There Is a Sign
In Everything
Signs of God are spread all over the universe. One who remains open to learning lessons will see the whole world as living proof of divine realities.
The Indian writer Khwajah Hasan Nizami (1878-1955) once wrote an Urdu article entitled “Story of a Fly”. In it, he complained to a fly about the bother it caused people. “Why don’t you let us sleep in peace?” he remonstrated. “The time for sleep and eternal repose has not yet come,” the fly replied. “When it does come, you can sleep in peace. Now you should remain alert and active.” This little exchange shows that if an individual remains open to admonition, he will find a lesson for his life even in such mundane events as the buzz of a fly. On the other hand, if his mind is closed, then not even the roar of bombshells and artillery fire will be able to break through his barriers. Only the tempest of the Last Day will bring such people to their senses, but that will not be the time to take heed: that will be a time for retribution, not constructive action.
The Quran tells us that a heavenly person is one who brings before God “a sound heart” (26:89). There is a saying of the Prophet to much the same effect. “Whomsoever God wishes good for”, he said, “He gives him the ability to understand religion” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith No. 71). These statements show that God’s greatest blessing to a person is an open mind and a sound, receptive intellect that sees the truth for what it is. Such a mind is free of complexes: it can form opinions in a free and unprejudiced spirit. A sound mind does not take long to absorb any truth or take in any lesson contained in the world at large. The universe is like spiritual sustenance for such a mind, which develops and thrives by deriving nourishment from what it sees, feels, and hears in the world around it.
Signs of God are spread all over the universe. In some places, rocks and inanimate matter provide a pointer to some profound reality; in others, it is “flies”—menial objects—that send out a message for man. Sometimes, an event of great instructive import occurs in the human world. Sometimes, God enables one of His servants to call his fellow men to truth in plain, spoken language. One who has opened his mind to the truth will find it in all such instances. If one is not receptive to instruction, one will gain nothing from all the signs scattered worldwide. An open mind derives instruction from a “fly”, while not even divine revelation and prophetic teachings can break down the barriers of a closed mind.
There is nothing that can take the place of a receptive intellect. One who remains open to instruction will see the whole world as living proof of divine realities. However, one who lives with a closed mind is like an animal who hears and sees all but understands nothing.
