A tenant

One is a tenant. Indeed one is a tenant even if people knows one as an owner. One can possess a lot of things. One can have big businesses and several pieces of land. One says that one got it through one's sweat. Although these are the favours that one received from one's Creator. One was a tenant, one is a tenant and one will remain a tenant because it is Allah Ta'ala alone who is the real owner.

One must merely contemplate on the day when one will be under the ground, one will sleep on the soil and one will be covered with soil. Nobody will look at the colour of the soil. There will be insects and worms. But the people will leave one in the soil. It is a time and a moment when one will no more know what to do. There will be nothing besides the favour of Allah Ta'ala that can spare one from one's suffering. One's biggest mistake is that one is so ungrateful and proud that one no longer wants to accept that one is wrong when one claims to be the owner. But in reality, one is a tenant.

O my Rabb, my Creator! I acknowledge by Your favour that it is You alone who is the owner. I am incapable and I am poor. I am waiting for you to shower Your favours on me. Forgive my sins and my mistakes that I have committed without fear and shame.

[English version of "Locataire" – Al Jamiat – Vol. 5 No.13]