Where are you going?

“Fa ayna tadh haboon – Where are you going?” There is such love in these words. It is like when a mother becomes helpless and dejected due to her child going astray, and she asks him “What are you doing?”

Such simple words as she says “What are you doing?” but the pain she feels, the pain of motherhood that she feels, hidden inside these simple words.

Or when the father becomes helpless and dejected and says “Son, What are you doing?” There is so much compassion in the father’s words knowing what his son is doing will spoil, ruin and harm his son’s future. At that time the father becomes so helpless and says these words “What are you doing? Where are you going? Which way are you headed? What have you become?”

“Fa ayna tadh haboon - Where are you going?” It is like a son reaching out to his angry father and saying “I am what is right for you, Where are you going? You are what is right for me, Where are you going? We are what is right for us, Where are you going? What are you doing? Who has decieved you?”

It is so easy to narrate these words, it is easy to copy these words, but the meaning behind these words, the emotion behind these words can’t be copied, can’t be reproduced, and can’t be translated. Not because they have no translation, not because they don’t have a deep meaning but because Emotions cannot be translated in words, they can only be felt.

Similarly when God says “Fa ayna tadh haboon” we can’t understand the emotion with which He means it. We can’t interpret the deep concern he has for us when he says “Where are you going” “Fa ayna tadh haboon” . We can’t understand the intensity of love, affection and concern with which He says it. We can’t understand it, we can maybe write about it, we maybe can try to enact it, we can maybe try to narrate it, but we can’t write the emotions, the concern and the intensity that come with it. We can’t. Because emotions cannot be translateded in words, they have to be felt.

And when Allah says “Yaa Ayuhal insaan” [O Mankind], the love He expresses to the whole 7 billion people in the world. “Yaa Ayuhal insaan” [O Mankind], not just Muslims, but the whole of mankind. Just one word “Yaa Ayuhal insaan” and the amount of love God has expressed in it. How can we ever translate the emotions that must go with it. The intensity with which He says “Yaa Ayuhal insaan” meaning [O Mankind]. It is like Allah coming to the earth, going to each individual and shaking him and saying “Yaa Ayuhal insaan” [O Mankind], “What have you done?”, “Fa ayna tadh haboon- Where are you going?” “Why have you left the path of righteousness?, Why have you left me? Just like when children abandon their parents and the mother says “Why are you going” The pain that is hidden in that “WHY”, that is of a mother, that pain is of a father. If we use that pain in analogy with God, all the while understanding Gods love is infinite, and then try to understand this word “Yaa Ayuhal inaan- Maa Gharaka birabikal kareem” meaning “O my creation, why have you left your Lord? Who has deceived you? I am your Lord, I am your Lord, Who has deceived you? Why have you left me?

[Ayah] Al lazi Kahalaqaqah meaning I created you, look at your appearence in the mirror and see how I created you. Can I wrong you? A mother does not wrong her child even though she is just a channel/medium, yet I have created you with my hands, can I wrong you? If I stop you from something, then there is wisdom behind it. If I tell you to do something, then there is wisdom behind it.

“Fa ayna tadh haboon – Where are you going?” Quran Surat At-Takwīr (The Overthrowing)(81:26)

God says in this Quranic verse – “Where are you going?” Quran Surat At-Takwīr (The Overthrowing)(81:26)

God also says in one of the Quranic verses [Ayah] – “Fa Firroo Ilallaah – Not there, come over here, come towards me, come towards the path that is right, that is free of sin”

It is the right time for us to ask ourselves the same question, “Where are we going?” “What are we doing?” “Where are we headed?” “What have we become?”

Is what we hear meant to be heard? Is what we see meant to be seen? Is what we do meant to be done? Is what we say meant to be said? Is what we think meant to be thought?

Again as God says in one of the Quranic verses [Ayah] – “Fa Firroo Ilallaah – Not there, come over here, come towards me, come towards the path that is right, that is free of sin”

-Maulana Tareeq Jameel-