Waves (Lehren)

Waves or ‘lehren’ as they are called in Urdu stand high in imaginative poetry and are like a friend or foe to us (Though poetry is not the subject of discussion here).

The rise and fall of waves takes us up and down with them emotionally and create such a divine surge of thoughts that one goes running in fondness chasing these wave-thoughts and building on them. We flow with the waves thus created and are ecstatic in the delight or sorrow they bring. Thoughts in their very nature are just like waves; they come around, they rise, they fall, they take us up and down with them and create a bulge - be it of extreme ecstatic divineness or chilling sadness. Both of them serve to exalt us.

The waves that rise and fall in our minds are just like the waves that rise and fall in the sea. At times these waves bring with them roaring winds and heavy rains that flood the nearby areas and leave them in need of repair and care. Similarly there are waves that rise in our hearts and make us remember the pain, the trials of the past and how we got separated from the people we love or we thought we loved. The excruciating pain that such waves inflict tears through our bodies rendering us fragile and at times dead to the world. At yet other times there are waves bless us with divine sensations and fill us with such happiness as we had never experienced before. Waves of this kind take with them whatever ‘dirty’ or painful resides on the shores of our hearts just as sometimes waves in the physical sea do.

Yet there is another aspect to the concept of waves which we generally, being humans, ignore or make light of. It is this concept of waves that I personally hold dear, very close to my heart.

I like to think of man as a freely floating object on the colossal mass of the waters of this world; and Allah the shore. Man floats on and on in his pursue of worldly comforts and works hard to achieve goals that will make him rise in this world. He is constantly running notching up one milestone after the other. Man does all this in search of perfect poise where he can live his life smoothly and in extreme comfort. In this search for equilibrium he usually comes across hurdles, pain, troubles and seldom true success. In these trials and tribulations sometimes he feels so weary that he decides to stop running. After a few moments someone else comes by and he looking at this ‘amazing’, ‘awesome’ person decides again to take up the race to better his chances in the wide world.

But if he makes some space for this third aspect of waves; the one that tells him that he will only ‘float’ like lifeless objects until he believes Allah to be the shore towards which he must be striving to go; then and only then he achieves the true satisfaction and comfort and happiness. When one truly believes that whatever he is doing in the life has to be for Allah and Allah must be his top priority in all the struggles of his life. Here I do mean the ‘worldly’ struggles. Then when there is pain he shows patience and when there is success and happiness he does take into account his God, Allah and believes that this success came only because Allah wanted it this way; he achieves true happiness and satisfaction surges through his body until it ‘completely’ encapsulates him. Living life like this the true believer in the end reaches his ultimate goal – Allah. That’s why we see many people while dying have smile on their faces. This is the smile of meeting with Allah and ultimate destination of all the lovers.

Note:  I decided to write this post after reading a post about 'lehren aur yaden' at www.friendskorner.com.