Bismillaahir
Rahmaanir Raheem 4th Dhul Hijjah 1437 A.H.
Assalaamu alaykum wa Rahmatullaahi wa Barkaatuhu
brothers and sisters. Allaahumma sualli ‘alaa Sayyidinaa Muhammad wa ‘alaa
Aalihii wa Ashaabihii wa Ummatihii ajma’in. It is my
prayer that you are well and that Allah azza wa jal takes care of your every
affair. Aameen Yaa Allah!
I have just finished shedding some very sad tears after
watching an episode of a series titled; ‘World of Mystery.’ Don’t laugh at me
ok…heheheee! I just couldn’t help it. I bet you would have cried too; seeing
how completely heartless we humans can be when we are obsessed with attaining a
particular desire. May Allah azza wa jal continue to forgive all of our ills.
Aameen Yaa Gafuur! Yaa Affuw!
A Man Comes to
Visit an Old Friend
He is living somewhere else now. His wife just found a
piece of paper in their old stuffs. He made someone read it to him because he
couldn’t understand the language. It actually started with a ‘Bismillaahir
Rahmaanir Raheem’ ‘In the name of God, the Beneficient, the Merciful’ in
Arabic. I could read that from the paper at least (Smile for Sadaqa). He was
told that the paper was a land document that dated wayyyy back! Yes! The paper
said he had a land somewhere in the area he had come to now and since his friend
was an Estate Contractor, he came to him to help him locate this land.
His friend, the Contractor, assured him that he could
help him easily because he was well connected with people in the Land Industry.
They were both glad.
A Hardworking Old
Woman and Her Two Grandchildren
This old woman is the guardian of her two beautiful
orphaned grandchildren – a boy and a girl. She works hard to make money to take
care of their school needs and others. Her younger friend who helps her to sell
her handicrafts – Samiha, gives her total support and encouragement.
As she chat with Samiha, her grand-daughter alerts her
on the presence of some men in front of their house. They tried to figure out
what they were doing but could not. As Samiha left, the men came to see this
old woman and they inform her that the land her house is built on does not
belong to her. They show her the real owner.
She tells them that her husband had bought the property
about 30 years ago and they have been living there since. She shows them the
documents but they realize her husband was cheated. They show her theirs too.
The Contractor was being a little too hard on the woman but the owner cut in.
Check it out!
GRANDMA:(As she escorts
them out) Please Sir! Just listen.
I beg you. I have never in my life taken what was not lawfully mine but show a
little mercy please. What am I and the children going to do?(And she was talking to the Contractor who
had taken the whole thing personal. The owner was quiet all along)
CONTRACTOR: That is none of my concern ma’am. You have to vacate
this premises right away…
OWNER: (Cutting in) Hang on Ayhan! Look ma’am, do you have any income?
GRANDMA: Well, I have the pension from my late husband.
OWNER: All right ma’am. It seems to me that you are not very
well off. This property was a surprise to me too. I myself, I’m not hungry or
homeless; thank God. I’d like to sell you the house under terms which you think
you can handle.
GRANDMA: Well…I don’t know about that sir. Now, I appreciate
that but I just don’t think I have enough money sir.
OWNER: I don’t want very much from you ma’am. You pay me
little by little when you can. Is that right?
So, an agreement was reached…
The Contractor tells the owner as they left the woman’s
house;
CONTRACTOR:You really blew that deal Burhan. Who knows the fortune
we could have sold that place for?
OWNER: Who cares Ayhan? Some things in life are more
important than money. I am very well off, thank goodness. With or without the
property, things won’t change for me financially.
CONTRACTOR: So there are honest people like you left in the world
huh!
The owner had to leave town so he gave the power of
attorney to the Contractor to deal with the woman per the agreement.
The contractor has a wife who wants him to get a summer
house for her and she keeps putting pressure on him. She believes her husband
is well off enough to get it for her and so when he was not doing that right
away, she gave him a silent treatment.
…She was pushing
him to earn more…
The Advice of a Friend
On the authority of Abu Musa al-Ash’ari, radiyallaahu
anhu, the Prophet Muhammad suallallaahu alayhi wa sallam said;
‘The likeness of a
righteous friend and an evil friend, is the likeness of a musk/perfume seller
and a blacksmith. As for the perfume seller, he may either bestow something on
you or you may purchase something from him or you may benefit from his sweet
smell. As for the blacksmith, he may either burn your clothes or you may be
exposed to his awful smell.’
(Bukhari and Muslim)
The Contractor had a friend who had been thinking
negatively. He was possessed by an evil desire and he needed a companion to
carry out that evil. He decided to convince the Contractor to see reason with
him.
