In a Place Allah Has Made -Ruth Nasrullah

I spent the last week on vacation, hiking in and around Mammoth Lakes, California. I haven't had an actual vacation in a while, so it was welcome, although I discovered that my lungs don't adjust very well to higher altitudes; I spent a fair amount of time surprisingly short of breath as I clambered up hills!

One hike was particularly memorable. My family and I visited the Lower Falls on Mammoth mountain. We settled ourselves on some rocks and broke out lunch. We were the only hikers there and we sat for a while just enjoying the sound of the rushing water and the peacefulness. I looked around and said to my husband, “How can anyone look at this and not believe in a creator?” The persistence of the waterfall, the ants in their determined march, the moss waving in the still parts of the stream, the asymmetry of the rocks and their sturdiness, the blue of the sky, and all the hidden things I can't see. They all have a purpose and a nature, and all complement each other. I cannot create them – nor you, nor science, nor the greatest engineering minds. They cannot be created and without them we have nothing. People who miss the idea of a divine creator miss the whole purpose.

In Surah Ta-Ha, Allāh recounts the story of Moses. Pharaoh asks Moses and his brother Aaron to tell him who their lord is. Moses answers:

“Our Lord is He Who gave to each (created) thing its form and nature, and further, gave (it) guidance.”
(Pharaoh) said: “What then is the condition of previous generations?”
He replied: “The knowledge of that is with my Lord, duly recorded: my Lord never errs, nor forgets,-
He Who has, made for you the earth like a carpet spread out; has enabled you to go about therein by roads (and channels); and has sent down water from the sky.”

And Allāh reminds us:

With it have We produced diverse pairs of plants each separate from the others.
Eat (for yourselves) and pasture your cattle: verily, in this are Signs for men endued with understanding.
From the (earth) did We create you, and into it shall We return you, and from it shall We bring you out once again.

Dhuhr time came and my husband found a big flat rock for us to pray on. After contemplating where I was and how it affected me spiritually, it was an amazing experience to pray in that place amidst the buzz and hum and splash of His creation. Bowing to Allāh with my face against the rock He made, my prayer that afternoon was intense and complete.