Something to Love

When you find a book you love, or when you watch or listen to something that touches your soul, one of the things that makes it more enjoyable is sharing the experience with someone else. If you can’t find someone who already loves the experience as much as you do, the next best thing is to find someone who you think would enjoy it and introduce them to whatever it is you like so much. Either they become part of the fandom, or they won’t like it, in which case it is best to ignore what happened instead of trying to convince them further.

For most of the things I like, I am unable to find others to share the love with me. I am confined to the solitary experience of enjoying them alone. I remember the time I tried to explain my love for a particular Quranic supplication to my mother. I secretly called Prophet Musa’s supplication in Surah Qasas the “rags to riches” supplication, because his one sincere plea to Allah turned his circumstances from the absolute worst to settled and secure.

“My Lord! Truly, I am in need of whatever good that You bestow on me.” (28:24)

My love for this prayer deepened when I listened to its explanation. Being at a place in my life where I had to lay the foundation for my adulthood, the idea of having everything taken care of by Allah through sincere supplication greatly appealed to me. It was reassuring, and increased my sense of security. It is a prayer of desperation and need, and this is exactly our state in front of Allah. I felt like feelings I never knew I possessed had been translated into words in this prayer. I was excitedly describing it and my mother was doing her usual routine of being a good listener. When I finished, she said, “I didn’t get it at all, why you like it so much.” At first I took it a bit personally, but then I remembered that there was a supplication that my mother loved. She liked was the prayer for light, in which we ask Allah to bestow us with light in every aspect. I honestly don’t know why my mother likes it so much, and though she tried, she never really explained it to me either.

Ultimately, our experience of something is restricted to our particular perception of the world, so we can’t fully share it with someone. We can match our likes and dislikes, but not point to point. Somewhere along the line we are bound to differ. One shared experience that is unparalleled is a group of school friends all reading the same book at the same time. This usually happens when one particular book is popular. In my case it was Harry Potter, and every schoolbag had a copy of it inside. Chapter readings were compared and favorite scenes were gushed over. The one downside to this is someone or the other is bound to read ahead and spoil the book for the others. My school friends spoiled all the major deaths in the Harry Potter series for me, and it changed my experience of the books entirely.

There’s nothing quite like finding something to love to your heart’s content. It provides a way to explore your interests, discover your passions and spark your imagination. If you haven’t found something to love, it means you haven’t looked hard enough. And if you’ve looked hard enough and still haven’t found it, then create something you love yourself!