall is drawing our attention to this slow movement of affairs to teach us something very important: The art of patience.

Subhan’Allah. How true… Nature is very patient. Look around you; nothing occurs overnight. Every process out there runs its course. Every plant sprouts after stages of growth, every raindrop falls after a long hidden process in the clouds, every tree and flower grows and blossoms after some time and if any of these processes were to be hastened by even a moment, the end result would not bear any fruit (pun totally intended).

So wait out your affairs. After every dark night, the dawn will rise. And yes, it will rise slowly; but through this slow pace, it will breath life into that darkness until it is no more. As they say, “Adopt the pace of nature, her secret is patience.”

About these ads