Assalamu Aleikum, my beloved,

When a person becomes Muslim, they are usually faced with a lot of difficulties. Some do not have the courage to tell family or friends for fear of been ostracised. The party girl starts to wear the scarf and the man no longer hangs out with his drinking buddies. The struggles of Aisha Uzoechina, a female revert and daughter of a pastor remains fresh in the mind.

However, there was a far more complex struggle in the early days of Islam. You see, becoming Muslim in the Meccan period of the life of the prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) meant that one was officially deemed an outcast socially, economically and politically.The new Muslim is an open target for abuse verbally and physically. You would be labelled insane and viewed as a cultist. Accepting Islam essentially meant a total change to your life for the worse.

In those difficult times, Allah revealed surahs that were meant to assist the muslims deal with the difficulties they were facing. These surahs were revealed for the purpose of helping the Muslims cope with these adversities. When we go through difficulties sometimes we need someone to talk to, in this case, Allah (Azza wa Jal) spoke these words of encouragement.

These ayat come from surah Ibrahim (roughly translated):

Alif Lam Ra
This is a Scripture which We have sent down to you [Prophet] so that, with their Lord’s permission, you may bring people from the depths of darkness into light, to the path of the Almighty, the Praiseworthy One (Surah Ibrahim:1)

Darkness in the ayah above is a manifestation of misguidance or a place of discomfort/difficulty. When you are in a dark place, you want to come out to the light. Allah will pull you out of any darkness you are in and pull you into the light through revelation. In the Arabic language, Darkness is associated with difficulty and light with ease. Allah tells us in surah Nisa:

Allah wants to relieve you of your burden; all human beings were created weak (Surah 4:28)

The purpose of revelation is to make your life easier, Allah's revelation takes that burdens off but the companions were probably not feeling that way at that moment. Their acceptance of Islam just made their life a whole lot more difficult.

One of the most potent ways, Allah teaches lessons in the Quran is via history. In ayah 5, Allah gives them a case study of a people that were been led from darkness to light. Allah says roughly translated:

We sent Moses with Our signs: ‘Bring out your people from the depths of darkness into light. Remind them of the Days of God: there truly are signs in this for every steadfast, thankful person.’ (Surah Ibrahim:5)

The surah began with the statement that one of the prophet's mission is to pull them out of darkness into light, the ayah above highlights Allah instruction to musa to pull the people of Israel out of the darkness to light. As the companions listen to this, they are made to reflect on their current situation. Allah brings the story to life for them

The next ayah shows the struggles that they went through:

And so Moses said to his people, ‘Remember God’s blessing on you when He saved you from Pharaoh’s people, who were inflicting terrible suffering on you, slaughtering your sons and sparing only your women––that was a severe test from your Lord! (Surah Ibrahim:6)

Now let's put this into proper perspective, pharoah was a genocidal maniac murdering babies every other year..Put your self in this situation, it is difficult to imagine the kind of trauma they were going through. Anyone who has lost a child understands the kind of suffering here. This was going on for years. A government policy of killing babies. This is pretty intense.

Now the companions were going through a tough time, so Allah tells them that there was a group that had gone through a much harder time. Musa (Alayhi salam) called the test an enormous test, a severe test.

Then Allah mentions the sermon of Musa to his people when they were going through this tough time .

Before that, imagine someone is going through a tough time. The expected advise is : Be patient. But what did Musa say to his people, when they were going through this.

Remember there are people in this audience whose babies have been killed

Remember that He promised, “If you are in the least bit thankful, I will give you more, but if you are thankless, My punishment is terrible indeed.” ’ And Moses said, ‘Even if you, together with everybody else on earth, are thankless, God is self-sufficient, worthy of all praise.’ (Surah Ibrahim 7-

What?? grateful?? Think about this..

These people have lost children and Allah declares to them; If you will just be grateful... Not patience, gratitude. This is the last thing on the mind of someone who has lost a child or more. But Allah is shifting perspective, He did not even bring up patience because you can not be patient if you are not grateful.

You can't have patience until you have gratitude. No matter what we lose in life. The question is:what do we have?? Everything we have been given is a gift from Allah so when something is taken away, we do not grief too much because it was not ours to begin with. We should be grateful for the gifts all around us. This is the optimistic outlook to life that is expected of a muslim because being able to look at the positives around us helps us with patience.

This comes with recognising Allah as the master and owner of all.

To be continued

Masha Allah.

A reminder

@my brother,thank u for dis reminder,thanks.

kindly continue

OK.