Missy

A few months ago I found a poor kitty who was merely skin and bones, but most probably, she had been someone’s discarded or abandoned pet because she was not feral; she was friendly and let me pet her. She seemed to have a lot of health issues, so I took her to the vet, where, for some strange reason, she began hyperventilating:

It was heartbreaking but I was not going to give up on her.

The vet said she had serious heart and lung issues and would not make it. She asked me to sign papers saying I understand if she dies (that is, I won’t sue them for it.). I had no choice but to sign that damned paper. I needed the vet’s cooperation and I tried my best to save Missy.

After numerous checks and tests and spending over 2000 US$ (the vet took advantage of my kindness!) the vet told me they could not save her. Her heart issue is beyond cure, and the only thing that can be done is either to put her down, or to give her some pills to help with the keeping the lungs dry and slowing the heart rate.

I could not give myself the right to take her life away, although I was ready to agree with the ugly option if I felt she was suffering too much. Between death now and death later, I chose the latter for her. She takes two capsules in the morning and one pill in the evening. She has also been gaining weight. I have also been making sure to play (feather-teaser and other toys; she also likes to play hide-n-seek) with her everyday, to show her deep, real and unlimited love, and to feed her the best snacks in the world, to tell her how much I love her, and how I would not give up fighting for her life.

The plan is to observe how she is responding to this emergency treatment, and if she is improving. Perhaps the issues are psychosomatic and love and kindness would help her recover? In any case, we would seek other opinions after she gains enough weight to withstand further tests. when she takes the pills, her breating is normal, so she is enjoying normal life for as long as it can last for her.

But why did I mention Missy?

Al-Fatehah

Because as Missy was comfortably snuggling with her daddy, I suddenly came upon the thought that Missy was going to die sooner or later, no matter what (like all of us, eh?) but that, unlike us, she was unaware of it. That she has an existence, but has not been given the awareness to ask why she exists and what will become of her when it is over.

And then I reflected upon the idea that as a human, I was capable of this reasoning and awareness. That the animal was created to show its contrast to me, who has been given the gift of intellect, the gift to realize that I have come to exist, and the gift to ask why.

Isn’t that a great gift to have been bestowed on humans? It’s not us who have ‘developed’ or ’evolved’ into possessing such an awareness in such a sophisticated mind. It has been granted to us, the same way it has not been granted to animals. To viscerally consider how that ignorance might feel for animals, let’s consider the limits of our own knowledge and awareness of the Supreme Being ج who rules the Worlds and Everything He created. The Almighty ج could have chosen not to give us this awareness, and could have also left us to our own devices, lost in perpetual ignorance.

Thus, now I understand why the beginning Verse in the Noble Qur’aan is Praise be to Allah. Some ignoramus once complained about ‘a Creator needing our praise’ but is that really so? The Noble Qur’aan is a book given to us, as a guidance and manual for life. The Exalted Almighty needs NOTHING and we are told this, in very clear but sublime language:

“Say: He, Allah, is One. Allah is Al-Sammad” (Qur’an, 112:1-2).

The name Al-Sammad has been translated as He on Whom all depend, while others have translated it as the Eternal Refuge, also as O_ne who needs nothing.

Since this is so, why has The Exalted Creator’s ج Noble Book opens with this praise? (Al-Fatihah means the The Opening). Because the Noble Qur’aan is also an set of Divine Instructions for our guidance. Who should decide how our Beloved Creator be praised?

Instructions from any external party claiming to know how to praise the Almighty ج would logically invalidate the meaning of Al-Sammad, because then it would not mean One who does not need anything from anyone.

It is therefore, completely logical that the worshipper be taught by the Creator ج he worships. But why does the Beloved Almighy ج teaches us to praise Him?

We have been given working brains to figure that out, and here is how I figure it out (at least at the tentative level in this stage): to wonder and reflect upon the gift of life, and the gift of knowing that I have been given this life, the Noble Gift of the Sacred Qur’aan to let me know I was created by my Creator, and the intellectual capacity to ask why until I come to this conclusion.

To look at animals and see how they lack this awareness, and how I possess it, so that I can ask why do I exist? What is my purpose? To then seek the anwers to this question, and to to live a life that conforms to the Noble Teachings of the Creator who did not abandon us like Missy’s original owner did.

Ask yourself why you are reading this essay, in fact. The Message of the Almighty will reach everyone, in every possible form. This is your chance. What will you do next? I have a suggestion: read Our Noble Qur’aan and discover what you didn’t know you didn’t know.

Speedy recovery to Missy and all the best to you!