Parables in the Quran are sources of incredible wisdom. In surah Hajj, Allah presents an example:

People, here is an illustration, so listen carefully: those you call on beside God could not, even if they combined all their forces, create a fly, and if a fly took something away from them, they would not be able to retrieve it. The seeker and the sought are both inherently weak! (Surah 22:73)

Allah says that if all the gods people called besides Allah combined their forces to do one thing, i.e create a fly, they would not be able to The first thing to understand is who people call besides Allah. we have idols, false gods, prophets, righteous people, leaders, kings, pharaohs, priests, saints, aliens, ancestors etc.

In general, people either call on the living or they call on the dead. When people worship a priest or a leader or the pope, they are worshiping the living. When people worship idols or pictures or an idea or a philosophy, they worship the dead.

This ayah covers the living and the dead.

Let's start with the dead:

Have a look at the pagan cultures of the world. In many of these beliefs, you have shrines where the idols are kept. One of the common feature of these places is that all kinds of food are kept in front of the idol. If i come into the temple and i attempt to eat the food kept in front of the idol, the worshipers would not allow me to do so because it is supposed to be for the statue. It is blasphemous for me to try and eat the food reserved for their gods and i could get in big trouble for even attempting that.

Now imagine a fly, a disrespectful fly flies all the way to the food that is reserved for the god, eats to its fill (while even staring at the idol) and flies off. This happens right in front of the worshipers and the idol, they are constantly trying to fend off flies from eating their god's food. A fly destroys the foundations of their faith before their eyes on a daily basis.

Allah said: if a fly took something away from them, they would not be able to retrieve it..

The flies do it every time. For anyone paying attention, the temple itself is teaching tawhid by the fly. If the god created the fly, the fly will obey him and not mess with his food. Not only does the god not have the power to create, it does not have the power to take back its own food.

Now let us examine a living false god:

Pharaoh is having lunch in his castle and here comes a disrespectful fly again, it takes a pinch out a pharaoh food and flies off.. Pharaoh gets angry at the disrespect shown by the fly and summons the entire army to catch this fly and retrieve the food stolen by this fly. The fly is caught, the microscope and petri dish are invented immediately to retrieve the piece of food stolen by this fly.

One significant fact however, is that flies start digesting their food immediately they come in contact with it, they release saliva that wraps around the food and acidifies it, chemically altering the food so they would never be able to retrieve pharaoh food as there is nothing to recover, they can't get it back SubhanAllah!!

Like Allah says if the fly did take something away. They can't get it back.

Then Allah says: The seeker and the sought are both inherently weak

The idol and pharaoh are seekers, the fly is the sought.

Also the idol worshiper is a seeker and the idol is the sought

Allah says the seeker and the sought is weak... The fly is weak and so is pharaoh, the fly proves the weakness of the pharaoh, The idols themselves are weak because they can't help themselves and because the worshiper seeks them that means that he is also weak.

The Universal lesson

Like many ayat of the Quran, there are universal lessons

We are all seekers, some of us are seeking jobs, others are seeking children, others are seeking to get married or graduate, some people seek a promotion, some are seeking to graduate, Some are seeking to buy a car.. We are all seekers.

Allah says that we are all weak because we are seekers. Seeking itself is a show of weakness. And everything we seek is also weak. if you are seeking a car, the car is not strong, it is weak. If you are seeking a career, the career is also weak. If you are seeking children, they are also weak. You are seeking money, money itself is weak.

We are weak and everything we run after is weak. In the very next ayah, Allah says:

They have no grasp of God’s true measure: God is truly most strong and mighty. (surah 22:74)

Allah says that you should be seeking Allah because Allah is strong. In other words, when you seek Allah, you become strong. And because you are seeking everything else, you and everything else are weak. Amazing!!

Story 1

There is a muslim family in New orleans. They used to own a luxury car dealership, Upper class cars... All paid for in cash. Hurricane Katrina came and all of the cars were destroyed except for one lexus. That was all that was left, everything was gone.

The brother now works in a Pizza store, delivering pizza in that lexus. The shocking thing about this family is that they are all so happy. This is the kind of loss that makes people commit suicide.. These guys were making as much as $1 million a month. Everything was destroyed, wiped out. They had to start from scratch.

But these guys are happy, when asked. The brother said the most remarkable thing(paraphrasing): I have food on my plate what do i have to complain about? That was Allah's provision and He took it. We are all Allah's too. SubhanAllah.

The one who seeks Allah can have the entire world in their hand and if it goes. They say: that wasn't mine anyway. Because they also belong to Allah, they are not bothered by loss. They become strong. Other people can't gain that kind of strength, it is too difficult.

Story 2

A couple was struggling to have kids for a long time, eventually Allah blessed them with a son very late in life. When the son was 18, he had his graduation from high school. He went to his graduation ceremony and his parents were waiting for him to come home. They were too old to go for the ceremony. The boy died in a car accident on his way home.

The mother went into shock, They were both saddened. Eventually the husband goes to his wife and he says: Allah gave us a toy and he let us play with it for 18 years without charging us and He took what belonged to Him, back. And instead of being grateful, look at us sitting here, complaining and saddened.

This is easy to talk about but hard to internalise.

The seeker and the sought are weak.

May Allah grant us the strength that comes from us seeking Him.

I seek Allahs favour
in all

Another beautifully written one. May Allah bless you for this. In seeking anything, I have learnt that hardwork pays only when Allah allows it.

I seek Allah in all. May Allah provide us with all that we seek. Amin.

Alhamdulilah dis is coming at a time when I needed dis d most.may Allah reward u with d best of both worlds,ameen

Allah is great

Good post brother.May Allah bless us with contentment.

AmazeBalls: Alhamdulilah dis is coming at a time when I needed dis d most.may Allah reward u with d best of both worlds,ameen

my brother i tell you this is so timely!
Got to stop seeking for worldly things but Allah's favour in all my endeavours.
@Op! Jazaks for this wonderful piece.

Another mind-blowing parable from the Qur'an, imagine how Allah(SWT) describes man's folly with a fly! The fly will even perch on the idols and the worshipper cant do nothing about it. Alhamdulilah i am a Muslim.

Jazakumullahu khayran Tbaba.

Ameen to all the prayers.

May Allah grant you all goodness.

I am proud to be a muslim!

Beautiful n exhilarating exhortation. This article is a time warner to me, l hope l ve peace in d end.

Alhamdulilah!

larrymoore: Beautiful n exhilarating exhortation. This article is a time warner to me, l hope l ve peace in d end.

May Allah grant you peace.

A reminder!