He continues to provide for your material and spiritual bodies. We can continue to list the levels of provision, but for now let us suffice with these three. Every provision is best suited to the nature of the receiver, each time enabling it to evolve a little more and get closer to its essence. Though the provision may be general, each receives according to his capacity and skill. One with a greater plate will obviously have room for more. This depends on the capacity of the person.
“Allah gives provision (both limited sustenance for the corporeal life and infinite life sustenance pertaining to the realization of one’s inner reality and its benefits) to whom He wills without account…”[1]
Rasulullah (saw) talks about the three different types of soil upon which rain falls. When it rains, it rains equally upon all different soils without discriminating among them. If rain falls upon stones it simply runs off them, for it is not in the nature of stones to absorb water. There are some soils that preserve water as pools or wells, and the people are able to drink from it, water their animals and crops with it, etc. And sometimes, it rains upon a soil that absorbs the water and gives forth various types of produce.
People are also of various types of nature. Some do not understand divine wisdom and warning, some benefit much from them, and some not only benefit but cause many others to benefit as well.
Which of these are you?
Dear reader, know that…
Your duty is to be beneficial both to yourself and to your surroundings. No one has remained on earth eternally. Every born being undergoes development according to its natural disposition and then at some point returns to its origin.
“Say, ‘Everyone acts according to his own creation program (natural disposition; fitrah).’”[2]
The Rasul of Allah (saw) says, “Everyone acts according to that for which he has been created and does the things which have been eased for him.”[3]
Hence, his life is shaped according to what he is to live.
But what if this person has lived a life contrary to the commands of his Rabb? What will happen to him?
Doubtlessly, different forms have been created for different states of existence. The nightingale for the rose garden, the dung beetle for the dung, the salamander for fire… Neither likes what the other likes; each is adversely different to one another… One burns in the fire the other thrives in, one can’t stand the smell of roses, etc.… Like colors… They are all different…
So, whatever your essence is, you will engage in the deeds pertaining to that, and thus return to your essential reality. But there are some people of eminence who can unite the opposites! They have vast capacities with which they merge that seem to be in opposition with one another. In their sight, everything is one. There are no colors in their view. They are colorless. Yet they manifest according to the commands of Allah. They comprehend well the verse:
“Say: ‘Allah’ and let them amuse themselves in their empty discourse (their illusory world) in which they are absorbed.”[4]
They know that everything observable is the reflection of the Creator. Even the attributes are reflections. And all of them are the reflections, or manifestations, of the single Being, Allah, the Akbar! Hence, one should not make any distinction among the created, the divine reflections… Is this not also the reason why the Quran asserts: