On one fine winter morning after a walk in a nearby park, I went to a bench to relax for a while. As I was about to sit, my eyes caught the glimpse of a small broken piece of a beehive thrown on the grass. As if someone has thrown it there after extracting the honey from it. I bent a little forward as I sat on the bench and gave a child like curious and inquisitive look. This was perhaps the first time in my life that I had a chance to see a beehive from so close.

I could not stop gazing at it for some time, as if my eyes were fixed on one object. I said to myself, My God! What a piece of art! How come such a little creature like a bee can make so perfect beehive with so many hexagonal sacks to store the honey. All identical in shape and size as if some very skilled craftsman have tirelessly worked to produce them. As I rested there for a while, my thoughts ran hither and thither to find the answer.

Surrounded by gentle and fresh breeze of air, birds chirping on the tree branches and beautiful morning sunlight peeping through soft silver cloud. I thought what better time could be to contemplate on the marvelous creation of God. I kept on sitting for a long time immersed in deep thoughts, marvelling over the wonders of the creation. My curiosity and sense of awe kept on increasing as I continued to think deeper and deeper.

What an amazing creation God has made and scattered them around us in abundance. But why did the Creator do all this. Magnificent universe, filled with colossal stars, planets, steroids, gallexies and so on. How come in such a vast universe, there is the earth, so different-with all its life giving properties. This fact makes one think even more as this unique exception seems to be very meaningful.

It seems as if the purpose of the Creator by creating the earth and putting man on earth is only one. That is to make man realize his gracious Lord at an intellectual level. Since we cannot see God with our worldly eyes, therefore, God has provided for us this unique arrangement so that we may discover Him by developing our thinking process. This may be termed as the discovery method. The method which a child applies to put together a jigsaw puzzle.

In other words we can realize the Creator by pondering over His creation through deep thinking and contemplation. God has arranged for us amazing things all around us so that we should stop and ponder over its meaningfulness. In this way by activating our thinking process, we begin to 'see' beyond the seen world and start peeping into the unseen world.

With our human eyes we cannot see God directly. But yes, we can 'see' Him indirectly through His creation by imagining that there must be a designer behind every design, and an artist behind every work of art. If we keep our eyes open, save ourselves from various distractions, contemplate and pray, then we can surely come so close to God that as if we are actually seeing Him.

It is said that 'God is most evident and at the same time He is most hidden'. It is only through spiritual growth and intellectual development, we can realize Him, and receive direct inspirations from Him. Any little incidence such as the example of the honey bee may be converted into food for thought.

Whether it is a tiny blade of a grass, a butterfly encircling a flower, a gentle wave of flowing water, a soft touch of a breeze, or a refreshing song of a bird. There are countless such phenomenon in nature which can awaken in man the consciousness of the Creator. But it is upto him whether to open his heart and mind to these signs of God or to ignore them. The unenlightened ignores all these signs of God calling them as mere phenomenon of nature but one who is a seeker of truth looks at them as God's miracle making it a source of God-realization.

This kind of thinking makes us realize God at an intellectual level and our quest to find God begins to be quenched. We find everything around us including our own existence so meaningful, and so amazing that it makes us speechless and the only words that we could utter are, 'God You are indeed great. How did you do it all. O God You are indeed great.

Prophet Muhammad said that when a man dies, everything connected with him is cut off except three things: Continuous charity, knowledge from which benefit is derived and virtuous children who pray for him.

So, what could be a more appropriate prayer for our parents than the following: "O Lord, bestow Your mercy on them, as they raised me up when i was little".