You Won't Get Lost in the Crowd

Don't you love having a friend who makes you feel special, as if you're the most important person to them? Someone who won't neglect you for others? Don't you value this friend's support in tough times? I think you've noticed that just sharing your worries with an understanding and caring friend brings you comfort and relief.

I once asked my older brother, 'Do you have a quarter of an hour to talk about a problem?' He replied, 'I'm all yours!' These words overwhelmed me, and I found comfort in them.

This is how we are... we want someone who understands us, who shares our pains and hopes. Just their presence brings us peace... What if they could solve our problems?! How much more at ease our hearts would be then...

On the other hand, you may feel lost when others compete for this friend's attention... you fear they might distract them from you.

Perhaps you know this feeling if you have many siblings competing for one father, or a sister-in-law competing for one husband, or colleagues competing for one teacher... the father, husband, or teacher is no longer just yours or just yours alone... you might be forgotten or overlooked in the crowd of others.

So, examine yourself! Has a feeling like this ever crept into you regarding: Your Lord, Glorified and Exalted be He?! I won't ask about your intellectual convictions, for they reject such thoughts without a doubt... But a person may harbor deep-seated anxieties that cause them distress without knowing the source, including this anxiety... that you are lost before Allah in the crowd!

Here's a comforting and reassuring truth: Allah, Glorified and Exalted be He, is aware of you, close to you, knows your worries, hears your supplication, rejoices in your repentance, and manages your affairs... All this as if you were the only one in this universe, with no one else sharing your place! Haven't you seen His saying: ((You did not create them except as one soul. Indeed, Allah is Hearing and Seeing (28))) (Luqman...) Ibn Kathir said: (Hearing their words, seeing their deeds, as His hearing and sight are to a single soul). Similarly, in the sacred hadith: (O My servants, if the first of you and the last of you, and all of mankind and jinn, were to stand together in one place and ask Me, and I were to give each one what he asked for, it would not decrease what I have, any more than a needle decreases the ocean). Glory be to Him who is not distracted by one supplicant over another, nor by one distressed over another... ((Whether you whisper or speak aloud or conceal yourselves by night or go forth by day (10))) (Ar-Ra'd)... So, no one is lost in the crowd with Him. You won't get lost in the crowd... Rather, you can imagine as if you are calling upon Allah alone, and He hears you alone... And the meanings of some of His beautiful names manifest in His Lordship over you as if you were alone... Thus, His mercy, closeness, forgiveness, kindness, generosity, patience, forgiveness, response, love, guidance, righteousness, mercy, provision, sufficiency, protection, gentleness, and bounty will appear in you... They will appear and continue to appear in you as if you were alone in this universe... therefore, you won't get lost in the crowd. Notice how Allah, Glorified and Exalted be He, singled out the word (the caller) in His saying: ((And when My servants ask you concerning Me - indeed I am near. I respond to the call of the caller when he calls upon Me)) (Al-Baqarah 186)... In this singling out, there is an indication of His attention to your supplication, which may not be present in the plural (the callers if they call upon Me)... It is not a general, collective response to the callers, such that His response to most of them would suffice for responding to each of them individually... Rather, He responds to your call as if you were alone, even if at the same moment, billions or countless numbers of humans, jinn, and angels were calling upon Him. Similarly, His saying: ((Or who responds to the distressed one when he calls upon Him)) (An-Naml 62)... Each distressed person is alone as if he were alone... ((And your Lord would never forget (19:64)))... Glorified be He, for this is His nature: ((And not an atom's weight in the earth or in the sky escapes your Lord nor what is smaller than that or greater but that it is in a clear record (10:61))). So, call upon Allah, seek His help, find comfort in Him, and contemplate the effects of His names and attributes in yourself, and remember His provision as if you were alone... And always remember: You won't get lost in the crowd.