My fave Ayah

My Fave Ayah

“Surely my prayer and my sacrifice and my life and my death are for Allah, the Lord of the Worlds.” (Al-An’am 6:162)

Before Islam, I never really put much thought into what my purpose of life was. I only cared about living the moment, and I didn’t care who it was for as long as I did it for me, myself, and I! I didn’t know there was a deeper meaning to life and I definitely didn’t think of living my life for someone or sacrificing any part of my time or effort for anyone. But that all changed when I became Muslim. Everything suddenly had a purpose. It didn’t all fall into place right away but as I learnt more about my religion, the more I started to understand the true meaning of life.

“Everything has its pinnacle and the pinnacle of the Quran is Surah al-Baqarah. In it there is an ayah which is the greatest in the Qur’an: Ayat al-Kursi.” [at-Tirmidhi]

Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful has blessed all mankind with the most perfect, complete and blessed religion of Islam.

If one were to ponder, they would realize the beauty and miracle  of every verse of the Qur’an. Among these Ayahs is the Ayat Al- Kursi which has been described as the greatest Ayah in the Book of Allah.

The Qur’an has about 6,236 ayahs. But one of the 6,236 ayahs has caught my heart. It is quite endearing to me. And that ayat is:

“Read! In the name of your Lord who created.”

The Holy Qur’an is a divine mercy for the nation of Prophet Muhammad (Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). It is a light for us, a solution for all our troubles, the spring of our hearts. It is a miracle given to the Messenger (Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).

I wasn’t always practicing. There was a point in my life in which I was losing touch with reality, and I almost gave up hope of living. At that time, I always wanted to repent, to change my life, away from the madness of what the world had offered. I felt I was the lowest of the low, that I couldn’t be salvaged. There was no amount of tears of regret that could save me from myself, for I had lost and I was a broken soul tainted with sins. In spite of all that, I kept on trying.

In my effort, I started reading Qur’an again. Prior to this, the Qur’an was collecting dust, and I only read it in Ramadaan. As I was out of practice, I started with Juz Amma, thinking that it would give me a good start. Instead of blindly reciting the ayahs, I made an effort of reading the meaning of each one. It was all good, until I read this particular ayah.