An Alien Conversation

Today I had an extremely deep conversation… about aliens.

So there we were, my husband and I, sitting across from each at the kitchen table, bright streaks of Mauritian sunshine streaming in through the window, enjoying breakfast together in those few stolen moments in which our 1-year-old played excitedly with his grandmother in the lounge.

I took a bite from my bread and he took a bite from his. I looked at him ever-so-seriously and I just came out with what was in my head at that particular moment.

“Did you know that there might be an extra two planets in our solar system bigger than the Earth?”

“Nuh-uh,” he replied through a mouth full of bread and guava jam. “Where did you hear that?”

“I read it online this morning. So basically, there might be an extra two planets but then you have to minus one from our current solar system as we know it, ’cause Pluto isn’t a planet anymore, according to them innit – it’s a dwarf planet or something…”.

So anyway, there we were, the two of us discussing this new piece of information I’d discovered earlier that day, when suddenly I stopped, put down my freshly-baked-that-morning piece of bread and in a Luna Lovegood-esque way – (if you don’t know Luna Lovegood and therefore don’t know Harry Potter then I’m sorry, but we just can’t be friends) – I proclaimed, “It’s amazing isn’t it, it’s just so, so amazing…

“It’s like there’s this entire universe out there that we don’t know about. Our solar system is a speck in our galaxy, our galaxy is a speck in that universe and our planet, an even tinier speck in everything. And then, then you get us, people, and we’re nothing. We’re like fragments of dust but even smaller in the largeness and the complexity of things. If you try and think about it, you just can’t – it’s like, totally mindblowing.”

I then continued on while my husband (God bless his soul) just listened to me in his peaceful way, nodding his head as I spoke out in fascination and wonderment.

It really, really does amaze me though – our universe and how God has created everything in a way that it fits, everything just fits, like holy clockwork.

I went on expressing my thoughts to the man who had taken me as his for the rest of his life (poor sod!), who calmly sat back taking in all I had to say, when I decided to express loudly my views on extra-terrestrial life: that other life on other planets must exist – it must, it must, it must.

“There has to be other beings out there, other worlds out there that harbour life. We know nothing of this universe, nothing! And if there is, well there must be, but if there is I wonder if they too have the word of God – you know like we have the Bible and the Qur’an…”.

He finally spoke again and the words he said this time just completely blew me away.

“Al-hamdu lillahi rabbil’alamin… Praise be to Allah, The Lord of ALL the worlds and all that exists.”

 And yes, it’s true. Allah says in the Qur’an that He is Lord of all the worlds, of all of creation, of everything that exists – so how can we deny how little we actually know and are aware of?

Jinn live alongside us – we know that. Angels exist and the devil exists – we too, know that. But yet there is so much that exists because of Him and for Him that He hints at, but which we cannot see or touch; so much that we are oblivious too; so much unknown to us that He has created for the same purpose as us… But yet, we do not know. And we do not reflect.

My husband then snapped me back to reality and to the moment we were currently in, saying, “But we are here on THIS planet, as people in THIS lifetime. It’s good to think about because yes, other dimensions, worlds and beings do exist but it is important not to dwell on it too much ’cause it is that which can drive people crazy.”

I knew he was right.

Later that day however, I couldn’t get the conversation we had shared about aliens out of my head. But less so the alien part. Instead, my mind had focused on the part about us, people, and how we are such minute beings in a universe that is so astronomically massive.

And then I got to thinking… We are such tiny, tiny beings in such a massive universe, yet Allah revealed to our dear Prophet (pbuh):

“The Heavens and the Earth cannot contain Me, but the heart of a true believer can.” [Hadith Qudsi]

Let me just allow that to sink in for a second. Wow, just wow.

Does that not tell you of our potential as human beings? We may be small in the grand scheme of things but we are capable of incredible things. More than anything, we are capable of containing Allah inside ourselves, inside our hearts – how absolutely breathtaking is that when you try and absorb it?

These words show the proximity we can have to our Lord in THIS lifetime, before we move on to the next. These words show that although we may be small, there is indeed too, a universe itself and more inside each of us – a universe which many of us tend to neglect.

So I say this today: despite being microscopic creatures existing on a floating rock in the middle of space, we are extremely powerful and complex individuals with worlds and worlds of energy and light to discover just within ourselves. Rather than focusing on the external and looking outside for scraps of fulfilment, take some time to reflect on God’s words and begin to discover the worlds that lie within.

Making the conscious choice to take this journey of self-discovery will inevitably take you on the journey of discovering the most Magnificent of them all, of everything: Allah, the owner of my heart – the only thing in this crazy, mindblowingly HUGE universe, that can contain Him.