From Darkness to Light: Our Intention and Our Choices

30 October 2023

Looking at the Same Life with Different Eyes

Question: Can a person’s life change without their possessions changing?

Their home may be the same.

Their work may be the same.

The people they meet each morning may be the same.

But when their view of events changes, their relationship with all of these can change too.

A gain they once saw as the only concern may no longer occupy their entire life.

A responsibility they previously disregarded may become clear to them.

Verse 122 of Surah Al-An’am reminds us of someone who was dead, then brought to life and given a light by which to walk among people.

This account opens a powerful space for considering spiritual awakening.

When a light is given, it is not only the path before us that becomes visible.

Our own position on that path also becomes visible.

We recognize where we are walking.

We consider what we aim for.

We begin to see more carefully which behavior carries us in which direction.

The value of knowledge in our lives emerges here too.

We have not merely learned new words.

We can assess our old behavior with new care.

We may see our own mistake in an attitude we previously considered right.

Seeing this is sometimes uncomfortable.

Because people may not want to abandon an explanation they are used to.

Even so, recognizing one’s own mistake is not merely a loss.

It is an opportunity to turn toward a better action.

Becoming enlightened is not merely seeing someone else’s mistakes more clearly.

It is also being able to see our own intention and choice.

Is Everything That Appears Powerful Right?

Verse 123 of Surah Al-An’am raises the schemes and plots of the leading figures in societies.

Possessing power does not automatically make a person right.

A statement coming from someone powerful cannot be the sole measure of its truth.

Even knowing this, we can be easily influenced in daily life.

We see someone with many resources.

We compare our life with theirs.

Then, looking only at what they possess, we begin to diminish our own worth.

Yet quantity and value are not the same thing.

How a great resource is used matters.

Whom a seemingly small contribution benefits also matters.

When we assess an action only by its outward size, we may overlook its intention and effect.

Wanting more possessions can occupy all our thoughts.

Meanwhile, we may postpone what we can do with what we already have.

Question: While waiting for greater resources, do we forget the good we can do with today’s resources?

People should not turn the smallness of their contribution into a reason to do nothing.

Not everyone’s circumstances are the same.

Not everyone can carry the same burden either.

But seeing our own share is more useful than constantly looking at someone else’s.

As comparison grows, gratitude may diminish.

As other people’s lives become the standard, our own responsibility may become invisible.

Contentment does not mean stopping everything one has in hand.

It means not exhausting oneself through constant comparison.

Working and being grateful can coexist.

Wanting to advance and not resenting someone else’s resources can also coexist.

The problem grows when we set what someone else has against our own worth.

We should not determine our own path only by looking at their life.

Are We Turning Guidance into a Certificate of Superiority?

Verse 124 of Surah Al-An’am describes an attitude of wanting to receive what others have been given.

Sometimes, instead of concerning themselves with truth itself, people become preoccupied with whom it has reached.

Why them?

Why not me?

Jealousy and expectations of status may lie within this question.

If a statement is true, competing with the person who says it does not change the truth.

But sometimes this is precisely where the human self struggles.

Instead of accepting what is right, it wants to protect its own place.

This attitude is not found only in others.

We may see similar resistance in our own lives.

We may reject a warning because it comes from someone we did not expect.

We may belittle a mistake because we were not the first to notice it.

Yet learning does not allow us always to remain at the center.

Sometimes it requires listening.

Sometimes it requires accepting correction.

The reminder of guidance in verse 125 of Surah Al-An’am prompts us to consider how we receive this blessing.

Recognizing a good should not lead us to see ourselves above others.

Presenting guidance only as a reward for our own success should also be carefully questioned.

People can give thanks when they reach a truth.

But they cannot think they will never make another mistake.

They cannot consider themselves exempt from the need to question themselves.

Learning what is right does not lessen our need for humility.

On the contrary, it increases the responsibility of what we know.

The question of how we live with what we learn comes before us.

How we look at others also becomes important.

When we make knowledge a reason for superiority, we may prevent it from correcting us.

Within Which Actions Do We Seek Peace?

