Alhamdulillah, Allah azza wa jall, al Qawiyy, lent me some of His immeasurable, unimaginable strength over the weekend: I transformed one raised bed garden/vegetable patch into two, and moved it to a more prominent location on the other side of the yard/garden.
مَا شَاءَ اللَّهُ لَا قُوَّةَ إِلَّا بِاللَّهِ
What Allah willed [has occurred]; there is no power except in Allah
I’m reminded of a a beautiful story in Surah Al Kahf. I’m paraphrasing, here:
Two men, let’s call them Don and Eric, meet up one day. Allah blessed Don with incredible wealth, massive gardens filled with grape vines and palm trees, with creeks running through them, a huge mansion, Italian sportscars in the garage, etc. etc. Eric comes to visit one day, and while leading him on a tour of the grounds, Don gestures out over his gardens and says, “isn’t this the best garden you’ve ever seen. I have the best gardens. I know everything about growing grapes. I’m the best gardener, just ask anyone, everyone knows. I have the best grapes, they’re so sweet and so juicy. I have best grapes, they’re just the best, the best: so sweet, so juicy. My gardens are the best gardens.”
Eric shakes his head and says “All praise and thanks be to God, you do have a beautiful garden. God certainly blessed you. Sometimes when you look out over your wealth, maybe consider how blessed you are, and show some gratitude, say ‘what Allah wills, there is no power except in Allah.’ It just might be that He takes all this away from you one day.”
May Allah remove any arrogance from me, and guide me to show gratitude for His blessings and use His gifts appropriately, ameen.
Alhamdulillah. I’m not quite finished with the project: the larger raised bed needs some shoring up, and more compost and filler, and we need to do the planting in a month or so, but the big, hard part is done. Alhamdulillah.
