Knocking on the Door of Hope
Hope is a wondrous thing. Hope has single-handedly kept some people alive and held the fibers of their being from unraveling.
Sages have long debated the hierarchy of moral sentiment. Discussing with intent to crown a winner, whether patience or gratitude is the more superior spiritual state. Sorry to spoil it, but gratitude often ends up on top. Gratitude—with its satisfaction, embodiment, and love for God tends to trump patience. Though patience, too, can be beautiful.
I’d like to throw another contender into the ring—hope. Hope is hidden within patience and gratitude. It’s the thing that keeps you going when life feels unfair and keeps you striving when you could otherwise stagnate. Lining the robes of patience and gratitude is hope—hope in a Creator who means well, who can heal, fix, provide, and comfort. Hope is to attach yourself to as full of an understanding of God as your heart and mind can muster; and even, to hope that there is more to God than what our limitations can grasp.
I brought a flower back to life recently and I thought about hope. I was gifted an orchid that had long seemed dead. I kept it around, almost like a pet. I was sad that it died and upset with myself for not having taken better care of it. Out of self-pity and to honor it, I nursed it with water and sunlight as I should have done in life. And then something happened, the leaves began lengthening and three buds appeared. Two days ago the flower bloomed. Now maybe this is normal, but I didn’t know. From my vantage point and limited knowledge, hope was lost. I was nursing a dream. If I had given up on the flower, is it then that it would have died? If I’d stuck it on a shelf in a dim room, or tossed it away–would that have sealed its fate? I can’t bring things back to life. That flower was not truly dead; it only played dead. Life lay dormant, weakened but receptive.
“And will provide for them from an unexpected source; God will be enough for those who put their trust in Him. God achieves His purpose; God has set a due measure for everything. ”
I wonder: are all our hopes this way? If our dreams die, do they die of natural causes? Or, are we– given to despair, failing to tend to them–the ones left holding the dagger? Alongside the rousing call to maintain hope in Allah, exists the burden of accountability. We, as free agents, decide when to give up and when to persist. Few things in life are truly decided for us, this is part of the honor and gift of free will. The odds can be stacked against us here or the path can be laid out for us there. We are not omnipotent, but our ability to choose what to do and what to focus on is an incredible power. Persisting is not always virtuous and giving up is not always shameful. The state of the heart has much to say on where these actions fall on the spectrum of virtue. If one’s persistence is only possible by neglecting Allah, then they would do better to lay the matter down. Conversely, if one’s giving up is couched in an acknowledgment that their relationship with Allah would be better without their present burden, then what they are gaining is far better than what they are giving up.