"We bestowed Wisdom on Luqman. 'Show gratitude to Allah.' Any who is grateful does so to the profit of his own soul, but if any is ungrateful, verily Allah is free of all wants, Worthy of all praise."
Quran 31:12
Here is a passage from the 31st surah, Luqman, from which I'll be drawing a lot later for a very lengthy discussion. I'll save a lot of background information on Luqman for that more lengthy blog post. I suppose, technically, if the Quran is truly the word of God that it seems somewhat inappropriate to say that you have favorite surahs or passages, but Luqman is clearly one of my favorites nonetheless. When people find out that your Muslim that get fixated on many things, and one of them is the notion of praying five times a day. As I've said, I've been honest in admitting that it's rare that I actually do pray five times a day, which reflects poorly on me. People will ask: what do you possibly have to say to God five times a day? That's a whole issue in and of itself, obviously. The prayers, as we've discussed earlier, are very structured and formulaic, but there is obviously more "personal" time. I think off every one the same way: showing gratitude for the many gifts that I have, the innumerable friends and loved ones who make my life better, my health (such as it is), my extraordinary son. Even if there were no God, the notion of stopping five times a day to quietly meditate upon life and the blessings inside of that life seems to me essential. I find that I also always approach life outside of the religious realm in the same fashion. I've talked repeatedly about how I try and focus on the concept of returning the worse with the better, and I would argue that showing gratitude to everyone in our lives, even if they only pass through in the most transitory fashion, is essential to living a good life. Or, as the Prophet reminded us in another hadith, "Be easy. Do not be difficult."
Quran 31:12
Here is a passage from the 31st surah, Luqman, from which I'll be drawing a lot later for a very lengthy discussion. I'll save a lot of background information on Luqman for that more lengthy blog post. I suppose, technically, if the Quran is truly the word of God that it seems somewhat inappropriate to say that you have favorite surahs or passages, but Luqman is clearly one of my favorites nonetheless. When people find out that your Muslim that get fixated on many things, and one of them is the notion of praying five times a day. As I've said, I've been honest in admitting that it's rare that I actually do pray five times a day, which reflects poorly on me. People will ask: what do you possibly have to say to God five times a day? That's a whole issue in and of itself, obviously. The prayers, as we've discussed earlier, are very structured and formulaic, but there is obviously more "personal" time. I think off every one the same way: showing gratitude for the many gifts that I have, the innumerable friends and loved ones who make my life better, my health (such as it is), my extraordinary son. Even if there were no God, the notion of stopping five times a day to quietly meditate upon life and the blessings inside of that life seems to me essential. I find that I also always approach life outside of the religious realm in the same fashion. I've talked repeatedly about how I try and focus on the concept of returning the worse with the better, and I would argue that showing gratitude to everyone in our lives, even if they only pass through in the most transitory fashion, is essential to living a good life. Or, as the Prophet reminded us in another hadith, "Be easy. Do not be difficult."
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