Just the other day, I had the rudest awakening of my life to date – my daughter fell head first out of her pram! As her mother, I should’ve known better than to leave her unattended in a pram that had no front bar to keep her from falling out. But experience had taught me that she was fairly safe in this pram with its makeshift ‘safetybar’ made from a long piece of elastic material and a very long scarf. Experience taught me that winding the scarf around the sides of the pram made for a good barrier that she had, until that moment, had no trouble with. In fact, just five seconds prior I had check on her and having ascertained that she was okay, I turned my back and attention to the food once more.
“BANG!” I twirled around so fast and jumped to her frantically trying to lift her from the ground. Her legs, having been held in place by the elastic, had kept her from falling out completely and so in my panic I couldn’t figure out how to ‘set her free’. So instead, I sat her up in her pram and held her in my arms for the longest of times. Long after her cries had subsided, I still found myself holding onto her for dear life realising it was I who needed more consoling. When I eventually let go, I scrutinised her beautiful face searching for signs of an emerging blister, for a knock that hard must have caused some damage at least. Thankfully, it didn’t, but I still kept checking every once in a while just in case. As I sat holding my daughter in my arms, I chided myself for not having known better, for not tying the scarf tighter, for not making a greater effort to get a proper safetybar for her pram. And in the confusion I realised that this had to happen to teach me that my experience isn’t everything.
You see, for the past year of my daughter’s life, this pram was all she knew. She became active at a very young age and still the ‘temporary safety mechanism’ on her pram had served her well. There were however days when she was too active to be in her pram (for safety reasons, ofcourse) but this particular day, she was extremely content. What made this scenario so much more intense was the fact that all the usual ‘today’s a bad pram day’ signs weren’t present. I realised then that life was much the same. Oftentimes we rely on our experiences or those of others to determine what’d be the best practice in said scenario, forgetting that experiences may differ according to the person, place, time and various other factors.
Just like my pram experience, I came to realise that I cannot keep basing my life’s decisions solely on ‘experience’, because at some point or another age old experience leaves us hanging or sends us down a dark and narrow path from which some never escape. Just like the pram’s safetybar (and probable instruction manuel), our lives too have come with a safetybar and instruction manuel, these being our belief in God and Qur’an and sunnah respectively. You see, it is our belief in God Almighty that motivates us to seek out that which pleases him and and to abstain from that which doesn’t resulting in a life of contentment despite the difficulties. And it is the combination of Qur’an and sunnah that directs us towards that which pleases and displeases our Lord and how best to go about attaining His pleasure. And if ever we felt overwhelmed by life’s challenges and thought we, mere mortals, could never live a life of such obedience to our Lord, then the life of our prophet ﷺ is proof that it can be done. I’ve come to see the wisdom behind needing an instruction manuel to guide us through what we think we already know of life.
How amazing is it that this way of life called Islam guides us through every sphere of our lives, instructing and aiding us in doing things the right way first time round. How fortunate we are to be believers in and followers of this faith, having the peace of mind that the guidance revealed to us from up above had been perfectly designed to guide and protect us on our path towards God.
Experience taught me that experience isn’t everything.