A short story,..
About 8 years ago,I was at one of our relatives house for a family wedding. Being a homey person, I got there very reluctantly after my parents insistence. Those 8 days were a mixture of amusement, mocking and annoyance. The groom to be, used to put a 'agarbatti' (Incensed sticks) each n every morning after he had taken a bath in front of a photo of a saint. We used to just laugh with amusement looking at a fully grown man,with a high profile job and persona, standing like a total fool ,being a muslim n still worshipping a dead person. SubhanAllah. This practice entertained us at first day, but it was pissing us off internally because that was clear shirk !!!
The next day, the whole family did some kind of dholki..n mehndi..where the sister in laws of the groom were having fun with him (??!!) 😒 Later on, after a lavish wedding that had no separation for men and women, the reception was held at a hotel. After the dinner of walima, everyone from the bride's family and groom's family (closest people) got on the floor and the lights were turned to something that of the club or disco. Everyone was just dancing without even noticing that they were being so close to non mehrams. Looking at that scenario one thing was in my mind, "these people are possessed by iblees himself !!!" 😰 The bride n groom too were dancing and we had to leave the place, as it was too suffocating and the music was just horrible. When we returned to our home, I vowed that I will never visit those relatives again ever again. They were plain ignorants for us, even as a kid back then, I loathed their lifestyle.
So after 8 years, the same person (the groom,well he is a father of 2 now, not a groom anymore 🙄) called my mother,asking about me n my sister. We hesitantly took the phone as my mother was glaring at us when we tried to shoo it 😶 The same man was asking for us, because he LEFT every bad habit he had, and he was learning from Madina University!!! And he wanted to correct himself,and know if he was going the right way, from us !! Allahu Akbar ! And I was like, whatttt? 😳 The way he spoke, the way he seemed so enthusiastic about his learning. The way he was trying to improve his pronunciation and summarising everything he learnt over there, it was just amazing. Even in my dreams I wouldn't have imagined him to be guided this beautifully. He is not only good at knowledge but he is so disappointed with his past mistakes and was constantly admitting that he was wrong and ignorant. SubhanAllah. That brought so much happiness and awe within us, but a part of us was ashamed for how we mocked him for his ignorance.
And Allah guided him and to be honest he was much better in learning than us. That moment I felt as if I was iblees (NaudhuBillah) because somewhere, I was proud of our knowledge and that brought some arrogance within me.
That day I learnt no matter how the person in front of you behaves,NEVER JUDGE . Allah can guide anyone anytime and in ways that seem impossible. Just because you are a more practicing Muslim, doesn't mean you have the right to judge someone who isn't. We don't know how we are going to die, it may happen that someone who spent their live worshipping Allah can die in state where their Imaan doesn't weigh much. And someone who spent whole life in haraam can die just after uttering the Shahada. These are matters of Allah and His might.
If you are observing a full Khimar..doesn't mean you can consider someone lower than yourself because they doesn't. Of course you can do the Islaah in most polite way possible. But hissing at them, mocking them and above all , thinking that they are low muslims is NOT A BELIEVER'S JOB. If you are seeing a person drinking alcohol today, try to help them getting rid of it, make sure you guide them in a way that's understandable for them. And leave the rest to Allah. If He is to guide someone nobody can stop it and if He doesn't want someone to be guided then who is there to guide ??!! Just do your part as a Muslim, instruct and leave. You don't have to be proud of yourself neither you have to mourn over someone's ignorance. Allah knows best and Allah does best. Just make sure you don't fall into the trap of shaytaan and become arrogant of your practice of Deen. Remember Iblees was arrogant and Adam was forgiven because He was humble ! Humility is a trait that we often loose in the pride of our own self. What were we before Allah guided us? Were we so great ? No ! We were just worthless as we are today . Its just the guidance of Allah with humility that makes us worth something.
Isn't it?
Huff 😓 That should have been named a long story. It isn't short at all !
Allahu Akbar 😅
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