I had a very interesting experience watching the sunrise over Georgian Bay.  Georgian Bay is such a special place, masha’Allah, with its granite cliffs, crystal clear water, windswept pines… 

As I was there, it occurred to me that these beautiful granite cliffs have a very violent past. They were born out of the violence of volcanic eruption and then were shaped by thousands of tons of ice and stone as the glaciers were retreating at the end of the ice age.   The water I was looking at probably came from space…that cold empty void full of radiation. The soft sand of the beaches were actual stones pounded into soft sand.  In short, it took a lot of work to create this beauty.

Forget coming and dropping litter, or breaking branches, or ending one of the million heartbeats that live in that environment…  

I have not put enough effort into making myself beautiful.  What a grace upon me it is to be allowed to even witness this beauty. Even the feeling of being a medieval peasant who was invited to a dinner of kings does not really come close to describing this encounter with Allah’s creation.  

While in the past when being in nature I always thought about Allah’s attributes of creative power, His Beauty and love of beauty, but that day it was His Generosity. 

How Generous is He to let me see that scene and how Generous is He in His gentle reminder to me to get busy with beautifying my inner image and the actions that emanate from it.  

May Allah adorn us all with the attributes of virtue and cleanse and keep us away from us the attributes of vice.  Amin.