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Rejection of Blessings


Two Banyan leaves are set before me on the table. A quick glance reveals that they are of the same colour, the same size, and the same pattern, just as the hands of four billion people look the same, but when we read the stories of the past and present etched upon those hands, each hand presents a map of a different world. Thumbprints of the population reveal 'lair billion individual minds; and each revelation is different than the other.

Just as the progeny of the same father is of different shapes find colours, and consists of varied facial features, in the same way, hundreds of thousands of leaves of the same tree are different. Each leaf has a differently shaped pattern. Place two leaves of the same tree next to each other’s and you will see.

[Like people] trees also talk to each other. They are also influenced by people of good and bad character. Music with loud and low volumes also has an effect on them. It is not a secret anymore that within man two senses work at the same time. One of these senses keeps us bound within the constraints of time and space, whereas, with the other kind of sense, the constraints of time and space are lifted and man is able to witness worlds beyond space. These two kinds of senses are actively working within everything in the universe. ! That is, all creation possesses a sixth sense.

When the sixth sense, or the inner vision, of the leaf saw me reflecting upon it, it addressed me so:

"O son of Adam! I have heard from my ancestors (trees) that Adam is ashraf-ul-makhlooqat ['best among all the creatures']. He has been given a special gift by nature. A gift of which the rest of Allah's creation remains deprived. And this deprivation is self-inflicted."

After the creation of the universe, when the Greatest Creator wanted all the creatures in the heavens and the earth to become His trustee, He addressed the creatures of the earth and the skies thus: "Is there anyone who would accept the responsibility of carrying Our trust upon his weak shoulders?"

All earthly and heavenly creatures replied in a single voice: "O Lord! We are weak and frail; we are not worthy of this." But Adam, without thinking, took this trust on his shoulders. Today the same Adam, who has been declared the most honoured among all the creatures, is miserably suffering from hardships and misfortune and has become his own enemy.

When trees talk amongst themselves of this honour, they laugh at this ignorance of Adam and say that,

"Adam, who considered himself more aware than us, is the most foolish of the creatures. Our ancestors were more intelligent and cleverer than Adam's ancestors, as they had realized that after accepting Allah's trust, not to safeguard it, and not to benefit from it, would mean the rejection of blessings, and rejection of blessings is the same as being thankless. And nations who are not thankful become a burden upon existence. Heavenly misfortunes poison their lives. The self-respect of such nations is tarnished, and these nations become the symbols of disgrace and defeat.”

Listening to this wise and intelligent account from the mouth of the Banyan leaf pulled me so deeply into the river of wonder and contemplation that words failed me and I sat unable to express myself The 200 billion cells working within the computer of my mind froze into stillness. The light within the eyes fazed, rendering me unable to observe wisdom and intelligence.

At last I ended up asking a foolish question: "Does intelligence work in the same way in trees as it operates within humans?"

The leaves snickered amongst themselves and, laughing a sarcastic laugh, said:

"The acceptance or rejection of a thing is proof of awareness and intelligence. If our ancestors did not possess intelligence, how could they have said that they were not able to carry the weight of that trust?

Earth’s history of hundreds of thousands of years of violence, bloodshed, prejudice, dishonesty, selfishness, and violation and usurpation of others' rights, tells us that, compared to man, we are more aware and intelligent. We also know that no other creature lacks in intelligence as much as humans do. Is it not foolishness and ignorance that one has stockpiles of food in one's own home, yet one is starving? Is it not ignorance that the entire universe has been made subservient to man, yet he suffers from a life of constraint and confinement? Instead of using the light within him to illuminate the world, man is bent upon casting darkness over the entire earth. “Listening to this conversation of the leaves of the Banyan tree, my eyes grew moist and my heart was rent asunder. An anguished sigh [escaped my lips] and the following word resounded in my mind:

"I wish I was a leaf of a tree, upon which pearly drops of dew would rest and on whose branches, birds would sit and sing songs of Allah's praise. These songs of the birds, early in the morning, would create such joy within my soul that I would get lost in the vastness of the sky and bring back the honour of ashraful-makhloqat!"


Journey Towards Insight

KHWAJA SHAMS-UD-DEEN AZEEMI

Science has made immense progress, yet many believe that, even with all of the modern tools at our disposal, human beings function at no more than 10% of their mental capacity. This leads to the question of what exactly it is that comprises the remaining 90%. Yet another question that arises is this: If it has taken man four and a half billion years to be able to apply only 10% of his ability, how long will it take for him to make use of the remaining 90%?