By Huda Ali Khan

The world today has become more illusory than ever before. The things that we think and converse about if brought into perspective and reflected upon would make us realize that the ideologies which we have been following throughout aren’t actually correct.

We often come across people who have been privileged enough, and their lives seem to be aligned with our ideas of a perfect life and we question their unhappiness or discomforts, thinking “ How can he/she be miserable despite having all that he/she has?”

Scrolling through the social media feeds, we stop for a while and admire the pictures of people but we often forget the fact that posts can be easily edited, a picture taken with a distorted angle can be easily fixed, but fixing the problems of life isn’t that easy.

The ones who fit in the fake ideals of beauty set by the society and have perfect physical features might be suffering from an illness they never speak of.

Those who live in comfortable mansions, and have access to every facility that exists might be struggling with healthy relationships.

There are people in our professional lives who are excelling in their fields, instead of labeling these people as highly productive think for a while that these people might be lacking behind in other basic life skills.

The people who don’t have a promising first impression might be the most tender-hearted people you’ll ever come across.

The men and women we label as cold-hearted or rude might have gone through a lot of hard experiences in life and might be in need of some time and space to get back to normal again.

There’s a possibility that the friend in your circle whom you think is full of himself/herself and never responds to texts, or doesn’t check up on you oftentimes, is occupied with urgent tasks.

And then there are those whom we label as religious just because of their modest dressing and the acts of worship they perform, we often expect such people to be sinless and never give them the margin to err. We often forget that these people too are humans, and might be struggling to build a wholesome relationship with the Almighty.

Gossiping has become a normal part of our conversations, but we slide past the fact that the ones we gossip about, look down upon, and mock around might be better human beings than us. The people we don’t consider worthy of anything, the universe might be planning to sprinkle a generous amount of blessings on them.

The reason to shed light upon all this is that we as a society have seemingly joined a non-existent race, a race towards a fictional idea of perfection. Instead of defining our own priorities and shaping our own identities, we have started to compare our lives with others. Our vision has become limited and we fail to see what lies beneath the icebergs. And all this leads to the uneasiness of the heart and roots in jealousy and hatred. Life at the moment might seem a bit unfair, the scales might not be in your favor at the moment but never forget that everyone in this world will be tested, we will be tested till the final breath escapes our lips.

And thus next time if you think that you are not fortunate enough or any sort of negative thought reminds yourself that perfection belongs to the Creator only, every human being is flawed.

Likewise, if you get carried away with the adornment of this world, try to remember that all the treasures belong to Allah (SWT) alone. You can never have more knowledge than He wishes for you to have, neither can you inherit a fortune if He doesn’t desire. Every blessing that we have is by the grace of Allah (SWT).

If we start living our lives on this ideology that Allah (SWT) puts everyone through different trials and that Dunya can be unjust and full of hardships at times but there surely is payback for everything, we surely will become a more understanding and tolerant society.

Maybe if we start looking at things on a deeper level we’ll realize that there are multiple dimensions to peace, happiness, and success. Every one of us is a story with some chapters smooth and happy while others rough and yet the last chapters of our lives remain a mystery till the very end. We need to remind ourselves that people are more than what they appear to be. And maybe with this very idea, we can become better human beings and elevate our ranks in the sight of Allah.

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