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on 04-03-2003 22:09
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By Farzeen
We sit casually at our computers reading about the horrible sufferings of Muslims worldwide. We stare at the television while shaking our heads at the news of Muslims. We drive with carefree minds and listen to the cries of Muslims worldwide. We learn about the past sufferings, present sufferings, and the potential future sufferings. For a second, our eyes are tear-glazed; we appreciate how comfortable we are. But we are soon to forget.
Someone shares a joke with us over an instant message. We flick through the channels looking for our favourite sitcom. We reach our destination and get out of our car.“Assalamu’alaikum.” Khalid said casually.
“Wa ‘alaikum assalam. How are you?” replied Abdullah.
“Oh I’m good, alhamdulillah.” Khalid then sighed and said, “You know, I was just listening to the radio… it’s just so sad. Our brothers and sisters are suffering so much. They are dying of starvation, and that’s the least of their worries! I wish we could help them.”
Abdullah agreed. “Yes, it’s important for us to do something.”
Khalid remained silent for a few seconds and then said, “But I remember them in my du’as, always. And none can protect us better than Allah.”
Again, Abdullah agreed. “Absolutely. You know, last night I was reading a story to my daughter about a bear. Do you want to hear it?” asked Abdullah.
“Sure,” said Khalid.
Abdullah began telling him the story. “One day, the bear’s wife asked him where the food was. He told her that Allah will provide, and they didn’t need to worry about the food getting on the table. His wife told him that he still needed to make an effort and asked him to get the food, so the bear left in search of food. As the bear lazily made his way into the forest, he noticed a honeycomb hanging on a tree. ‘There’s our food’, he thought, ‘all nice and ready to go.’ The bear believed that Allah had provided food for him by allowing him to see this honeycomb so that he could just take the honey and leave. So the bear proceeded. He grabbed the honeycomb and attempted to get the honey out of it. Much to his surprise, he was attacked by all the bees. He ran for his life and had to jump into the nearby river to escape. ‘Hmm…maybe I should try my wife’s way’, he thought as he rubbed his sore wounds. He decided to try fishing. The bear spent the rest of the afternoon fishing and returned home with a basket full of fish. He brought the fish to his wife, smiled, and said, ‘now I know how Allah provides.
"That’s a nice story. But I’m not having any marital problems, alhamdulillah” Khalid said with a smile.
Abdullah returned his smile. “That’s good, but the point of the story is that even though we believe, we still need to do something solid. Belief isn’t abstract.”
Khalid nodded in agreement. “True. True.” Khalid went home that night and watched the same dreadful news on television with his family. “Those are our sisters, our brothers, our children, our family!” his wife exclaimed. She sighed. “We should do something to help.”
How many of us spend most of our time sighing instead of making a sincere effort to help our family? When we help other people who are suffering, we are also helping ourselves. Our hearts make us sigh, not our minds; but our minds are the means to calm our hearts.“Yah we should,” said Khalid. “Well I have work Monday to Friday, so maybe we can do something on the weekend. You figure it out and let me know what to do.”
“No”, said Khalid’s wife. “I’d like for us to be a team. We’ll do everything together.”
“As you wish dear, but then we’ll only do it on the weekends. I have too many important things to do first.” So how sincere are we in our desire to help? Are four weekends every month sufficient enough to complete anything of substance in order to help oppressed people, Muslim or not, worldwide? Hardly not. “Yeah, you do have a lot of things to do,” said his wife. The room went silent. “Hey Khalid.”
“Yeah?”
“Do you plan on dying this week?”
“What!? What kind of question is that?”
“Well I was thinking. If you want to do all the important things first then that’s fine, but if you die this week then maybe you won’t get the important things done. Just a thought.” His wife left the room. What is our only guarantee in life? It’s death. What’s our only comfort in death? Our life. Why is our life our comfort during death? Because if we get our priorities straight and take the role of being Muslim more seriously than any other role in life, we will reap the rewards when death arrives.
Muslims are becoming too short sighted. One day, just sit in a room with a lot of different people and look around. You’ll see so many different faces, each one unique. You’ll be able to detect full mentalities from simply watching people’s behaviour. Now this is what you need to look for when you’re sitting in that room, ready to learn and understand. Look for purpose and focus in the people’s actions. Look at the way they react and respond. Look to see if they keep to themselves, or if they reach out to help that person struggling. And ask yourself, “Am I like them? If not, who am I? Who would I like to be like?”
We get to choose what we want to do. We get to choose what we want to learn. We get to choose who we want to help. We get to choose what we want to achieve. We get to choose who we want to be. But we don’t get to choose if want to die. We don’t get to choose when we want to die. We don’t get to choose to ignore other people’s pain because eventually it will track us down.
I know as I complete this piece of writing, most people will not think twice about making a difference, after all- “There are other people out there doing the ‘righteous’ work. Certainly that’s enough. No one will miss me if I don’t do anything.” But I’ve made the choice to try. I urge you all to take a breather from your daily routines and spend some time putting your own lives into perspective. I ask you to assess the direction of your life. If you can’t do any of that, then at least do justice to the title of a Muslim.
Last update : 04-03-2003 22:09
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