Did you know? (Inspirational Islamic Stories)

A Reminder by an old women

Whenever we read or listen to the Qur'an, do we reflect from what we just read or listened to? Don't deny - be honest - sometimes we do it for the sake that our parents, spouse or even teacher would stop nagging us about it.

This incident happened during the time of the Prophet ﷺ‎ . Ibn Abi Hatim Radiyallahu Anhu narrates that the Prophet ﷺ‎ used to go out late night to see how his companions prayed and supplicated and would weep in the darkness,

One night, when the Prophet ﷺ was out and doing his regular checking, he‎ passed by a house where he heard an old woman's voice from behind a door - the old woman was crying and kept repeating a single verse from the Qur'an:

"Has there reached you the report of the Overwhelming [event]?" [88:1]

The old woman cried terribly while repeating this particular verse again and again.
When this happened, the Prophet ﷺ placed his blessed head against the door and began to cry while saying:

"Yes, it did reach me. Yes, it did reach me."

It is a very short story but take a moment to make this scene sink in, imagine our beloved Prophet ﷺ‎ crying out while hearing the old woman's voice as she kept repeating this particular verse - and how much impact it has given to both the Prophet ﷺ and the old woman.

Imagine the closeness of the old woman to the Qur'an - and how her heart is moved as she recites this verse as a warning and reminder from her Lord. Many of us, may have read the story above and would say "oh okay, that's it?" without being affected and realizing that such verse is very heavy and scary in a sense that it warns us that sooner or later - we will have to face the inevitable time of death and that our meeting with Allah has been truly prescribed and is coming.

Yet, we live this life as if we will never leave it - that it will never perish.

My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, you may be wondering what is the connection of me raising the issue of sisters and brothers using social media particularly tiktok where they use it to "Remind" others about Islam - it is simple - remind yourself first.

The old woman in this story, subhan'Allah we don't know how much Allah has honored her that her story reached our generation without her name being known yet her character is being told. She might have not been known here but indeed, in the heavens she is known. subhan'Allah.

Such are the qualities of the sahabiyat (female companions). Most of them are unknown yet their character especially when it comes to haya puts any sister in their rightful places.

This old woman - didn't even have to show her face nor did she even intend to be known for her ibadah - as she was doing this in the middle of the night when everyone else was sound asleep.

Indeed, our actions and character is the best form of dawah - no matter how much effort you put it to make yourself look good in your videos or so - the truth of the matter is the sincerity of your actions.

This particular sahabiyah, Allah concealed even her name due to the high status He has given her. If you truly knew the honor of being concealed through modesty, you would want to be covered from head to foot.

Did you know that the Sahabah, when they used to talk about their families or they are asked about their spouses - they never said even the names of their wives rather they will say Umm so and so or that they will say my family - this is how the gheerah of the saharan were, this is how they honor the women of Islam. - this way of them is also mentioned in the Qur'an if you would just realize.
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Let us focus with our connection with our Lord, our ibadah, our Qur'an and you will see how Allah will make use of you to remind others about Him and Islam.

May Allah make us amongst such people who are well connected with Him through learning the Qur'an and establishing our salah and making the most of the days we are living in this world to do great deeds that would benefit us in the life hereafter.