The 'concept of sin' thread got me thinking about who we are and the challenges that are put before us. In particular, a verse alalmakt posted:
23:62 And We do not burden a soul except with what it can bear. And We have a record that speaks with the truth, they will not be wronged.
Reminds me of this story I heard once. A boy and his parents visited a poor city in a third world country. The boy was visibly upset over how many poor people there were, particularly poor children. The boy saw a particular poor boy begging for money, and asked his mother, "why do I get food and he doesn't?"
I think it's a key question; one which we all ask ourselves at some point. The basic question of "Why am I me and not someone else?" We're so used to being 'me' that we rarely stop to think, "did it have to be this way?"
Though it's been overused, I've always liked the Teilhard de Chardin quote: "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." We are not our physical bodies. Rather, we are souls who use our physical bodies as tools to experience this particular plane of existence. This is made abundantly clear when the qur'an speaks of a life we had before this one (see, e.g. 33:72).
So the question naturally arises: if we are not just who we are in this particular life, then who are we? And why were we given this particular life? Surely it's not just 'the luck of the draw.'
Speaking personally, I am an Iranian male who was born in the United States to a particular set of parents, with a younger brother. It's absolutely astonishing how much of my life and its various challenges have been dictated by those few simple facts. I was given, and am given, certain luxuries because of my lot in life, much of which was out of my control. I was just born into it. But why? Why wasn't I born, say, into a female body in Bangladesh? Nothing happens for no reason, so we have to assume it relates back to the verse alalmakt posted: everyone is given a different set of challenges, based on their lot in life. God does not predestine our lives for us, but I firmly believe He does place each soul into a particular human body, knowing the set of experiences the soul will have to confront at different points in his or her life. The key is in how the soul responds to the experiences.
This isn't just some intellectual exercise. When thinking about these issues, and framing the things that happen to me through this perspective, I've found I'm much more likely to be thoughtful about how I'll approach a particular problem. Whereas before, when some person did something negative to me, I'd get upset and wonder "why me?" now I often think differently. My antennae go up and I think "ah yeah, there's a reason for this; my whole life has been leading up to this point."
I know it sounds hoky but when thinking about your life experience in these terms, instead of cursing those who harm you, you learn to actually thank them for giving you the opportunity for growth. Without those negative roles in your life, you'd have no chance to evolve. You were meant to cross paths, so that they would be blessings in disguise for you.
Maybe, e.g., you were born to particularly harsh parents, who you feel oppress you. Instead of wondering why you got unlucky, sit back and think about the situation as objectively as possible. Why did this happen? Perhaps they personify a test of patience for you. Maybe your particular spiritual growth would be accelerated through patience, through learning to speak up for yourself, through confidence and courage, etc. The point is none of this is just pure dumb luck. People and situations intersect with us, for a reason. Something like who your parents are is obviously an indicator of a much bigger test, than, say, a casual acquaintance. But even that acquaintance may be the personification of some minor test for you.
This is nothing novel of course. The stories of the various prophets in the qur'an display this. The prophets are archetypes, parables of how individuals can react to different life situations. E.g. Job and Solomon are two poles on one spectrum; Solomon was given wealth and power, Job quite the opposite. Both had different routes in life, but both met the challenges and presumably arrived at a similar destination.
Post is already long-winded so I'll just say this. I think it'd be best if we conducted a thorough self-examination, asking ourselves why we are who we are. Why are we born into this particular family, into this specific environment, with this particular human body? There have to be reasons for this. And connecting those dots might just give us that much more of an edge when dealing with the various challenges that befall us.
