It's the month of Ramadan-a period where days are spent fasting and nights are devoted to glorifying the Lord of the worlds. It is in this month when the doors of mercy are open to the ones who aspire to gain nearness to their Creator. How heartening it is to witness the sea of changes a crescent moon , marking the onset of the month of Ramadan, brings about in most of our brethren. Music gets replaced by Quranic recitations, charity overpowers extravagant desires, a call for prayer never goes unanswered, no backbiting and the mosques get overcrowded while multiplexes remain abandoned..
Everything looks surreal until yet another moon is sighted and that declares the arrival of Eid.-the day passes by with unmatched enthusiasm, merrymaking and revelry. Wait, did you notice the words I just used? You probably did but there's nothing strange about it you say because most festivals are synonymous with these words, aren't they? Yes, they are. But it makes no sense when you over indulge in certain acts on a particular day when you have been strictly abstaining from them during the past month. It's a deceit to the soul when you get back to your wrongful ways after having nourished it with all lawful acts that pleases The One who commands over all of us. How stupid it is to replace the word of God with nasty lyrics, to abandon His house for movies full of crap and forget the fact that there still remain people who are less fortunate and a little trim in your exorbitant party plans could actually help them to celebrate Eid like a happier person! It's like we struggled to bathe ourselves in the radiance of His glory for a good 30 days and then suddenly run to seek refuge in Satan's castle of false promises!
Why is it that we claim to be God's servants when we're actually assisting Satan to take his revenge from the One we act to prostrate before? We know that this life and the hereafter are both ruled by the Most Supreme yet we have become Satan's dummy with all the malice, pride, arrogance, deceitfulness, pretense and everything that the Divine Book has described Satan with..Why?? Because we believe life's meant to be enjoyed and turning towards Him for repentance is a business meant only for the oldies. As if you've already been told the time of your death and you go like," Okay, I'm gonna live till the age of 67, so I'll become pious and all that God wants me to when I turn 61!" What if God then reciprocates your reluctance to hail Him by saying," Carry on man, I won't listen to your prayers until then..I don't care whatever you're damned to!" Duh, we all know, whether we admit or not, that Allah is too compassionate to leave us embroiled in all the trauma and sufferings of this life! But still we act like we're never going to face Allah; yes, He's merciful but NOT when we KNOW what we're doing is wrong.
How do you find yourself in a position to ask for His forgiveness when you don't seem to mend your ways of erring? What kind of forgiveness do you seek from Him when we weren't willing to let go off a fellow brother's mistake who also happens to be the servant of God just like you! We keep talking about the shortness of this life, whether to enjoy or to prove ourselves to God is a different topic, but we don't realize the aftermath of breathing our last. Man keeps on planning and sketching how he'd like his future to be and keeps religious obligations at the farthest end of that picture..one spell from the angel of death and the next hour, you find yourself six feet below the earth!
I realized and interpreted this very helplessness of a human being during my friend's pregnancy. Till the time she wasn't aware of her conception, she prayed and begged His Highness to grant her a son who she- as the then religious person -would educate and prepare to be one of Imam Mahdi's army-men. Anyways, when she got the confirmation of her pregnancy she kind of continued with her thanksgiving prostrations and supplications but as soon as she entered the third trimester, a gnawing boredom, you could say Satan attacked her and she gave up everything good to non-stop music and other illogical pastimes. She knew she was going the wrong way, sometimes feared that Allah may take away His blessing- her unborn child- from her but despite all the guilt and remorse, she failed to correct herself. When she entered the eighth month, she decided to tone down all those foolish acts and get back to reciting supplications and prayers, especially the night prayers called the Tahajjud and a supplication called Ziyarat-e-Ashura..She badly wanted to renovate herself spiritually when a thunderbolt struck her in the form of a premature delivery of just 32 weeks. She and her baby had been perfectly healthy until then.
As she lay in the labor room, with pain inducing syringes on her right hand, she lamented the fact that it was she who had invited the misfortune and that her innocent unborn will have to bear the outcome of her misdeeds; it's indeed God's wrath on a selfish soul like her, she believed. Unwillingly though, she forced herself to believe that she is definitely going to be ripped off the divine status of becoming a mother at the last moment . Nonetheless, she muttered Aytul Kursi and Naad-e-Ali as much as she could -she felt like the most shameless creature on earth, for she was invoking the benevolence of The One she had chosen to ignore before her own worldly pleasures!
Nevertheless, to her own astonishment, she passed the enduring pain of labor in a manner no one would've expected. The process was so smooth that she didn't even realize she'd already delivered. When she came to know she is finally done giving birth to a boy (like she had wished) she raised up her injected hands and exclaimed ,"Subhan Allah, Alhamdolillah Wa la Ilaha Ilallah Wa Allaho Akbar!" (Glory and Praise be to God who is the only One and the Greatest!)
To conclude, I'd compare this experience with the bigger , inevitable thing called death. How would've it been if I'd told myself to follow the Right Path at a certain age and just when I'd be getting to it, my visa to stay on this planet, would be terminated and I'd be laid to rest in the bosoms of earth..Perhaps, with the kind of record I put up while being alive, I cannot expect my corpse to "rest" in the grave...It'd surely invite a lot of rebuke, torment and chastisement from the angels. No amount of apologies would do to minimize the punishment nor would I get another chance like my friend did..I had battered my soul with injustice when it was made purely out of Divine Light!
