An Admonition

Do you not see how God sends down water from the sky which penetrates the earth and gathers in springs beneath? With it He brings forth plants of various colours. They wither, they turn yellow, and then He turns them to chaff. Surely in this there is an admonition for men of understanding.

He whose heart God has opened to Islam, shall receive light from his Lord. But woe to those whose hearts are hardened against the remembrance of God! Truly, they are in the grossest error.

(The Quran 39:21-22)

The breathtakingly astonishing system of rains on earth, then the growth of vegetation from it, then the bringing forth of crops—all these material happenings have innumerable lessons to teach. But only those who are capable of going deeper into the subject will learn anything from them.

God has planned the external world in such a fashion that everything in it serves as a sign of the Higher Reality. Man has, moreover, been endowed with such capabilities as help him to read those signs and understand them. Now those who keep their natural faculties alive and, by availing of them, ponder over the things of the world, will unlock the doors of realization within themselves. While those who allow the intellect to become sluggish will be unable to learn lessons from anything. They will see, but this will not be the seeing of realization; they will hear, but this will not be the hearing of realization.

In this present world everything that begins is heading towards its pre-destined end. For instance, a seed, once sprouted, starts its life as a tiny plant, then gradually develops into a sapling, then into a fully grown tree. The same is true of the things of this world.

This happening serves as a divine lesson for man. In this way God tells man that he is, also heading from beginning to end, childhood followed by youth and old age. Afterwards death will lead us to a new and eternal existence.