1] Nothing is Lost

1]
Nothing is lost. The years of your life that you poured like water
into a now-failed marriage, or the immense love and attention you gave
a child or brother or friend who now treats you like an enemy, or the
work you did for a company that closed down, or the sweat you put into
a project that ultimately failed… none of that is lost.
It's particularly hard when a relationship collapses, leaving
bitterness where previously there was passion. It's galling. You feel
confused, betrayed, depressed. Even years lateryou might feel that you
wasted those years, that you poured love from yourinnermost core and
watched it go down a drain.
The viewpoint of faith
I understand the feeling. I've been there. I've been perplexed and
depressed, with the phrase "Everything falls apart" running through my
head, thinking about how all things collapse in the end, and how good
things never seem to last.
But that is the narrow viewpoint of depression. Itis a singularly
negative viewpoint, and therefore itis not the viewpoint of imaan
(faith), because faithis the parent of hope. Faithgives you a window
into the unseen, the world thatIslam calls al-ghayb , and one of the
elements of the unseen world that Allah has informed us of is that
nothing is lost:
"And their Lord responded to them, "Never will I allow to be lost the
work of [any] worker among you, whether male or female; you are of one
another." (Quran, Surat Aal-Imraan, 3:195)
Allah knows the frustration and pain we feel, so He assures us that
none of our deeds are lost,not only because He sees all, but because
we are "of one another", in other words we human beings are all
connected. We are all a part of each other, and so any love and work
that one of us puts forward affects us all.
And Allah says,
"So whoever does an atom's weight of good will see it, And whoever
does an atom's weight of evil will see it." (Quran Surat Az-Zalzalah,
99:7-8)
Your love did not evaporate into nothingness. Your sweat and blood
were not poured down a drain. Those years of your life, those anxious
moments and anxiety dreams, were not in vain. Your silent good deeds,
and the most tender moments of your heart, were witnessed by the One
who matters, for Allah sees all. Everything isseen and valued. Every
good deed is blessed, every act of love is rewarded, everything is
returned to you in barakahmany times over. Nothing is lost.
The Prophet Nuh (pbuh)
When the Prophet Nuh (peace be upon him) preached to his people,
calling them to tawheed (monotheism) amidst the whirlpool of
polytheism, they stuck their fingers in their ears and mocked him… and
in the end the flood came upon them because of their wickedness,
destroying them all except for a handful of followers… destroying even
Nuh's wife and one of his sons.
When this happened, was Nuh a failure? Were his ages of hard work in
vain? Were his deeds lost? Do you find yourself saying, "Poor Nuh"?
If so, then you have missed the point. Nuh was a Prophet, a hero, and
a survivor. He fulfilled his mission and delivered the message. That
was his job and he did it. It was witnessed by Allah,:->