On Finding God in Perpetual Days and Nights
One day, shortly before Ramadan began, my family’s idle chatter over a weekend lunch broached on the topic of the challenge faced by Muslims fasting while living in Canada’s Northwest territories.
My father thoughtfully recounted two verses of the Quran that made him think of this geographical phenomenon:
. . . If Allah were to make the night perpetual over you to the Day of Judgment, what god is there other than Allah, who can give you enlightenment? Will ye not then hearken? (28 : 71)
. . . If Allah were to make the day perpetual over you to the Day of Judgment, what god is there other than Allah, who can give you a night in which ye can rest? Will ye not then see? (28 : 72) *
It’s not part of the universal human condition to experience endless nights or endless days, blazing midnight suns or brunches by candlelight. The strangeness of places where this is a reality, my father was suggesting, is in itself a sign from God, no different from the way nature and seasons and the delicate balance of the human body’s system are signs from God. “See how it is when the night or day is perpetual? It’s Me who makes it otherwise,” Allah is telling us.
SubhanAllah. Makes you think.
* Translation by Yusuf Ali
I really like how you brought attention to the phenomenon of almost 24 hours of sunshine or darkness, because if they weren’t there, we would be left wondering how God would make that happen. There are indeed signs of His power all around us, and may HE bless us with the right insight and frame of mind to wholeheartedly and permanently accept Him as our one and only Lord. Ameen 🙂
Wow, that is really not something I’d considered, but that would be a difficult decision to make, how to fast, what time to use, and so on. It would also come up eventually when the sun may never rise, with Ramadan in the winter. I absolutely love the bit you shared, by the way, in your post on The Butterfly Mosque. I am thinking of it now and how it causes you to be separate from seasons. Lovely.