He was able to convince the Contractor to take the
house from the old woman instead of selling it to her as the owner had agreed.
When they take it from her, they can build apartments on it and rent them out
to people and make big money. The Contractor resisted a little but he fell in
love with the idea in the end.
So, they surprised the poor woman who was so happy to
see them with the news. She could not believe it. What about the agreement with
the owner? They insisted she left the house as construction on the land was
going to start the next day. Samiha who was around tried to help but they
brushed all that they had to say off. They couldn’t even give a hoot to their
pleas. Check this out!
GRANDMA: ...we have nowhere else to go. At least have pity on
my two orphans.
CONTRACTOR: What do I care? Is it my fault they are orphans?
SAMIHA: What kind of talk is that Mister? Don’t you have a
conscience? Should these people have to live on the street? At least give her a
little time.
CONTRACTOR: But I don’t have time. The construction is moving
forward.
GRANDMA: Please don’t son, it is a sin. Don’t take our house and
our property away, I beg you.
CONTRACTOR: That’s enough. Move your things out of here by tomorrow
or I will have the police throw you out by force, understand? (They were gone!)
Indeed, it is as Allah subhaanahu wa ta’aalaa tells us
of how our hearts become more hardened than a stone which is even subtle to the
fear of Allah azza wa jal. He says;
‘Then your hearts became hardened after that so they
were like stones or even harder still. There are some stones from which rivers
gush out and others which split open and water pours out and others which crash
down from the fear of Allah. And Allah is not unaware of what you do.’
(Surat Al-Baqarah, the Cow, Chapter 2 ayah 74)
And then as they enjoyed their incoming ‘glory’ in a
restaurant at night whilst it rained, the poor woman and her grandchildren pack
their belongings in tears and walk out of where they have always known as home
for years through the rain. This is where I found myself unable to control my
tears. The sorrow I felt in my heart at how wicked we can be had to come out
against my will.
As their tears mixed up with the rain, the Contractor
and his friend talk about their incoming fortune this way…
FRIEND: This deal is going to make us a fortune, Ayhan.
CONTRACTOR: We’ll see. We’ll see. Ohan, it’s pouring like crazy
huh! (Referring to the rain) I wonder
if the old lady has moved out yet.
FRIEND: Don’t worry about her man, she must have otherwise we
would have heard about her. And if she hasn’t yet, she will when they start to
wreck the place. Don’t you worry about it. Just look at this rain, will you?
CONTRACTOR: The sky is really opened up. Pouring in.
FRIEND: Pouring down, yeah. Just like our profits will. Pretty
soon, the money will flow into our pockets just like this rain.
They did not know that the sky was shedding tears along
with this poor woman at their hard-heartedness.
Soon, their construction was booming and even though
they were pumping all that they had into it plus even loans from banks, they
were hopeful that they could begin to sell the apartments even before they were
fully ready in order to start making money to pay off their debts.
The original owner who had agreed to sell the house to
the woman had come to meet them chatting about their fortunes in the building
that was being constructed. He congratulated them angrily and went with the
contractor to talk it out in his office.
OWNER: What did you do Ayhan? This isn’t why I gave you that
power of attorney.
CONTRACTOR:Hey! I didn’t do anything, Burhan. She changed her
mind.
OWNER: Ayhan, don’t you lie to me.
CONTRACTOR: Look Burhan, we’ve been friends for a long time. If
you accuse me of being a liar that all changes.
OWNER: Don’t you have any pity to throw that old woman and
her poor children out on the street? I thought I’d stop off and see how she was
getting along and look what I found out.
CONTRACTOR: Look man, you told me to sell the place, you got your
money, right, didn’t you?
OWNER:It’s not about money Ayhan. I told you not to take her
house away.
CONTRACTOR:(Getting over
furious now) What’s the big deal? I’m
not running an orphanage. It’s a business and if you care so much for her, why
didn’t you stay and look after her? You gave me power of attorney and you got
your money.
OWNER: I didn’t know you were so damn hard-hearted Ayhan. Who
knows how those poor people are now. Shame on you!
If only he had a
sense of shame?
The Contractor’s wife was cheerful now. She can see
things going well for her husband who promises to get them the summer house as
soon as the construction was done. Then the bearer of bad news knocked. It was
his very good friend. He had come to tell him they had lost it all.
…the building
collapsed…
Yes! You read right. All their money was gone in a
flash. The whole building had crashed and they were in deep trouble. There was
no money to pay for the loans they had taken to support the project.
It is a fair world owned by a Just God, Al-Adl.
