Reflect and Resolve

“With the passing (or pressing) of Time,

The Glorious Qur’an, Chapter 103

This is one of the shortest chapters found in the Qur’an and is frequently recited by heart and reflected upon by every observant Muslim throughout the world. It’s meaning and wise insight crosses faith and cultural boundaries.

As Time passes and/or presses upon us, we lose our way, orientation, or focus. How many of us stayed the course of this past year’s resolutions? These verses from Qur’an suggest that we will lose sight of our best aspirations in life if we don’t embrace and emulate four dispositions: strong faith, great acts of goodness, a commitment to sharing truth, and a constancy of purpose with patience.

A new year is upon us and, with it, the time to reflect upon 2011 and to envision into the future that 2012 brings. Time is not to be worshipped, but it must be respected. Time, by the Will of God, presses and squeezes human experiences out of us, through us, and into us. None of us is the exact same person we were this time last year. We have lived a year of loss and gain, delight and regret, success and failure, and all the shades of circumstances in between, and we have changed. We have been influenced, affected, and transformed for better or worse, as has the world and everyone around us. Yet, we have not been powerless victims of fate, events, or time. We have had choices of commission and omission, decisions of involvement or avoidance, and opportunities of growth or neglect.

So as we look back and reflect on 2011 and send ahead resolutions for 2012, let us not forget to examine the time and condition that we have the most influence upon, which is the present. Do I presently have faith? And what is it that I really believe? Am I doing good? And to whom, for whom, and why? Do I care about truth? Do I speak, listen, and share truth? And what, whose, or which truth? Am I consistent and patient? Is my consistency merely surrendering to the status quo or is my patience just stagnancy?

Reflection and resolutions have great benefit and worth, but to harvest their benefits we must embrace and be, in the present, the person we wish we had been in the past and the one we hope that we will be in the future, and may that person be the best of our own selves. Blessed New Year.