|
Are we of those that are Thankful to Allah?
By Sr. Huma
 |
|
Alhamdulillah,
we are all alive and have been given the blessing of another
Ramadan. I just wanted to wish you all a blessed and fruitful
Ramadan. I hope that we as an Ummah
can come back to Islam and use this Ramadan as a time to
re-energize ourselves spiritually, get closer to Allah and really
affect change within us. Br. Mokhtar was telling us each day in
Ramadan should be better than the day before, we should fast with
focus, turn to Allah in Salah and dua and instead of celebrating
food, we celebrate something
that is beyond the physical.
This past weekend some of us traveled to Maryland for the MYNA
conference. There, brother Muhammad Al-Shareef told us a story of
some youth in the Middle East who were in a car accident. When
people came upon the scene of the accident all they heard was the
blasting of the radio music with some song playing. They went to
the youth and
found that one of them was in very bad condition about to die. They
started repeating the Shahada to him asking him to repeat
"Ashadu anna laa ilaha il Allah...” but all he kept
repeating was the lyrics to the song. Subhanallah, at the moment of
his death when it was most important to say the shahadah so he
could go to Jennah he wasn't able to.
He also told us of a second story of a boy, a teenager too, who's
car broke down. He went to the trunk to take something out when
another car came careening down the hill and slammed into the back
of the first car. The policeman and others who came knew that he
probably would not make it. On the way to the hospital they noticed
that the boy kept mumbling something over and over. And then when
they leaned down they realized that he was reciting Quran and
before they could even encourage him to say the shahadah
he said it on his own, "Ashadu anna laa ilaha il Allah, wa
ashadu anna Muhammadan Rasoolillah".
On our way back from the MYNA conference we were tied up in traffic
for hours and figured it must have been because of all the
Thanksgiving Day travel. Then as we
were driving for a while we noticed that the entire other side of
the highway was completely empty. Our side was packed bumper to
bumper with hundreds of cars but the
other side across the wide ditch was totally deserted. We continued
driving; it was high up in the mountains with a lot of fog and
difficult to see. Then we noticed ahead
of us sirens, flashing lights, fire trucks, ambulances and cars.
There were cars in the ditch between the two highways, on top of
each other, there were cars that were totaled, and others were
dented or completely messed up. There were people everywhere, near
the cars, walking away, police and officials everywhere. It was
like a scene of disaster area. There were trucks that had crashed
into each other, one tractor trailer half gone with all it's
fish produce spread across the highway. Another pickup lay in the
ditch at an angle with the door open. A dog remained alone inside
barking.
In all, it was a 75-car accident; the destruction continued for at
least a mile. 30 people, they said, had been taken to the hospital.
At the end of the last crashed cars, a police barrier was put up
and the highway for miles and miles just contained parked cars,
with hundreds of people out of their cars walking, talking to each
other, trying to figure out why they weren't moving for the last
hour.
If those stories don't scare you I don't know what will. Despite
what that first boy thought he wasn't able to lie when his end
came, his own lips bore witness to his life. The same for the
second story. Also for us, despite what we might have thought, that
accident could just as easily have been on our side. Death can come
to any of us at any time. We should take examples like these as
signs and make sure that when our end comes we don't regret
anything and haven't lived a life of heedlessness. For we won't be
able to lie to anyone or even ourselves, our body parts and our
deeds will speak for us.
On the Day when their tongues, their hands, and their feet will
bear witness against them as to their actions. On that Day Allah
will pay them back (all) their just dues, and they will realize
that Allah is the (very) Truth, that makes all things manifest.
[Quran 24:24-25]
We know during Ramadan there is great reward for any good deed, for
reading Quran, fasting, standing in prayer, feeding others. The
Prophet (s) said, "Whoever fasted the month of Ramadan out of
sincere Faith (i.e. belief) and hoping for a reward from
Allah, then all his past sins will be forgiven, and whoever stood
for the prayers in the night of Qadr out of sincere Faith and
hoping for a reward from Allah, then all his previous sins will be
forgiven." [Bukhari]
This is a promise from Allah. I wonder that our actions sometimes
seem to doubt this. “...So I said: Rasululah, I wish you had led
us in superogatory prayers during the whole of tonight. He (s)
said: When one prays with an imam till he goes he is reckoned as
having spent a whole night in prayer.” [Bukhari]
"A blessed month has arrived. Observing it in fasting is
mandated on you (the believers). During this month, the gates of
Paradise will be opened and the gates of Hellfire will be closed.
The evil ones (Shayateen) will be handcuffed. In it there is one
night, during which worship is better than worship in a thousand
months. Whoever is denied its blessings has been denied the biggest
blessing." [Ahmed, Nasaae, and Bayhaqi]
Ramadan Mubarak :)
May Allah accept from you and from us our deeds this Ramadan In sha
Allah. Please mention me in your duas. I really need them.
Huma
|
