1a] Nothing is Lost

1a]
witnessed by Allah, so Nuhwill receive his reward. Furthermore he was
savedfrom the flood, and went on to have more children, and to leave
his own legacy of offspring and teaching. And here we are, thousands
of years later, knowing his name, repeating his story, learning from
him! His story has become a part ofuniversal human mythology. How then
could he be a failure? He affected the world in a profound way until
the Day of Judgment, and he achieved that only by doing his job.
So I would like to suggest a replacement for the negative mantra,
"Everything falls apart." A truer statement, and one based on faith,
would be, "Nothing is lost."
Karma, the universe and the Law of Conservation of Energy
But what if you don't believe in Allah? Well, first of all I would say
that's a shame, because every timeyou put a bite of food in your mouth
that's a grace and a blessing from Him. Going back to Nuh for a
moment, The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "When the death
of the Messenger of Allah Nuh approached, he admonished his sons:
'Indeed I would give youfar reaching advice, commanding you to do two
things, and warningyou against doing two things as well. I charge you
to believe that there is no God but Allah and that if the seven
heavensand the seven earths were put on one side of a scale and the
words "There is no God but Allah" were put on the other, the latter
would outweigh the former. I warn you against associating partners
with Allah and against pride." (Saheeh al-Bukhari).
But even so, if you are Buddhist or Hindu then you believe in cause
and effect on a cosmic level. You believe that the good you do returns
in one way or another, and any evil you perpetrate also boomerangs
into your own soul. These are the fruits of karma. So again, nothing
is lost.
If you deny God and believe only in science andenergy and matter, then
you know that still, nothing is lost! The universe is a finite system.
Our universe began at a single point in time – whatscientists call the
Big Bang.The cosmos is expanding, flying out in every direction, until
one day in the unimaginable future it will reach the limits of
expansion and begin to contract, slowly at first then faster, drawn
inwardsby gravity until it collapsesinto the nothingness from whence
it came. Within this finite universe, energy can be transformed into
matter, or matter into energy, but nothing new iscreated, and nothing
is lost. There is no universal drain. In science this is known as the
Law of Conservation of Energy:
"Energy in a system may take on various forms (e.g. kinetic,
potential, heat, light). The law of conservation of energy states that
energy may neither be created nor destroyed. Therefore the sum of all
the energies in the system is a constant."
The greatest love
Personally, as someone who has suffered from the tendency of all
things to fall apart – what we mightcall the entropy of love – the
purely scientific perspective is cold comfort. When I'm mourning the
loss of a friend, it's no comfort to know that the universe is a
closed system, and that nothing is lost in the physical, atomic sense.
But it is a great comfort to know that all the love, work and good
I've done means something, both in a spiritual sense, and in a human
sense.
The American writer Washington Irving wrote, "Love is never lost. If
not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purifythe heart."
Every act of mercy, every charity, every moment of love you have given
another human being, ripples out through degrees of separation,
affecting the world in a profound way. Even if a relationship is
broken, even if the person now views you with enmity, it doesn't
invalidate what you did. The love that you gave is seen by Allah. On
the earthly plane, that loveaffects your own heart in good ways, then
it percolates out to those around you and changes the world. It
matters. It was not in vain. Nothing islost.
Since I've been speaking oflove, let me finish with a reminder of the
most important love of all. The famous scholar Ibn Qayyimal-Jawziyya
wrote:
"Truly in the heart there is a void that can not be removed except
with the company of Allah. And in itthere is a sadness that can not be
removed except with the happiness of knowing Allah and being true to
Him. And in it thereis an emptiness that can not be filled except with
love for Him and by turning to Him and alwaysremembering Him And if a
person were given all of the world and what is in it,it would not fill
this emptiness."
The greatest love we can have is our love for Allah, and it is always
requited. Allah's love descends uponus in every moment, in more ways
than we can see or understand. Alhamdulillah.