Life is Play

My daughter was building towers with blocks. Suddenly she decided to bring plastic forks from the kitchen and break the block towers with the help of a plastic fork. It seemed like a pointless activity, considering the tower could easy be disassembled with hands. Nonetheless, I was amazed to see her using her creativity and hoping for her to learn something new through it.

Suddenly I got reminded of the verse: “Know that the life of this world is but play and amusement…” Often we also get busy in a seemingly monotonous activity. That’s the nature of this world. For some people, it doesn’t go beyond that. But for the “ulul albaab” [people of insight and understanding], there are numerous opportunities to learn new lessons and increase in the “marifah” [understanding] of Allah SWT through the mundane. However, the ability to discover those lessons is reduced when the heart is tainted by sins and ghayrUllah. That’s not the case with innocent children though, and that’s why they are so quick at learning new things about the universe everyday!

I smiled at the pure soul playing in front of me 🙂