Reflections on God’s Blessings

Smara, Morocco – When you sit in front of your computers, surf online, open a book, decipher alphabets of your native or foreign languages, think about millions of illiterate people who are lost between words, on maps, and who miss the unlimited joys and pleasures of being able to read and be educated.

When you open your mouth and find words flow out of it like a flowing spring of water, able to express your ideas, feelings and emotions, able to defend yourself, to blame and scold others, to produce phrases and sentences, remember all those speechless people who cannot say what they want, who fight against gestures in attempts to make us understand their intentions and meanings and who are unable to defend themselves in front of others. Be grateful to your teachers, parents, policemen or judges.

When you undress yourself, check your body and find that you have all the parts of the body others have, able to use your hands, feet, fingers, nose, eyes, thank your God for honing functioning parts of the body and do not forget to use them in a good way to serve the people who do not have the blessings you have. Use them well in good ways before you lose them.

When you get up every morning, able to stand up on your feet, walk where you wish to go, move ahead without needing the help of anyone to stand you up nor to walk, do thank your lord for this great gift and pray for all those disabled people who cannot make it to the toilet or to the kitchen, cannot visit their neighbors or relatives and those who cannot run if they are attacked by a thief, a criminal and enemy or an animal, and those who cannot escape danger, floods nor fire.

When you attend a funeral to bury a beloved friend, a person you know or you do not know, put yourself in his grave for a while and think of what you did with your mind, your hands, your mouth, your words, your wealth and your property. Think of what you would take with you when you die, and think of what your children will do with what you will leave behind. Get up from your sleep, and help the needy, eat and enjoy what God blessed you with as long as you can. Life is so short and you cannot take your wealth with you when you die.

As I was writing these lines in a café in Laayoune, in the south of Morocco, a friend of mine I have not seen for years stopped by to say hello. I asked him about his parents and he said that his mother had died recently. So, when you read these ideas, be sure you think about your mothers and fathers, call them if they are far from you, hug them if they are beside you and give them the best of what you have as long as they are alive.

When you think of your parents, be assured that they are a well of cold and sweet water that will be dry once they die. They can leave us or we can leave them at any moment and only then no words or expressions of regret will be useful nor would they make up for what we will be missing. Thirsty are those who have got their parents and didn’t drink from the well of their love.

When you open your eyes in the morning and you find yourself capable of seeing the sunset and the sunrise, able to see the people walking around, see the birds on the trees and the different colors of the different objects in your surroundings, able to distinguish between the little things and the big ones, between the white and the black and able to smell and to breathe, do not forget to make a prayer for your God for all these priceless blessings that no currency can buy.

When you think this way about the things you have and the things you do not have, the person you are and the person you are not, when your mind functions the way it should, consider yourself the king of the rich. A lot of people are crazy, mindless and are fools. They live on the roads aimlessly and with no direction sleeping in dirty places. They eat rubbish as wild animals. They do not know the night or the day. They do not know what to say or what to think. They do not know their friends or their enemies. They do not know their sisters, mothers or wives. Please, take a moment to reflect upon all these things and others unsaid and do not forget to pray for my grandmother who taught me that ‘we are better than a lot of people, and that a lot of people are better than us, May God help those we are better than.’