Verily, God understands tears when the pain is too much for words. You don't have to go on saying sorry to your Maker all the time but just one single sorry that comes out sincerely with regret, and a pure intention of not repeating that sin again and you're assured to be safe in God's hands and wrapped in His love through this life and the Hereafter as well..
- ---- Gulnaar F Khan
Everything looks surreal until yet another moon is sighted and that declares the arrival of Eid.-the day passes by with unmatched enthusiasm, merrymaking and revelry. Wait, did you notice the words I just used? You probably did but there's nothing strange about it you say because most festivals are synonymous with these words, aren't they? Yes, they are. But it makes no sense when you over indulge in certain acts on a particular day when you have been strictly abstaining from them during the past month. It's a deceit to the soul when you get back to your wrongful ways after having nourished it with all lawful acts that pleases The One who commands over all of us. How stupid it is to replace the word of God with nasty lyrics, to abandon His house for movies full of crap and forget the fact that there still remain people who are less fortunate and a little trim in your exorbitant party plans could actually help them to celebrate Eid like a happier person! It's like we struggled to bathe ourselves in the radiance of His glory for a good 30 days and then suddenly run to seek refuge in Satan's castle of false promises!
Why is it that we claim to be God's servants when we're actually assisting Satan to take his revenge from the One we act to prostrate before? We know that this life and the hereafter are both ruled by the Most Supreme yet we have become Satan's dummy with all the malice, pride, arrogance, deceitfulness, pretense and everything that the Divine Book has described Satan with..Why?? Because we believe life's meant to be enjoyed and turning towards Him for repentance is a business meant only for the oldies. As if you've already been told the time of your death and you go like," Okay, I'm gonna live till the age of 67, so I'll become pious and all that God wants me to when I turn 61!" What if God then reciprocates your reluctance to hail Him by saying," Carry on man, I won't listen to your prayers until then..I don't care whatever you're damned to!" Duh, we all know, whether we admit or not, that Allah is too compassionate to leave us embroiled in all the trauma and sufferings of this life! But still we act like we're never going to face Allah; yes, He's merciful but NOT when we KNOW what we're doing is wrong.
How do you find yourself in a position to ask for His forgiveness when you don't seem to mend your ways of erring? What kind of forgiveness do you seek from Him when we weren't willing to let go off a fellow brother's mistake who also happens to be the servant of God just like you! We keep talking about the shortness of this life, whether to enjoy or to prove ourselves to God is a different topic, but we don't realize the aftermath of breathing our last. Man keeps on planning and sketching how he'd like his future to be and keeps religious obligations at the farthest end of that picture..one spell from the angel of death and the next hour, you find yourself six feet below the earth!
I realized and interpreted this very helplessness of a human being during my friend's pregnancy. Till the time she wasn't aware of her conception, she prayed and begged His Highness to grant her a son who she- as the then religious person -would educate and prepare to be one of Imam Mahdi's army-men. Anyways, when she got the confirmation of her pregnancy she kind of continued with her thanksgiving prostrations and supplications but as soon as she entered the third trimester, a gnawing boredom, you could say Satan attacked her and she gave up everything good to non-stop music and other illogical pastimes. She knew she was going the wrong way, sometimes feared that Allah may take away His blessing- her unborn child- from her but despite all the guilt and remorse, she failed to correct herself. When she entered the eighth month, she decided to tone down all those foolish acts and get back to reciting supplications and prayers, especially the night prayers called the Tahajjud and a supplication called Ziyarat-e-Ashura..She badly wanted to renovate herself spiritually when a thunderbolt struck her in the form of a premature delivery of just 32 weeks. She and her baby had been perfectly healthy until then.
As she lay in the labor room, with pain inducing syringes on her right hand, she lamented the fact that it was she who had invited the misfortune and that her innocent unborn will have to bear the outcome of her misdeeds; it's indeed God's wrath on a selfish soul like her, she believed. Unwillingly though, she forced herself to believe that she is definitely going to be ripped off the divine status of becoming a mother at the last moment . Nonetheless, she muttered Aytul Kursi and Naad-e-Ali as much as she could -she felt like the most shameless creature on earth, for she was invoking the benevolence of The One she had chosen to ignore before her own worldly pleasures!
Nevertheless, to her own astonishment, she passed the enduring pain of labor in a manner no one would've expected. The process was so smooth that she didn't even realize she'd already delivered. When she came to know she is finally done giving birth to a boy (like she had wished) she raised up her injected hands and exclaimed ,"Subhan Allah, Alhamdolillah Wa la Ilaha Ilallah Wa Allaho Akbar!" (Glory and Praise be to God who is the only One and the Greatest!)
To conclude, I'd compare this experience with the bigger , inevitable thing called death. How would've it been if I'd told myself to follow the Right Path at a certain age and just when I'd be getting to it, my visa to stay on this planet, would be terminated and I'd be laid to rest in the bosoms of earth..Perhaps, with the kind of record I put up while being alive, I cannot expect my corpse to "rest" in the grave...It'd surely invite a lot of rebuke, torment and chastisement from the angels. No amount of apologies would do to minimize the punishment nor would I get another chance like my friend did..I had battered my soul with injustice when it was made purely out of Divine Light!
Verily, God understands tears when the pain is too much for words. You don't have to go on saying sorry to your Maker all the time but just one single sorry that comes out sincerely with regret, and a pure intention of not repeating that sin again and you're assured to be safe in God's hands and wrapped in His love through this life and the Hereafter as well..
- ---- Gulnaar F Khan
