You Will Never Be Lost in the Crowd

Don’t you love having a friend all to yourself—someone who makes you feel that you are theirs, that you are their closest companion, so devoted to you that no one else could ever distract them? Don't you feel the true worth of such a friend in times of hardship? You have likely noticed that simply unburdening your heart to a caring, empathetic friend brings an immediate sense of relief and solace.

I once asked my older brother, "Do you have fifteen minutes so I can talk to you about a problem?" He replied, "I am all yours!" Those words instantly warmed my heart and comforted me. That is how we are... we long to have someone all to ourselves—someone who truly understands us and shares our pains and hopes... Their mere presence is a source of reassurance, so imagine how profound that comfort is when they actually have the power to solve our problems?! How deeply settled our souls would feel then...

On the flip side, you might feel lost when others crowd around this friend... fearing they might draw their attention away from you. This feeling is familiar to anyone raised in a large family competing for a single father’s attention, a wife sharing a husband with a co-wife, or students competing for the attention of one teacher... The father, husband, or teacher is no longer yours alone; you fear being forgotten in the crowd.

Now, examine your own heart! Has such a feeling ever crept in regarding your Lord, the Almighty?! This is not a question about your intellectual convictions—for your mind undoubtedly rejects such a thought... Yet, deep within the subconscious, a person can harbor hidden anxieties that cause unexplained distress, including this silent fear: Have I been lost before God in the crowd!

Here is a comforting, reassuring reality: Allah, Glorified and Exalted be He, is fully aware of you, close to you, knows your sorrow, hears your supplication, rejoices in your repentance, and disposes your affairs... all as if you were the only creature in this universe, with no human or jinn sharing His attention with you!

Consider the words of the Almighty: “Your creation and your resurrection are only like that of a single soul. Indeed, Allah is Hearing and Seeing (28) Luqman..” Ibn Kathir commented: (He hears their words and sees their actions just as He hears and sees a single soul). Similarly, in the Hadith Qudsi: ("O My servants, if the first of you and the last of you, the humans of you and the jinn of you, were to stand on a single plain and ask of Me, and I were to grant every single one their request, that would not diminish what I possess any more than a needle diminishes the sea when dipped into it.") Exalted is He whom no suppliant distracts from another, nor one seeking help from another... “It is the same [to Him] whether any of you conceals his speech or declares it, and whether he is hidden by night or conspicuous by day (10)” (Ar-Ra'd)... No one is ever lost in the crowd with Him.

You will never be lost in the crowd... In fact, you can picture yourself praying to Allah as if you were calling upon Him alone and He were listening to you alone... as if the meanings of His Most Beautiful Names and His Lordship were manifested for you alone as though you were the only one... displaying within you the marks of Allah’s mercy, closeness, forgiveness, kindness, generosity, forbearance, responsiveness, love, guidance, benevolence, compassion, provision, sufficiency, protection, gentleness, and bestowal... displayed and will continue to be displayed in your life as though you were the sole inhabitant of this cosmos... Therefore, you will never be lost in the crowd. Notice how Allah used the singular form "the suppliant" (al-da'i) in the verse “And when My servants ask you concerning Me, indeed I am near. I respond to the invocation of the suppliant when he calls upon Me” (Al-Baqarah 186)... This singular phrasing conveys a personal care for your specific supplication that might not be as strongly felt had it been plural ("the suppliants when they call upon Me")... It is not a generalized, collective response where answering the majority suffices for each individual... Rather, He answers your personal prayer as if you were alone, even if billions—or countless numbers—of humans, jinn, and angels were calling upon Him at that exact same moment. Likewise, He says: “Is not He [better] who responds to the distressed one when he calls upon Him” (An-Naml 62)... each distressed person individually, as though they were the only one... “And your Lord is never forgetful” (Maryam 64)... Glorified is He, for such is His majesty: “Not absent from your Lord is an atom's weight within the earth or within the heaven or anything smaller than that or greater but that it is in a clear register (61)” (Yunus). So pray to Allah, hope in Him, find solace in Him, contemplate the effects of His Names and Attributes within yourself, and keep the awareness of His presence with you as if you were the only one...

And always remember: You will never be lost in the crowd.