The Ink of the Scholar: Nothing Comes Without Struggle

By Imam Vernon Fareed

Nothing is given without struggle. God says in our Sacred Scripture (the Qur’an) that He made the human being to be placed into toil, struggle and difficulty. Kabad is the word in the Qur’an for this toil and struggle. Nothing is going to come easy, there will always be a test. Learned people in religion all know and understand that life is a test and a trial, and it involves struggle! There are going to be times when life is going to unimaginably hard for you. God will allow things to come up against you and they are going to be very difficult and hard. These challenges can be so difficult for the human being until they will want to cry and give up on the struggle. God says in the Revelation that the believers will be tested so much so that they will cry out, “when will the help of God come?”

It is important for believing people to remain steadfast, and if you do this you will get a measure of blessings and rewards equal to what you suffered – and God adds to this, “many times over!” The beauty of this is that He will not stop there because He says, “He gives without counting.” His Will and His Spirit throws so much your way until you have more than you can manage and more than you could ever imagine! That is to tell us that we sometimes have to give in the same manner. We might come across a poor person that’s in a bad situation and they appeal to you for help, there are times when you have to just open up your heart and give – don’t count all of the time!

The weight of the human body is equally distributed just like the weight on the body of the tree, and it enables us to stand upright. The burden is taken off of the body when there is balance; you walk about and most often you are not conscious of your weight. The roots of a tree grow down into the earth to give stability to the life of the tree. The tree grows perpendicular (upright) and the branches on the tree seem to not be so symmetrical, but in reality they give the symmetry to the tree that it needs to keep it balanced. The branches and leaves of the tree reach out to the sun to attract to itself what it needs it needs to sustain life, and the roots go down in the ground and seek out water for the same purpose. This structure wants life and it has been designed by The Creator to naturally pursue the things that feed its life! Human beings must likewise understand that we need balance to sustain our lives, so we have to always be seeking the light of Revelation just as the tree seeks the sunlight, and we have to always be putting our roots in the ground in search of the water. The water of morality will feed the life and help to sustain it. The water will help with cleanliness and spiritual balance, and human life needs this.

The struggle of the human being is lessened when the burden (load) is lifted from it, and this is achieved when we seek to live a balanced life. Don’t go to extremes and remember that we walk with two legs – one spiritual and one material. If you pursue money all of the time and neglect your spiritual needs, you are going to be imbalanced. Likewise if you just give yourself to spiritual or religious interests and neglect to get your share of this world, you are going to end up imbalanced. When you are imbalanced the struggle becomes harder, but be mindful that there will always be a struggle as long as you have life! We have to prove ourselves worthy of the great things that the Creator has in store for us (in this world and in the life hereafter).