The Miracle of the Sun, Seasons and Distribution of Landmass

 

ﺒﺴﻤ ﺎﷲ ﻠﺮﺤﻤﻦ ﻠﺮﺤﻳﻤ

For quite some time since I discovered it personally one day, I was quite amazed at one of the signs of Allah. Only He knows how much we can endure in temperatures. He takes three elements and makes them balance in such beautiful harmony that I stand in awe. Subhan’Allah!

Geography is one of my very favourite subjects – it tells us so much about the earth that shows how finely tuned it is, and how the Creator has made it so delicately balanced. For example, I discovered something quite interesting about the sun, the seasons and the distribution of land.

The distance between the sun and the earth differs throughout the year. On one end of the year is the perihelion, and on the other end, the aphelion. This is when the sun is closest to the Earth, and furthest from the earth respectively. It has got nothing to do with the seasons of summer and winter, but is a fixed time of the year, despite the season. The perihelion falls around early January, and the aphelion around early July. This means that the perihelion falls in the Southern Hemisphere’s summer and the aphelion in the Southern Hemisphere’s winter. In other words, the Southern Hemisphere’s summer would be more hotter and their winter more colder, due to the sun’s distance co-inciding with the seasons down south. In the Northern Hemisphere, the summer falls when the sun is furthest from the earth, and their winter when the sun is closest to earth, making their seasons milder in comparison.

Now this is where things get interesting...

It just so happens that the continental lands of the northern and Southern Hemispheres are not equally distributed. There is far much more land up in the north than the south. Just look at an atlas of the world and you will see how much space America, Greenland, Russia, Europe, Asia and North Africa take up. Compare that to the space that most of South America, southern Africa, Australasia and Antarctica take up.

I was fascinated at this. Why is there so much land in the north and so little in the south? Then when I learned about the sun’s journey and the co-inciding of the seasons, I figured out that I may just well know the answer – it is part of Allah’s protective care for us. Because the seasons would be more intense in the south, there is less land further south. Antartica is the coldest place on earth – not the Arctic. If England, for example, or Canada were 50 degrees latitude in the south instead of the north, their winters would probably be colder, and their summers hotter, due to the sun’s distance from the earth.

I may be wrong, and there are other factors such as climatic regions and the ozone layer that come into play – but I saw this as a great sign of Allah’s provision for us. Without us even knowing it, He is there looking after us.

So now that summer is coming here to us in the Southern Hemisphere, wear your sunblock and hat when you enjoy the beach! J

Salaam

Saadiqah

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Thunderstorms: Fear and Hope

 

ﺒﺴﻤ ﺎﷲ ﻠﺮﺤﻤﻦ ﻠﺮﺤﻳﻤ

Living in Cape Town, it is seldom that we experience thunder and lightning along with our rain. Usually we get rain off the sea (mostly in winter), which is constant and prolonged, soaking gently into the ground – sometimes a little more harder when it is a stormy day, flooding the low areas. Despite Cape Town living up to its one nickname, “The Cape of Storms”, the storms don’t usually come violently, bringing electric bolts and loud rumbles – just a fierce gale. But for five to ten days a year, that changes and the thunderstorms reach us – like two nights ago, when, during a storm, I lay curled up behind my rather amused husband who was sitting at the window, looking out at the lightning! J

Further upcountry in South Africa’s central highlands, the thunderstorms are merciless and frequent in summer. When I went to stay at a convent there for four months at the end of 2010, I was quite traumatized by the violence of the storms. With lightning that cracks and blinds, thunder that explodes like a bomb and goes off like cannons and fireworks, and rain (and hail) that threatens to make dents in the roof, I was unprepared for what I experienced. My whole life I have suffered from a phobia of thunderstorms, so each time I was faced with one (three days a week at times), I was convinced the Day of Qiyaamah had arrived! I prayed, repented, and waited to die, curled up in a tight ball under the blankets. (Luckily Allah let me live longer so I could embrace Islam, which is what I did one month after I left the convent. Alhamdulillah!)

Back in Cape Town, the thunderstorms when they do come, are quite tame compared to upcountry. Nevertheless, I continue to feel such dread and fear when they occur, keeping myself curled up on my bed, my gaze averted from the closed and curtained window.

Nowadays, as a Muslim, I keep on recalling how the Qur’an puts it:

“It is He Who does show you the lightning, by way both of fear and of hope…”  (Sura Ra’d 13:12)

Lightning is a sign containing both fear and hope. Fear, because it poses dangers – and hope, because it heralds the rain. Only, in Cape Town, it rains a lot without lightning. Lots of hope and little fear. Sometimes I like to think that that is why Cape Town was given another of its nicknames, “The Cape of Good Hope!” J

Jokes aside, it is so true that thunderstorms can be a sign of both fear and hope. Personally, I see thunderstorms as symbolizing Imaan – suspended between hope and fear. Hope for Allah’s Mercy – and fear for His Judgment. Thunderstorms can be a profound reminder that Allah is in charge, that we are mere mortals who need Him, and that He is more awesome than anything one can ever imagine. Even in my intense fear, when I hear the thunder, it makes me feel a strange excitement in which I want to cry out “ALLAHU AKBAR!!! SUBHAN’ALLAH!!!” and fall down in awe. How wonderful it is to feel awe for Him! It is what our hearts are made for.

