On Expectations & Truth

Our time on this world, the life we’re living is a spiritual journey.

Our time on this world, the life we’re living is a spiritual journey, and that’s the nature of this existence. Allah‎ﷻ puts forth so many people and circumstances on our path throughout this journey.

Our parents, feed us, clothe us, raise us and keep us alive, but a point comes in our lives when we leave them and go on to build a life away from them making adult choices and decisions. The circumstances in life create a distance, sometimes leading to detachment from them.

We fall in love, think this person is our everything, but they would never live up to our expectations because of the separate realities of our existence leading us right into disappointments.

We believe our friends are the only ones we connect with, the ones who understand us completely, we start inclining towards them and believe that the void in our life is being fulfilled by them. But they too are mere human beings going through the grind of life, figuring things out and dealing with their own chaos and calm.

Allah‎ﷻ always shows us, we have been putting our expectations in the wrong place. We think that perhaps our purpose is to be there for our children, but again Allah‎ﷻ‬ shows us that we do not own them, whatever it is that we think we want for them, they will ultimately only fulfill the Qadr that Allah has written for them, they’ll make their choices regardless of whether we approve or not, they will disappoint us, test us, push us to our limits and the expectations we have of them will be shattered.

Life comes a full circle, and our children too leave our shelter and move on, to live their lives, just as we once did.

Life comes a full circle, and they too leave our shelter and move on, to live their lives, just as we once did.

Time and time again, Allah shows us that our expectations are not in the right place, we do not belong to anyone, we do not belong to our parents, we do not belong to our spouse, our friends are not going to stick around, our children too will move on.

The truth is always painful, but it is also liberating.

Every time we fall into the illusion that people are important, Allah‎ﷻ‬ makes us confront the truth that people can never be more important than He is, and most often than not it is painful, and it can never be any other way because it is through this pain we see the truth. Because the truth is always painful, but the truth is also liberating.

الحمد لله على كل حال

The truth has always been right in front of us to see and accept, it will try to make itself visible to us again and again, so we can recognize it. We do not see the truth because we are blinded by our own ego, because we don’t want to see it, because we somehow innocently believe this illusion, that the creation will provide comfort to our heart. The illusion is an illusion, it is not the truth. The truth is with Allah‎ﷻ‬, the truth is that, to Allah‎ﷻ‬ we belong and to Him is our return. The truth is, our hearts belong to Allah‎ﷻ‬ and only He can grant that comfort to our hearts. Only He can soothe and ease the pain. Only He can fulfill our expectations and answer our silent cries.

Allah‎ﷻ‬ keeps sending reminders through disappointments in this Dunya. He keeps showing us the truth of where our expectations should lie, it’s for us to see it or not see it. The choice is always ours.

Allah‎ﷻ‬ is Al Haqq- He is our truth, our final return, everything else is falsehood and an illusion. Our purpose of existence is with Allah‎ﷻ‬, we simply do what we have to do this second and move on to the next when it comes into existence, and it becomes real. Our goal is to meet our end, while Allah‎ﷻ‬ is still pleased with us, not by trying to please people or expecting people to please us. People are designed to disappoint, and that includes us, but with Allah‎ﷻ‬ there is no disappointment, with Allah‎ﷻ‬ there is only peace and tranquillity, with Allah‎ﷻ‬ there is only calm and Sakeenah.

We are going nowhere without our thoughts, we carry them with us wherever we go, the peace we seek is just a thought away.

We always want to escape and run when we are faced with problems. We either want to run to a person or a place hoping that the people will help us cope or the change of place will bring peace.Peace of mind is not in people or places, it’s right here, wherever ‘here’ is because we are where ‘here’ is. We are going nowhere without our thoughts, we carry them with us wherever we go, the peace we seek is just a thought away. We are peaceful when we think we are peaceful, we are chaotic when we think we are in chaos. There is simplicity in the truth, and it’s as simple as that.

There is simplicity in the truth, and it’s as simple as that.