After an absence of several weeks, despite having shut your room, you will find on your return that a layer of dust has settled over everything. Until the room has been dusted, you will not feel like sitting in it, so displeasing is all this dust. It is just as unpleasant as the dust that is blown in your face by a strong wind. It makes you long for the air to be still once again, so that you may be spared the irritation.
But what is this dust that we find so annoying? It is, in fact, a surface layer of fertile soil, the very substance which enables the growth of all forms of vegetables, fruits and cereals. If this soil did not lie on the face of the earth, it would be impossible for us to live on the earth at all.
It is this same dust that makes the earth’s atmosphere dense enough for water to vapourise, forming clouds which release a downpour of water to revive and replenish the earth. Without rain, there would be no life on earth, and rain is only possible because of the dust in the earth’s atmosphere.
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan is an Islamic spiritual scholar who has authored over 200 books on Islam, spirituality, and peaceful coexistence in a multi-ethnic society.
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