Friday, April 24, 2009

Salam Iman..

A few months before I was born, my dad met a stranger who was new to our small town. From the beginning, Dad was fascinated with this enchanting newcomer, and soon invited him to live with our family. The stranger was quickly accepted and was around to welcome me into the world a few months later.

As I grew up, I never questioned his place in our family. In my young mind, each member had a special niche. My brother, Bilal, five years my senior, was my example. Fatimah, my younger sister, gave me an opportunity to play big brother’ and develop the art of teasing. My parents were complementary instructors - Mom taught me to love the word of Allah, and Dad taught me to obey it. But the stranger was our storyteller. He could weave the most fascinating tales. Adventures, mysteries, and comedies were daily conversations. He could hold our whole family spell-bound for hours each evening.

If I wanted to know about politics, history, or science, he knew it. He knew about the past, understood the present, and seemingly could predict the future. The pictures he could draw were so life like that I would often laugh or cry as I watched. He was like a friend to the whole family. He took Dad, Bilal, and me to our first major league baseball game.

He was always encouraging us to see the movies and he even made arrangements to introduce us to several movie stars. The stranger was an incessant talker. Dad didn’t seem to mind but sometimes Mom would quietly get up while the rest of us were enthralled with one of his stories of faraway places, go to her room, and read her Qur’an and pray. I wonder now if she ever prayed that the stranger would leave.

You see, my dad ruled our household with certain moral convictions. But this stranger never felt an obligation to honor them. Profanity, for example, was not allowed in our house - not for some of us, from our friends, or adults. Our longtime visitor, however, used occasional four letter words that turned my ears and made Dad squirm.

To my knowledge, the stranger was never confronted. My dad was a teetotaler who didn’t permit alcohol in his home, as good Muslims should. But the stranger felt like we needed exposure and enlightened us to other ways of life. He offered us beer and other alcoholic beverages often. He made cigarettes look tasty, cigars manly, and pipes distinguished. He talked freely (probably too much, too freely) about sex. His comments were sometimes blatant, sometimes suggestive, and generally embarrassing.

I know now that the stranger influenced my early concepts of the man-woman relationship. As I look back, I believe it was the grace of Allah that the stranger did not influence us more. Time after time, he opposed the values of my parents. Yet, he was seldom rebuked and never asked to leave. More than thirty years have passed since the stranger moved in with the young family on Wangee Road.

He is not nearly so intriguing to my Dad as he was in those early years. But if I were to walk into my parents’ den today, you would still see him sitting over in a corner, waiting for someone to listen to him talk and watch him draw his pictures… His name you ask? We called him TV.

Our Lord! Forgive us our sins and expiate from us our evil deeds, and make us die in the state of righteousness.

"O Allah, let our last days be the best days of our life and our last deeds be the best deeds, and let the best day be the day we meet You." (Surah Al- Imran Ayat 193)

Mom And Son


Mom : Assalamualaikum my dear. How are you today?

Baby : Waalaikumussalam my dear mom. I'm feeling good today mom. But there are something growing out from my body!!! (his arms & legs) what are these mom? I don't like it. It keeps getting in my way. I can't move as freely as I used to be before!

Mom : Owh that are your hands and your legs my darling. Alhamdulillah, you are growing as you should.
Baby : Can you make it go away mom? I don't need these hands and legs. They are of no use to me now.
Mom : You must not say that! Be grateful dear. You will need them when you are born. You will need it to walk on this earth. To be Allah's servant. You will be in such a great loss if you don't have them in the future.

End of conversation...
The baby doesn't know the difficulties that he is going to face on the earth if he doesn't have any hands or legs. Because he never used it in the womb. For him, his world is his mom's womb.

Can you see how similar we are and the baby? We have never ever encounter the life after death. We only know the world as the earth that we are living now. Just like an innocence baby.

Our amal ma'ruf as our arms and legs in akhirah. We can live without them in this world right? But what about in akhirah? Can we leave without them? And we have been given so many reminders and guidances from Allah through His messenger and The Book, Quran. Who else can we trust if not our GOD, Allah?

Think bout it!!!

Three tough Questions....

There was a young man who went overseas 2 study for quite a long time. When he returned , he asked his parents 2 find him a religious scholar or any expert who could answer his Three Questions. Finally his parents were able 2 find a muslim scholar.

"Who r u? Can u answer my questions?," asked the young man.
"I am one of Allah's slaves and insyaAllah, I will be able 2 answer your question," replied the scholar.

"Are you sure? A lot of professors and experts were not able to answer my questions."
"I will try my best, with the help of Allah Ta'ala."

"I have 3 questions,"

1. Does God exist? If so, show me His shape.
2. What is fate(takdir)?
3. If syaitan(devil) was created from fire, why at the end he will be thrown to hell that is also created from fire. Did God not think of it this far?

Suddenly, the scholar slapped the young man's face very hard. The young man, who was shocked and hurt by the slap became confused.
"Why are you angry a me?"
"I am not angry. The slap is my answer to your 3 questions."

"I really don' understand," the young man said. He was really confused.
The scholar began to explain. " How didi you feel after I slapped you?"
"Of course, i felt the pain!"

"So, do you believe the pain exist?"
"Yes"
"Now show me the shape of pain!"
"I can't"
"That is my 1st answer. All of us feel God's existence without being able to see His shape."

"Last night, did you dream that you will be slapped by me?"
"No."
"Did you ever think that you will get a slap from me, today?"
"No."
"That's takdir.....My hand that I used to slap you, what is it creted from?
"It's created from flesh."

"How about your face, what is it created from?"
"Flesh as well !"
"How did you feel after I slapped you?"
"In pain."
"Even though syaitan(devil) and hell-fire were created from fire, if Allah wants, insyaAllah the hell-fire will become a very painful place for syaitan."

The wise scholar had answered all 3 tough questions by one slap.