Verses 126 and 127 of Surah Al-An’am remind us of the straight path and the abode of peace.

Within these reminders is a connection with deeds.

Faith does not remain merely a definition we give of ourselves.

It becomes visible through our behavior.

Let us think about our daily lives.

There is a responsibility that falls to us at home.

There is a decision at work that touches someone else’s rights.

There is a promise of ours waiting to be kept.

If we see all these as insignificant details, we may narrow the expression of faith in our lives.

People do not make choices only in great moments.

They also reveal their direction within everyday tasks.

Do they put their own comfort first?

Do they think about shared responsibility?

When leaving a task to someone else, do they take that person’s burden into account?

Question: Does our comfort depend on someone else constantly becoming tired?

This question is meaningful for our family relationships too.

Saying we love may be easy.

But effort and responsibility are needed alongside love.

While valuing their own wishes, people may continually postpone the other person’s needs.

Then they seek peace in the relationship.

Yet we cannot consider our search for peace separately from our own behavior.

At the same time, tying every hardship we experience to a single spiritual judgment would not be right either.

Life’s circumstances and people’s experiences differ.

Our task here is not to make a definitive decision about another person’s inner world.

It is to look at our own behavior.

To see what we can correct.

To notice how a small change in our responsibility affects our relationship.

We should not withhold the truths our faith reminds us of from the people closest to us.

Where Do Appealing Words Lead Us?

Verses 128–130 of Surah Al-An’am raise the relationships between humans and jinn, accountability, and warning.

One point for people to consider is responsibility for their own choices.

A statement may appeal to us.

An offer may promise immediate results.

A behavior may provide short-term relief.

But pleasing us at first does not make its outcome right too.

Sometimes people see only the immediate gain.

They do not want to think about the distant cost.

So we should not look only at how an invitation sounds.

We should also consider which behavior it leads us toward.

Does it preserve our integrity?

Does it help us respect others’ rights?

Or does it make the wrong we want to do easier through embellished words?

Not every impressive account carries a sound standard.

Not every comforting explanation truly removes our responsibility.

Placing our own choice entirely upon someone else does not free us from this question either.

Someone may have said something to us.

We may have been influenced by an environment.

Even so, how we respond to the wrong we recognize today matters.

Having made a mistake in the past does not make continuing in the same direction necessary.

We can admit our mistake.

We can apologize.

We can turn toward our own part in changing our behavior.

We do not need to declare ourselves entirely worthless while doing so.

Taking responsibility and losing hope are not the same thing.

At the beginning, we asked whether the same life could change through a different perspective.

Now let us seek the answer to this question in our own choices.

How do we use our resources?

How do we carry the truth we have learned?

How do we act when our power increases?

What do we do when our mistake becomes visible?

When we see a difference between someone’s words and actions, we may easily become disappointed.

Seeing that difference in our own lives may be harder.

Because we find more justifications for ourselves.

We know our tiredness, fear, and expectations.

We see another person’s behavior only from outside.

So when assessing others, we can remember the care we show while trying to understand our own mistake.

This does not mean regarding wrong as right.

It means not making hasty and all-encompassing judgments about people.

The change we call enlightenment can touch this side of our perspective too.

When we do not place our own interests at the center of everything, another person’s burden becomes visible.

When we think of more than our earnings at work, the benefit of what we do also matters.

When we do more than state our expectations within the family, our own duty becomes clear.

These may not require grand words.

But they require regular care.

People cannot act rightly one day and then think all their responsibilities are complete.

Every day, they encounter new choices.

Every new resource brings another possible use.

Every difficulty may bring out another response.

So we must continually bring the truth we learn together with life.

We must see the difference between possessing knowledge and carrying it.

While reflecting on the blessing of guidance, our gratitude should also find a place in our behavior.

We can work without exaggerating our own power.

We can hope without minimizing our own mistake.

We can offer our contribution without becoming fixated on what others possess.

All these can make our intention clearer and our choices more responsible.

Question: Which step we take tomorrow will be changed by the light we see today?