Tariq Mehanna
In Surat al-Baqarah, v.21-22; Allah Says: {" O Mankind! Worship your Lord Who Created you and those who were before you so that you become pious; Who has made the Earth a resting place for you and the sky as a canopy..."}
What you can come away with from these verses is that if your faith is weak, at a low point, a quick way to strengthen it is to look at two things: yourself and your surroundings. Set aside maybe fifteen minutes of your day to just sit and think about the wonder of your own anatomy, and you will find your attachment to Allah becoming gradually stronger throughout the rest of your day.
From a single microscopic clot of sperm & egg, your body was formed and composed into bones, nerves, blood vessels, flesh, skin, etc. Organs that are external and organs that are internal, each and every one - large and small - has its own appearance, dimensions, and location in order to fulfill its own specific function.
Look, for example, at your skeleton. It is composed of hard bones that grew out of that liquid sperm clot. Look at how it supports your body, and how each bone is unique with its own function and appearance. Some are large, some are small, some are long, some are short, some are round, some are hollow, some are wide, some are narrow, some are dense, and some are light. Think about the mere fact that your skeleton is not simply one large single bone, in which case you would be prevented from any movement. Instead, you have hundreds of bones, each connected through joints in such a precise manner to allow you the movements you make throughout your day ... each group of bones designed by Allah to allow for a specific set of movements. Look at how each bone sticks to the adjacent one through a ligament, and look at the manner in which the edge of one bone is a ball that fits perfectly into the socket of its neighbor, allowing fluidity in movement that seems effortless.
Look at your muscles, of which there are hundreds in your body, each made of flesh, nerves, and tendons, and each located and designed in such a manner to fulfill a very precise set of functions, and each one necessary in its own right to help carry out that specific function. More than two dozen muscles are involved in the movement of your eyelid alone. If just one of the muscles was missing, you would be unable to open your eyes at all! Likewise, each organ in the body has its own group of muscles specific to it, without which it would be useless. The eyelid itself is a wonder, perfectly placed to protect the eye from dust and excess light.
Look at the eyes themselves, composed of the most delicate retina, fovea centralis, optic nerve, sclera, vitreous humour, lens, iris, and cornea - all working together to help you read these words, to observe the heavens, to enjoy the stars and clouds and colors and plants and animals that you set your sights on regularly. All of this takes place without thought or effort on your part.
Look also at your ears, how they are designed and structured with the crevices that cause any sound that comes your way to collect and concentrate toward the eardrum, to be heard clearly.
Look at your tongue, that muscle that allows you to express outwardly what you are thinking and feeling. Look at how your mouth is beautified with teeth that re lined up symmetrically. Some of these teeth bite, others are meant to chew and grind. Each tooth has its own function and purpose. Your lips seal your mouth, give it color, and allow you to distinctly pronounce and differentiate between the letters in the words you wish to speak. Allah fashioned your larynx to allow the sound carrying those words to emanate from your throat; each larynx distinct between the human race to allow a listener to recognize who he is listening to. All of this involves intricate details, processes, and wonders that would take too long to delve into here.
Look at you hand, how it is able to fulfill its purposes. Look at the flatness of your palm, your five fingers, four all to one side opposite the thumb that stands alone, in order to allow that thumb access to all other fingers. There is simply no other way to design the hand that would allow it to fulfill its purpose, none at all. Imagine if all five fingers were adjacent to one another, all on the same side. How would you even write a sentence?
Then look at something as seemingly insignificant as your fingernails, which serve to beautify your fingers (imagine nail-less fingers/ toes), provide a sort of spine for them, and allow you to pick at things that you would otherwise be helpless to access. How many times have your fingernails helped in snapping open a can of soda or scratching an itch on your arm or leg? Such an unnoticeable and seemingly insignificant part of your body would leave you helpless in many ways were it to be absent.
All of this and more makes up the wonder that is your body - all of this grew out of a single liquid microscopic clot. All of this is you, and you are just one of billions of humans living among countless other creatures on this one planet that is orbiting a run-of-the-mill star in an ordinary galaxy of which there are billions in a universe that is constantly expanding. The wonders of this universe and its stellar miracles are such that it would not be just to even attempt to summarize them here. It cannot be random, all of this.
All of this was an effortless creation of Allah, the Creator. He points in these two verses of al-Baqarah to i) ourselves, and ii) our surrounding to build up our desire to worship Him: {" O Mankind! Worship your Lord Who Created you and those who were before you so that you may become pious; Who has made the Earth a resting place for you and the sky as a canopy..."}
So, whenever you feel slacking in your faith and worship, and just don't feel that sweetness and energy, look through an anatomy book or do a Google Photos search for images from the Hubble Telescope, and just think for a while.
