.بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

All right.

You’ve slipped, tumbled, and fallen.

At least: seemingly.

A pebble upon your path.

Things have escaped from your very clutch. Is it that… you had failed to grip them strongly enough?

No. Irrespective of what you, in the moment, might think:

You dropped a smoothie [I have. Last year. Bought a healthy smoothie, was sort of excited to drink it. Spilt it at my Nan’s house. Apologised to her profusely, I think. She said, in earnest, and not even sarcastically: it’s completely fine. She said that I can do it again if I want.] Okay. As long as you aren’t burdening your nan… so what?! That smoothie had not been meant to have been drunk by you. For whatever reason.

You tripped and stumbled outside, in public? [Just yesterday, for example. I’d been thinking about ‘appearing ‘cool” and, I think, about how it’s… actually difficult. And: not-so-fruitful, and not-so-sustainable, to seek to… ‘mask’ that much?

And then: within moments of having this inner conversation… I tripped. Didn’t fall, but still… tripped. Abruptly:

“Woah!” Busy street.

But then again: I’m a warm–blooded human being, and not some cold, cool, calculated machine. I’ve seen other people trip before, too, haven’t I? It’s okay: it happens.]

It’s okay. People don’t care too much anyway. Some do care, in a kind way. Might look at you to make sure everything is okay. Offer, in a really nice way, and on a Ramadan day, to help you with packing that shopping bag. And then you awkwardly say something like, thank you! But I think I’ll be okay.

Sorry for taking so much time!

But, you know what? Warmth and kindness do exist in the world! Some people will want to help, and see in you how human they, too are. Might: smile at you in that really real way, eyes closed, and radiant. We’ll necessarily ‘trip up’, and in the context of the bigger picture: many of these things are quite… astonishing to think about, no?

The Divine Plans that are ever- in motion. These seeming ‘slips’ and ‘trips’ are… necessary. For what is going to happen next, to occur, to take their rightful places.

So, human nature, then:

Smash! goes a flower vase, as you go to pick it up. Splat! goes that pot of double-cream, over and across the very ground. Oh no! You said the ‘wrong thing’. Struggled with putting things into the carrier bag ‘quickly enough’.

But, no: all of it had been with good reason. There’s khayr in it.

Allah bars you from having things that might have proven harmful to you, whether physically, or spiritually/mentally. Allah grants us unexpected little happenings in our days, sometimes: sometimes ‘good’, sometimes ‘bad’. In retrospect: they’re kind of funny, you know. Add some colour to these lives of ours. Things to do, things to think about.

‘Slip-ups’ can sometimes… lead to the right people and/or things coming into our lives. Might… give us some fresh… drive, impetus, towards something. A sense of perspective.

There are lessons to be learnt here, things that need to fall, so that coming things can fall into place, event by event by event. Subtly, often, (by none other than Al-Lateef) and magnificently.

Oh, and, from the places of our own imperfections, clumsinesses, weaknesses, and the rest…

We have a Perfect Rabb, Author, Planner, to learn to better trust.