Page 100 - Commonly Disregarded Qur'anic Rulings

98 COMMONLY DISREGARDED QURANIC RULINGS

REMEMBERING ALLAH WHEN
ONE FORGETS SOMETHING

Man is a being of imperfection, while Allah alone is self-suf-
ficient. This is because Allah created man with weaknesses.
One of man's weaknesses is forgetfulness; no one is free of it,
no matter how intelligent he may be.

Admitting this weakness makes one acknowledge his
dependence upon Allah. In a way, that is because a person can
claim to exist only through his memory. All the information
related to his identity, beliefs, deeds, pleasures, habits and way
of life are held in memory.
However, Allah may allow one to forget the end of the
sentence he is speaking, and, if He wills, can make him forget
his entire life in an instant. In order to be aware of himself,

man is in need of Allah, Who permits him to keep informa-
tion in his memory at every moment. If Allah should take a
piece of information from a person’s mind, he will have no
power whatsoever to retrieve it. In such a state of helpless-
ness, everyone should take refuge in Allah and seek His help:
… Remember your Lord when you forget, and say,
‘Hopefully my Lord will guide me to something clos-
er to right guidance than this.’ (Surat al-Kahf; 24)

Remembering something that one has forgotten and suc-
ceeding in any particular objective is possible only by Allah’s
will. Therefore, the only recourse is to pray for guidance.