“… thunder repeats His praises, and so do the angels, with awe...” (Sura Ra’d 13:13)

Salaam

Saadiqah

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Moths

ﺒﺴﻤ ﺎﷲ ﻠﺮﺤﻤﻦ ﻠﺮﺤﻳﻤ

A few nights ago, I was sitting in my bedroom when I saw a small moth settle on the wall in the light. I thought to myself how they always like to go to light areas and how they are attracted to lamps and fires, and it got me thinking a little. I saw it as a little sign from Allah, showing us some things He wants to say – don’t get too close or you will get burnt, and more importantly – seek the Light of Truth.

The whole sign revolves around Light – the source of enjoyment and delight. There are two types of light – the light of this world and that of the hereafter. The first is a deceiving light – it is the light of glitz and glamour; the limelight; fame and riches; material pleasure. It attracts us on TV and in magazines, amongst other things, inviting us to seek the fashions and trends that the crowds are following. In frenzied excitement – just like the moths – we run in circles around the pleasures of the world, seeking ever more and more. The only thing is, that the light of the world is one which invites to Hellfire. If we get too close to it, it will destroy us. If the world is in our heart and not our hands, we will lose ourselves forever.

The second light is an eternal Light – that of Al-Haqq, The Truth; that of An-Nur, The Light.  It speaks to us in subtle ways; too powerful to need advertising and media to attract us, because it is in our hearts already, in our natural disposition – our fitrah. All we need to do is listen out for it calling; to seek that which brings true peace. Yet, in Allah’s mercy, He also broadcasts that Light through more obvious ways – through the athaan calling us to prayer, through hearing the Qur’an being recited, seeing men and women living pure lives, lowering their gazes, women wearing hijab, da’wah work, and other beautiful things that make up Islam. That Light is also manifest in creation – in sunrises and sunsets, babies forming in the womb and being born, animals, birds, fish and insects, plants growing, strong mountains, the stars and galaxies, and tiny atoms. Who is all behind these things? Only The One Who Is Light, calling us to seek and find Him.

In Sura Qari’ah it is written that on the Day of Judgment, mankind will be “like moths scattered about” (101:4), in a state of reckless confusion and distraction. When moths fly in the light, they look like they are in a frenzied race to see which one of them will reach the source of the light first, or as if they are flying in an aerial dance.

This is how it will be on the Day of Judgment with us – the seekers of the worldly light will be in a state of disorder, running about scattered all over, like on the movies depicting natural disasters. However, if we were of those who sought the eternal Light, we will be filled with peace, and our movements will prove not to be a state of terror, but a dance of joy.

May Allah save us from fear, and make us of those who seek His Light and dance with joy, ameen.

Salaam

Saadiqah

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Discovering the Signs of Allah in Creation

ﺒﺴﻤ ﺎﷲ ﻠﺮﺤﻤﻦ ﻠﺮﺤﻳﻤ

Assalaam aleikum! Most of my readers may know me from my previous blog, From the Pen of a Revert Muslimah (http://saadiqah-revertmuslimah.blogspot.com) which I started in order to relate my journey as a new Muslim and to support other recent reverts in their journey into Islam, through sharing my experiences. For those who do not, I am from Cape Town, South Africa; a former Pentecostal, Anglican, Roman Catholic and nun-to-be, who embraced Islam in February 2011; an aspiring writer with my revert story on www.islamreligion.com under the section “New Muslims, Women (Stephanie, Ex-Catholic from South Africa).” I am also a housewife and a student of Islamic studies – having almost finished a one-year course of Arabic and the Qur’an at a local Darul-Uloom and continuing to teach myself from books.

Now that I have been a Muslim for almost two years, I find that, although my discoveries and learning about Islam still come increasingly – and will do so until death – my focus dwells more on pondering on the signs (ayahs) of Allah SWT in life. Even as a former Catholic Christian, it has fascinated me to see His signs in creation. I called these signs “Clues in Nature,” seeing myself as a sort of Sherlock Holmes, bent of discovering traces of His Presence everywhere. As a Muslim, fond of various fields of natural and social sciences (my favourites being the weather, astronomy, birds, psychology and cats, among others) I am eager to continue this search, for it presents the Creator to Creation, showing us that there is a God – Allah Almighty – beyond everything. It also helps us as Muslims to integrate Islam into our lives in this world, and live with a heart filled with continuous thikr.

In this blog I hope to write about things of this world from a Muslim standpoint, emphasising the journey of the pilgrim looking for love letters from his or her God, directing him or her onto the Straight Path to Jannah. Insha’Allah, I would like to write about anything I find clues in – whether it is about the world of animals, human nature, business, trees, mountains, the sky, language, culture, etc. – just to share the awesomeness and wisdom of Allah; to celebrate His glory. Everything in creation; each realm (or world) – whether of people, animals, plants, insects, landscapes, the sky, business, etc – is a sign (“ayat”) of Allah Ta’ala:

Behold! In the creation of the heavens and the earth; in the alternation of the night and the day; in the sailing of the ships through the ocean for the profit of mankind; in the rain which God sends down from the skies, and the life which He gives therewith to an earth that is dead; in the beasts of all kinds that He scatters through the earth; in the change of the winds, and the clouds which they trail like their slaves between the sky and the earth: - here indeed are signs for a people that are wise.

(Sura Al-Baqarah 2:164)

 

Insha’Allah, I hope that each one of us will discover more and more that Allah Almighty is the One Beyond everything, the One present in His Power, Love, Mercy and Wisdom, and that we can proclaim as one family, “Allahu Akbar! Glory Be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds!”

 

Salaam and Eid Mubarak

Saadiqah

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