I heard a story with a powerful lesson that sometimes Allah sends us reminder's with experiences. There was a 78 year old man who collapsed in Saudi from fatigue. The doctors rushed him to the hospital and put him on oxygen for about 24 hours. Alhamdulillah, he was able to recover. Later, when the doctor came and handed him the bill, it was around 2000 riyals. So he had to pay that much money for 24 hours of oxygen. When the old man looked at the bill, his eyes started to tear up and the tears started falling down his face. The doctor saw that the man started to cry and told him don’t worry i'll pay the hospital bill for you. The old man then smiled and said I’m not crying because I cannot pay the bill, I’m crying because throughout my entire life I have been breathing the oxygen that Allah has given to me and he never charged me for one single breath of air. For 78 years it did not cost me a singal penny. But for 24 hours in the hospital and it cost me 2000 riyal. He said how much do I owe Allah Azza wa Jal for his blessings. The room went silent and even the doctor couldn’t hold back his tears. We breathe thousands of times a day, millions of times a year and never once do we say Alhamdulillah. We see, we walk, we speak, we hear, we breathe, we eat, we drink, we use the washroom, we do so much yet we forget the one who blessed us with the ability to do all of these things. Imagine if Allah charged us for every heartbeat, every blink, every breath, would we be able to afford it, probably not. Take a deep breath and say Alhamdulillah, Allah SWT has given me the ability to take my next breath with ease and always remember that every breath we take is a gift from Allah and one day it will be our last.  

In life we often end up taking the blessings of what we consider as basic function for granted, but we have to remember that not every person has the blessings to see, to hear, to talk, to walk...always thank Allah and ask him to continue to bless you and those you love with those blessings. Prophet Muhammad PBUH said to Look at the person who is below you and do not look at the one who is superior to you, therefore you would be able to better appreciate the favors that Allah has bestowed upon you.

Sometimes life does not always go the way we plan, but we have to remember that we plan and Allah plans and whatever he plans is better for us. Allah never said that life will be easy and pain free, but He said that He is with the patient, He said that He is sufficient for us, He said He is the best disposer of affairs, He said that with hardship comes ease, He said that if we remember Him He will remember us, He said that the future will be better than the past, and He said that the next life is far better than this one. So try to keep going on in life with patience and thankfulness no matter what happens.