‘On the Day when Heaven is split apart in clouds and
the Angels are sent down rank upon rank. The Kingdom that Day will belong in
truth to the All Merciful. It will be a hard Day for the disbelievers. The Day
when a wrongdoer will bite his hands and say; ‘Alas for me! If only I had gone
the way of the Messenger! Alas for me! IF ONLY I HAD NOT TAKEN SO AND SO FOR A
FRIEND! He led me astray from the reminder after it came to me.’
(Surat Al-Furqan, the Criterion, Chapter 25 ayah 25 to
29)
And then the bank had come to assess his house to take
it away. His wife now realized the magnitude of their loss and she began to
scream at him at where they were going to live and plenty things. He assured
her that they will go and live with his mother. Then she had mentioned reality…
‘Isn’t that house
registered in your name? Won’t the debt collectors go there too?’
Before the entry of the Bankers, she had tried to give
him hope that all was not lost. He had come to the house after checking on the
collapsed building. He was devastated and he tells his wife;
CONTRACTOR:I’m finished. I’m ruined…
WIFE: What do you mean you are finished Ayhan?
CONTRACTOR: All that hard work and money, it turned to dust in an
instance.
WIFE: Is it that simple Ayhan? You can’t be this hopeless.
We haven’t really lost everything, have we now?
Then the knock by the Bankers….
The Contractor had rushed to his mother’s house after
his wife made him see reality. When his old mother saw him, she said in her
feeble voice;
‘Hello son! The
debt collectors came by. They want to take the house. They told me to get my
things out right away. What’s going on son? What have you done? God help me.’
Then he had asked himself;
‘God! What did I
do? Tell me’
He Had a Dream
He had seen when the woman was leaving the house with
her grandchildren in the rain. He was watching them from a distance in tears.
He heard the woman saying;
‘Why did this
happen to me? Why? Why did this happen to me? Why? Why? Allah, I’ve never known
those who tried to take what belonged to me. Allah, please protect these
orphans. I am not strong enough to protect them myself. Allah, I deliver the
people who took away our home and put us in this situation to you. I deliver
them to you.’
Then he screams as they leave;
‘Hang on! Please,
don’t go. Stop! I changed my mind. Please! Forgive me. Take your house back.’
Then he wakes up…
Once Rasuulullaah suallallaahu alayhi wa sallam had
said;
‘Beware of the supplication of the oppressed, even if
he is an unbeliever, for there is no barrier between it and Allah.’
So he had found Samiha’s house and asked about the poor
woman. She lived in Samiha’s house since, he was told. When the woman had seen
him, she had been shocked. She said;
‘Did you come to
knock this place down too?’
Of course! What else will bring such a hard-hearted
person to her house? They say;
‘Once bitten,
thirty-three times shy.’
He began to cry, knelt before her and said;
‘Forgive me ma’am.
I’m sorry. I was tempted by evil and I did you wrong. I was possessed with such
greed for money. Please forgive me.’
GRANDMA:(Comfortingly) Stop that now. What’s happened to you?
CONTRACTOR: Will you forgive me ma’am? Can you forgive me for what
I did to you?
GRANDMA:(Nodding) I forgive you willingly. I do forgive you but I don’t
know if God will forgive you. You seem truly sorry. I pray the Lord will
forgive you too.
That woman was a ‘Sona Bibi.’ She had a ‘heart of
gold.’ Martin Luther King Jr. had said once;
‘We must develop
and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive
is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some
evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our
enemies.’
And who is more forgiving than Allah azza wa jal?
Subhaanallaah! Indeed, His mercy far prevails over His wrath. How can we then
despair of His mercy and forgiveness? How can we? Today, I saw a lady post on
facebook that;
‘If Allah did not
forgive sin, there will be no one in Paradise.’
Subhaanallaah! And Allah azza wa jal tells us that;
‘Say; ‘O My servants who have transgressed against
themselves by sinning, do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah
forgives all sins. Indeed, it is He who is the Forgiving, the Merciful.’
(Surat Az-Zumar, the Troops, Chapter 39 ayah 53)
I believe that when we are truly remorseful of the
wrongs we do others and their forgiveness of us is also true, then a foundation
to a greater and better relationship is built. So, when we seek for forgiveness
from Allah azza wa jal and from the people we have wronged, let us do so with
all sincerity and when we forgive the wrongs others have done us, let us do so
also with all sincerity. Only then is true peace attained. Smile to Jannah!
The lessons in this story abound. May we be among the
few who are able to forgive it all whole-heartedly as we seek the forgiveness
of Allah azza wa jal too. Aameen Yaa Allah. Do remember me in your du’a as
always.
Jazaakumullaahu khairan!
Love fiisabilillaah
Rubaba-Elhaam
Mmahajia-Rahma Sabtiu-Morla
