A person can regularly have experience of his limitations, day and night. But we do not think. In the life I am leading, I constantly have experience of my limitations. Many a times I forget something, or I incur loss, or I am unable to fulfil my plans. Thinking is most important. The world gives us a reminder every day. If a plan fails, it is to help us discover our Creator. We can always experience failure of our plans. If we think about it, we will discover God.
Hazarat Ali once said: "I discovered God when my plans failed." (Al-Iman, Ibn Taymiyah, v. 1, p. 356) This is a very great truth. We have regular experience of this. For example, when I pick up a glass of water, it often slips and falls off from my hands. I immediately think that God is so great. He is running this vast universe. There are innumerable stars, planets and galaxies. No star or planet ever falls off or stumbles around here and there. Even if a spoon falls down from my hands, I think about God: if even one constituent of the universe slips and falls down from the Hands of the Sustainer of the heavens and the earth, everything would be destroyed. I often sit quietly and think. Sometimes I close my eyes to feel what would happen if I went blind. By closing my eyes, I try to discover what would it be like if I had no eyes at all. There are two ways. First, as Hazarat Ali said there are times that a certain plan of our doesn’t get fulfilled. At that time we should think of our limitations. We should know that God is sustaining the universe for 15 billion years with complete perfection. There is no defect in the universe (67:3). The second way is that we should purposefully make ourselves think. For example, we have two hands. Can we ever create two hands which have five fingers each? I have faced various such incidents.
I have had an electric burn in my hand. My right thumb used to not function due to the burn. I could not hold a pen properly. My surgeon used to say that the thumb is the king of the fingers. I used to feel sad that my thumb had stopped functioning. A person can regularly have experience of his limitations, day and night. But we do not think. In the life I am leading, I constantly have experience of my limitations. Many a times I forget something, or I incur loss, or I am unable to fulfil my plans. Thinking is most important. The world gives us a reminder every day. If a plan fails, it is to help us discover our Creator. We can always experience failure of our plans. If we think about it, we will discover God.
