Benediction

’Stay Blessed.’ vs. ‘May God Bless you.’

I’ve noticed more and more people in the Muslim Community offering their benediction in the form of ‘Stay Blessed!’ rather than saying ‘May Allah (The One, Unique, Indivisible God) Bless you.’

Why?

I don’t want to stay blessed on my own because I *can’t* stay blessed on my own. I have *no* ability or power on my own and neither do you. You and I, are in abject and desperate need of the Blessings of the Lord of the Worlds.

In America, we even have automobile number plates with the slogan ‘In God we Trust’. I know so, because I have one. In America, every dollar bill and coinage reads ‘In God we Trust’, as mandated and signed into law by American President Dwight Eisenhower in 1955. In America, every President ends their public address with ‘God Bless you and May God Bless the United States of America’.

Despite the fact that in the zeitgeist of the times we live in, religion is ‘uncool’, ’untrendy’ and very much ‘out of fashion’, God, The Supreme Creator, the Lord of the Worlds, to Whom we belong and to Whom we shall return to, is very much part and parcel of the American discourse and the American way of life. I’ve always attributed the success of the United States of America as a world power, in large part, to this awareness of the Divine.

So it begs the question, how can human beings ‘stay blessed’ without the Divine, if you are a believer in the Divine?

As Muslims, we know that we are created from the earth and we shall return to the earth. We have no power or blessings on our own. To eliminate God from the discourse, is the height of ingratitude to the Supreme Creator. Moreover, even if we are addressing those who are atheistic or agnostic, it doesn’t matter whether they believe in God or not, because we do. From our belief system, we are asking Our Lord to Bless them, regardless of their beliefs, because The Creator matters to us and His Creation matters to us. We want for our brothers and sisters in humanity, what we want for ourselves. Perhaps the blessing that God will bestow upon them is the straight path back to Him, not the path of those who are misguided, or the ones who are astray.

Dear Muslims, we don’t remove the Divine from ANY equation in ANY aspect of life on earth. The Divine *is* the life of a Muslim because that is what it means to be a ‘Muslim’ - to submit our will to His Will. So please, please, please, stop saying ‘Stay Blessed’ and take a moment to add God back to the equation that He should never have been removed from in the first place.

Words matter, expressions matter, language matters. The Divine Matters. This is better for all of us. It is the way of All the Prophets, from Adam to Noah, to Abraham, to Moses, to Jesus, and to Muhammad, the Seal of the Prophets and all the other prophets in between the ones mentioned. May God’s Peace and Blessings be upon all of them.

For verily, it is only in the remembrance of God, do hearts find ease, rest, tranquility and contentment. This is the Divine Equation to success in this life and the next one.

And Allah and the Messenger know Best

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Reflecting on Nisa 4:1

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