Bismillaah arrahmaan arraheem
The other day I spent at the hospital with my youngest child. Alhamdulillaah nothing serious. Sitting there next to his hospital bed, seeing all the small children around me, being there for different reasons, made me conscious of how I take so many things for granted. All those things I take for granted, is something I really have to be thankful for.
The Prophet (pbuh) said:
“Take benefit of five before five:
your youth before your old age,
your health before your sickness,
your wealth before your poverty,
your free-time before your preoccupation,
and your life before your death.”
Life and health is something many of us take for granted. I know I do, very often. We think we will live as long as we want and as long as we need to do enough of good deeds, and not only that, I will also be healthy and sound as a bell. I take it for granted just as I take it for granted that my children, family and those I love and care about also will be healthy and live as long as I need them around.
I live in a very safe and secure place. We have peace here. We have food. We have clean water for drinking and washing. SubhanAllaah, even the water we flush our toilets with are pure and clean drinking-water! And this when people in some areas of the world have nothing to drink but dirty contaminated water. So many children die because of this. It really is a shame that today, 2011, we can travel to the moon, we can send robots to Mars, we can create weapons of mass destruction – but we can’t guarantee something as simple as clean water to everyone!
So many people, so many of my sisters and brothers in islam, live under horrible conditions. They live in wars, occupied lands, they don’t have food to eat or to feed their children with. They don’t have access to even the basic medical care or medicines. I often think about the absurdity that in Africa, and other places, so many children die from malaria, when that is so easy to prevent. The most efficient ways to prevent malaria is mosquito nets. And how much does that cost? Around 5 dollars! SubhanAllaah. Yet the rich world can’t afford to sponsor families in malaria infected areas with that.
It is so easy to prevent so much suffering, misery, diseases, hunger…. Yet we don’t. It’s so sad really. We’re so preoccupied with our lives and with dunya, this life and this world, that we forget those less fortunate around us. And if that wasn’t enough, we even forget to be grateful for what we have, for all the good that Allaah bestows upon us. We forget to thank Allaah. We simply take for granted that we should have all the benefits in life that we have. We take it for granted and we expect it, and if we would lose any of it, we get upset, angry, depressed and complain about it. But we don’t say thanks for the gifts.
If we only would remember to thank Allaah, the Bestower, the Sustainer, the Ever-Providing, the Most Generous, properly from the depths of our hearts each day. If we did that, I am sure we would be more successful and perhaps, with the permission of Allaah, we would be able to do more good in this world and seriously bring forth a change.
Oh Allah help us in remembering You, in offering gratitude to You, and in worshiping You beautifully, amin.
I say this everyday, almost. The world is a cesspool. Yes, remembering Allah and being grateful for what He’s given us is important and perhaps the most essential. But the result of that ought to be doing active work. Several or most muslims around the world remember Allah day and night and supposedly sit in masjids hours and days with just ‘Dhikr’ and ‘Shukr’, which is all fine, but that is a very selfish attitude for they forget the realities of the world which is the reason we remember Allah and thank Him. The reality is that Allah created this world with hardships for many as a trial and ease for many as their trial. The trial of those with ease would be to help those who are in the hardship and the trial for those in hardship is to be patient. Being patient is just as difficult. Again, several talks and publications will be seen. It is sad to notice that all the prosperities and relief and everything else is mostly surrounded by non-muslims, in the sense it is rather a bigger responsibility upon muslims. On a larger scale you’d see so-called muslim socities and nations are just as a big a joke as they have enough to support muslims entirely around the world, but seem to be dwelling in their own spehere and supporting the wealthy to be become more wealthy, the usual sadist, capitalistic nature of muslims of 21st century. You’d see very few muslim scholars even talk about it as they’re more worried about the length of their beards, as if the beards threads falling would provide happiness for others. Altruism and intellect were the basics taught my tbe messenger pbuh that is lost. It does not cost 5$ for a net. It doesn’t much to provide clean surroundings and then there wouldn’t be as many mosqitoes in the first place to spread diseases. This along with several other things. Muslims are dwelling deep in hollywood and hollywood lifestyle while looking islamic. It’s a sad situation. There’s no need to whine about the situation of muslims either, as God Himself made it clear in the Qur’an that only a ‘few’ would be thankful. The foremost thing the messenger ordered to do is to stop lying. This is the basis of all. Lying to others, and to oneself and lying to God. Then when we thank Him for the things He’s given us and move forward trying to give a part of what He’s given to others, we shall succeed. I have the statistics of of all this stuff. Perhaps will put it to use one day. Because in reality, Allah is merciful to those people more. They are happy with the little and thank Him more. The messenger chose to be among the poor. That was his humbleness. However he did ask to pray for richness, so wealth can be given to those who are more in need, as otherwise not every wealthy person is generous and the world would suffer more. It’s a balance to remember. Thank you.