We should meditate on God daily, particularly during the night, and reflect on all the events where we did not fulfill God’s commandments in the best possible manner. We should review, reflect upon, and appreciate God’s beautiful names and attributes. God commands us to magnify Him constantly (17:111). We should try to appreciate and magnify even a very small facet of God’s creations. While we try to do this, we must realize that our finite minds cannot fully comprehend God’s infinite greatness in all the dimensions He chooses to create.

God repeatedly conveys to us in the Quran that He is the Initiator of the heavens and the earth: to have anything done, or to carry out any command, He simply says to it, “Be,” and it is. We know that the awesome mathematical coding of the Quran guards every minute aspect of God’s message thereof. We also know that the discoveries of the mathematical coding of the Quran will continue to grow. Yet we know that the knowledge gives to us in minute (17:85). This again is integrated with relevant information of historical and future events predestined to occur, personal and impersonal names, “memory bells” to facilitate memorization of the Quran, and the evolution of sounds, meanings, letters, words and grammar in the Arabic language. We know that all these events and the fate of all God’s creations, even on earth, is predetermined as far as God is concerned. All these events and the fate of all God’s creatures are based in accordance with God’s perfect justice system, His Laws for this universe as well as His most beautiful attributes. The perfect synchronization of these too are among the things that God willed to occur by saying to them “Be”. We should stretch our thinking even to reflect on all of these.

Further, we know that none of the words and statements of the Quran could be randomly constructed. All these had to provide perfect guidance in terms of God’s Laws for those destined to be redeemed. The Quranic verses also provide exit points for those whom God knew would decide to deviate beyond redemption in terms of the free will provided to each of the billions of souls of humans and jinns. Had God willed, all the people on earth would have believed (10:99).

We must be reverently conscious of God in all our religious duties (23:2, 57, 60). We should regularly implore God for His blessings and approval. We should remember that to God belongs everything in the heavens and on earth. In reality we own absolutely nothing - even the material from which our souls are made belongs to God.

We must appreciate God’s perfect creations in and around us and run back to implore God for forgiveness and repent, the moment we perceive that the perfectly balanced situations and environment of sovereignty for us are slipping in any manner.

We must remind ourselves of the purpose of our creation and try to reflect that we may not have many days of our lives left to redeem ourselves.

We must try and prostrate to God mentally and physically as often as we can, and implore Him to make us pass on from this world as the elite of the elite (56:10). There are many beautiful verses in the Quran which we can use to implore God.

We should also reflect on the beautiful ways in which God has been fixing everything for us and for all the submitters, and in the world around us - in accordance with His perfect plan. We must set the best example and be the best community (3:110).

Conclusion

We know that there are uncountable reasons for us to be appreciative of God’s blessings around ourselves, within ourselves, from the heavens and on earth. The Quran, which contains the guidance for our salvation, is a gift from God. Even our religious duties are awesome gifts from Him. Owing to this, on the Day of Judgment we will have no excuses for throwing away the sovereignty that God promises us on earth and the perfect happiness in the Hereafter. In fact, God tells us many times in the Quran to give Him a loan of righteousness and goodness to be repaid to us many fold (2:245, 5:12, 57:11, 64:17, 73:20). We must absolutely trust in God for our own sovereignty and perfect happiness.

Ahmed C. / India