It’s Just Steam: Thoughts over a cup of tea

Photo Credit: Kutibh Chihabi 2010

My father happily walks into my room handing me a mug of tea, hoping it would make me smile. As I take a whiff, I smell the aroma that teases me from a distance on my desk. Just like the smell of pie teases passerby’s from the kitchen windowsill in Saturday morning cartoons. The aroma suggests that it may be chamomile, and maybe with a hint of lemon.

Tea: it can be inspiring, yet it still isn’t popular with most people. In fact, it was taxes on tea which led angry protestors to dump 342 chests of tea into the Boston Harbor on the morning of December 16^th, 1773. And yet today, it sits here quietly on my desk not causing any commotion.

So why write a blog about tea you may ask? Well, it is not necessarily about tea; it is about the rising steam I began to witness coming from the hot tea. This steam was continuously rising and twisting, almost in a teasing fashion. And this was my moment of  insight. Subhan’Allah (All praise is due to God). Is steam itself, not a sign and evidence of God? The fact that all matter can exist in 3 states and yet be 1 substance is such a beautiful concept. What is so significant about water, ice, and steam, you may ask?

These three states of matter –solid, liquid, and gas– define our life. If it wasn’t for liquid, we could not drink water – which is necessary for our survival – let alone tea. We would have no blood circulating our bodies. There would be no rain to feed the crops – and aha! The Rain Cycle! That in itself is a miracle and a mercy of God, but that is a topic of another blog…

If it wasn’t for solids, there would be nothing to stand on. There would be nothing tangible. Everything would be a gooey mush, similar to the surface of Venus. Or everything on the Earth would be one giant ball of gas like Jupiter.

If it wasn’t for gas, there would be no oxygen to breathe. There would be no air to help the plants cross-pollinate. There would be nothing to carry the sound waves of our voices to one other.  There would be no…Steam.

So all three states of matter are in perfect harmony with one another on our lonely planet Earth. They allow for the existence of oceans, wind, and ground. With one missing, life would be impossible. And it is this, the incredibly intricate design of our Universe, in which everything is in harmony with one another, which has atheists standing in awe and baffled as to its existence.

But of course, it is just steam

“Do you not realize that the universe and the earth used to be one solid mass that We exploded into existence, and from water We made all living things? Will you not then believe?” (Qur’an 21:30)