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We
are approaching the special month of Dhul-Hijjah. This special
month reminds us of one very important thing: sacrifice. This word
carries with it the message of willingness to sacrifice anything
and everything for God out of our love and search for gaining His
pleasure.
A
father and his son had sacrificed in fulfilling their duties to
God. Both the father and the son, who were prophets and messengers
of God, were the cornerstones of a noble and highly regarded
family. This family witnessed the birth of other noble prophets,
among them our most beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings
be upon him). The father, as you may have known, is Prophet
Ibrahim and his son is Prophet Isma`il (peace and blessings be
upon him).
Dhul-Hijjah
is also the month of Hajj. The rituals of Hajj teach us to
sacrifice when we leave our homes and our loved ones, and to spend
money that we could have spent on other things, just to seek the
forgiveness and pleasure of God, and also to meet our fellow
brothers and sisters from all over the world.
Now,
for a minute, let us reflect on our lives. I am sure we will
discover without much difficulty that we have sacrificed before in
our lives, even if it was a small sacrifice. Maybe it was a
sacrifice for ourselves by working extra hard to have more money;
or a sacrifice for our family, for their happiness, or for any
other reason. What we can be sure of is that we have sacrificed
before. But have we asked ourselves how we can reach the extent of
sacrifice, doing what is usually beyond us? What is the strongest
motivational factor? If we think a bit deeper, we may find that
one of the reasons we sacrifice is our true love for someone
or something, and our commitment towards a vision in our lives,
and our profound and deep conviction in such a vision.
Let
us look at Prophet Ibrahim, Prophet Isma`il, our Muslim brothers
and sisters who have performed Hajj: All of them love Allah, in
sha’ Allah. They had one vision and mission: to gain the
pleasure of God the Almighty; and for this they were willing to
sacrifice that much.
And
for this reason too, Islam teaches us that the vision for all
believers is to love God: [Say:
“If ye do love God, Follow me: God will love you and forgive you
your sins: For God is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful”]
(Aal `Imran 3:31).
In
this verse God explains the vision for the true believers, that is
to attain the love of Allah. Following that, He explains the way
to attain that love, that is to follow what has been shown by
Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). Only with true
and sincere love for God in our hearts will we be able to
sacrifice for Him.
I
believe that all of us love our religion, Islam. We love peace,
prosperity, development, and success for ourselves, our community,
our nation, and for all humanity. With the love for these things,
I believe we can look at ourselves with humility and search for
our own weaknesses. When we discover them, we can work on
improving ourselves; hence we become better people. Here lies the
challenge; and here is the sacrifice. To pull ourselves up
strongly and confidently and start working hard to be better
people, in every single thing that we do.
For
example, Muslims everywhere seriously need intellectuals and
thinkers who are truly conscious of God, have piety (taqwa)
in their hearts, and are noble in character. We have lost some of
our dignity as Muslims and we have lost our previous towering
status, perhaps because we have lost such capable and colorful
personalities. Here we have these weaknesses which we must be
willing to work on collectively, with all our effort. It is a
sacrifice, a jihad, but a contextual and real jihad.
We
all must realize too that every soul is capable of contributing
towards this cause. Everyone has a role to play in producing such
personalities: intelligent, yet humble and noble in character. We
can sacrifice our time, our energy, and our wealth for this
purpose. We can even do it within our own homes. The possible
personalities being our own children and the young generation as a
whole.
As
parents or grandparents, we need to learn how to deal with the
children of today. Have not we noticed that they think differently
from most of us? Hence, we can’t intimidate them or threaten and
force them to do certain things. We cannot follow our emotions too
closely in dealing with children. We need to learn their psyche
and apply psychology to talk to them. Only that way can we
inculcate beautiful Islamic values in their hearts. Only then will
they grow up with taqwa and show noble character. Of course
we must first of all show that noble character in all that we do.
Then
we can start encouraging them to love the pursuit of knowledge.
But let it be clear that we cannot encourage them if we ourselves
are not encouraged. We cannot expect our children to read when all
they see us doing is watching television, chatting, or sleeping at
home. Let us create an environment of discussion and opinion
exchange at home. The love of knowledge should begin at home.
There
are so many ways to learn in our world today. We can learn at
home, especially with the Internet. In fact, the whole family can
take part in learning at the same time. Learn a common subject of
interest, read the materials and discuss together. Imagine the
benefits, ma sha' Allah. Today, we can even access Arabic
lessons from the Net, and this is truly an opportunity not to be
missed from the Net.
But
we all know that this needs money, time, and commitment. And
hence, this is our battleground. This is where we can sacrifice.
Instead of normally watching television and lazing around, we can
use the same time to learn together, and also improve family
relations. This is our sacrifice, for our beloved religion.
God
reminds us in the Qur'an [That
man can have nothing but what he strives for; That (the fruit of)
his striving will soon come in sight]
(An-Najm 53:39-40).
We
need to translate the meaning of struggle and sacrifice in our
lives into concrete actions that we can take. If we do that to get
the pleasure of God, I strongly believe that He will grant us
success.
*
Based on a Friday Sermon, February 6, 2004/Dhul-Hijjah 15, 1424.
Courtesy of the Islamic Religious Council of
Singapore
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