The Story of the Ruined Painting
“If Allah knows any good in your hearts He will give you something better than what has been taken from you and He will forgive you and Allah is ever forgiving, most merciful.” (Qur’an 8:70)
There was a painter who was painting a huge painting of the skyline from the roof of a high rise. After months of pouring his heart and soul into every brush and stroke of his painting he decided to invite his best friend to watch on the day the final touches would be made. In order to capture the grandness of the painting and make a few last minute adjustments the painter slowly started to walk backwards. Every step revealed more and more of what had become the most magnificent painting he had every created. His friend watched the painter walk away from his painting noticing he was heading for the edge of the building. At first he thought his friend was aware of the ledge, but then he saw that the painter was so focused on his painting that he had lost track of his surroundings completely. He waved his hands, jumped, and screamed but the noise of the wind was too loud and the painter was unconscious to anything other than the picture in front of him. Two more steps and he would fall off the building so his friend in desperation took a bucket of paint and threw it on the painting.
The painter screamed as he ran away from the ledge towards his friend in rage! But before the painter grabbed him, his friend pointed to the ledge and said, "It was the only way to get you to not fall off the building!" The painter turned behind him with his heart racing and walked towards where he was standing and noticed he dropped his paint brush not even 6 inches from the edge. When he realized that his obsession with his painting had almost killed him he sat down and cried. After a few minutes he lifted his head and smiled at his friend and now he only saw beauty in his once ruined painting because now "the mistake" was less a disaster and more a symbol of true love.
I relate this story to Allah, because often to save us he has to break the picture of something we love or are attached too. If we knew why He "threw a bucket of paint" on the picture of some of our dreams we would see the beauty behind the action, but often we are stuck in the initial anger in a whirlwind of pain always asking why. Everything Allah does is out of His Mercy.As the Qur’an says, ”But perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you; and perhaps you love a thing and it is bad for you. And Allah Knows, while you know not." (02:216) Trust that Allah will never throw a bucket of paint on your plans unless it is to save you from yourself. True peace lies in never holding onto anything mortal tighter than we hold on to God. If you are tired of pain, stop getting attached to things that pass away. After all, everything that is mortal is by its very definition a veil before an immortal God. Trust that the spirit inside of you cannot be shattered, only the mortal illusions of this world can be broken and burned; so let the wild fires of Divine Decree burn every ounce of your ego until it is transformed into compost for the garden of faith that has been dying to come to life.