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With much happening and changing in Bermuda, and not all being bad, but a lot not being good, the strains of it all can have an effect on one without one even realizing it. 

I had such an experience recently — I was so in need — I needed comfort and help in everything … finances, health, spiritual encouragement; you name it … I needed it — just about everything to lift my spirits. I was truly on a downward spiral. I couldn’t eat nor sleep, I could just about think. 

My twisting and turning in the small hours of the night was almost unbearable. I called out for relief and the answer came to me — with a very soft whispering — ‘pray’. And that I did. Allah says in His noble book (Chapter (2) surat l-baqarah: And when My servants question thee concerning Me, then surely I am nigh. I answer the prayer of the suppliant when he crieth unto Me. 

So let them hear My call and let them trust in Me, in order that they may be led aright. Prayer So I got up from my restless bed and in the fashion of a Muslim, I made wudo (ablution) and began to pray, prostrating in humbleness before my Lord. I prayed “O Allah, knower of my condition, in you I seek refuse and relief. 

Relief from the harshness of mankind, relief from the atrocities I place on my own soul”. Upon finishing my prayer, I felt so light, so relieved, so free of burden … my head hardly hit the pillows, before I was in blissful sleep. Yes, in the words of Mahalia Jackson: “Faith and prayer are the vitamins of the soul; men cannot live in health without them.” 

Oh yes, my unhealthy soul needed to reach out in prayer to an all-hearing God to make me healthy again. Somehow my prayers put me at ease, I already knew that God would help me and relieve me of the burdens I had, but I had to wait in faith for His responses. This is the test of faith. 

No answer The next day came and went and my anxieties were still at bay, but on the third day, I began to feel a bit of anxiety settling in, because none of my prayers had been really answered — so knowing God’s promise is true and He invites us, no implores us to come to Him for all our needs — I waited in faith. 

Well, low and behold, the answer came around 7pm that evening, in a way that I had never expected — but it came. Praise God, it came. 

Unbelievable, I thought, prayer, patience and faith really do work. How grateful I am, I can’t stop talking about how grateful I am. My God is so amazing and I benefit from His awesomeness; O’ Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful! 

How can I show my immense gratitude to my most merciful God? Allah wants us to know him not only in adversity, but in good times as well, so a part of showing our gratitude for all that Allah does for us is to continue to pray, believe, have faith and be steadfast in Him at all times; good, bad or ugly. Ameen. 

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