“Don’t worship Allah so He may give you. Rather, worship Him so He may be pleased. For when He is pleased, He will astonish you with His Gifts.”
By the dawn
And the ten nights
And the even and the odd
O you tranquil soul!
Return to your Lord, well-pleased and pleasing
[al-Fajr: 1-3; 27-28]
Loftiness is attained in accordance to one’s struggles,
And whoever seeks nobility, remains vigilant by night.
Whoever wishes to achieve without due effort,
Will waste their life seeking what’s impossible.
You search for glory and yet you sleep at night,
It’s only the seeker of pearls who dives deep into the sea.
– Imam al-Shafi’i, al-Diwan
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When the old uncle fell
As I was hanging around to pick my gran up from the airport this morning, an old Somali man walked passed me on crutches. As he went through the crowds, I noticed he only had one leg and was walking alone. Actually I was more surprised that he was wearing a ma’awis (Izar) in this weather! Anyway, I turned away and began looking around for my gran. But, just a few seconds later, I noticed a look of horror on a girl’s face as she stared behind me, and a gasp went out from another woman. I span around and saw the old man had slipped, fallen hard, and was lying on the floor in pain.
What happened next was truly heartwarming. A young English lad dropped his luggage and literally sprinted across from where he was towards the man (seriously, he had the stride of a sprinter in a 100m race). An old couple who were closer to the old man turned around to help, whilst a lady rushed too. Myself and a staff member also ran over to help. We all arrived at the same time and subhan’Allah, all I remember seeing as I reached down to help the uncle up, was hands of various colours also reaching to help. There were shades of brown, black, olive, white, tanned… at least 6 pairs of hands held the Somali uncle – all at once. It was silent and beautiful.
Speaking in Somali, I asked the man where he was going and he pointed to a seat. The young guy who ran over had such a worried look on his face, bless him, and he stood/walked close to the uncle, guarding him in case he fell again. The old couple were shaken up themselves but still held on to the man with their shaking hands.
It was such a delicate and beautiful scene subhan’Allah. None of the people could really speak each other’s languages, but you don’t need to speak the same tongue in order to understand that when someone falls down in life, you can either watch or you can do your best to pick them back up. In that split moment when the old uncle fell, I doubt anyone noticed the colour of his skin or the language he spoke, or his background. All they saw was a human who fell from his stature.