the past few weeks. asaabey3 al maadi

assalamu alaikum :)
bismillah.
amma baad.

ahh, its been quite a while since i made an entry in my blog. why the long hiatus? i guess ive been occupied with life. over the last few weeks of the semester i was busy trying to balance work and studying for finals. alhamdulillah, my efforts paid off and resulted in good grades, but unfortunately i received no monetary compensation for the labor services i provided at the pizza place. but i can look beyond that because its a family business and i am obligated to help the folks out, especially after all theyve done for us. well that and the fact that father ji scares the crap out of me. this is one of the main reasons why im always reluctant to ask him for money, even when it comes to something essential as buying books for school.

what disgusts me nowadays is how some individuals treat their parents: name-calling, lack of respect, going against their wishes, etc. sadly, the very thing i speak of is sometimes common amongst my relatives. whatever happened to caring for your parents no matter what? does islam not stress the concept of jannah being in your mother's feet? (not literal in the sense of the word. it means caring for her.) for this very reason i humble myself and massage my mother's feet whenever she requests it. additionally, us kids (up till a few years ago. he is now retired.) used to remove my father's shoes and socks whenever he came home from a hard day's work. anas RA, the slave of RasoolAllah SAW said "i never once heard the Holy Prophet say "uff" or express displeasure towards me." if this is how a servant was treated by the Holy Prophet SAW, then you can only imagine how we should treat our parents. Imam Shafi RA wouldnt eat until his mother had finished eating because he was worried that he may take a piece of food which she had wished for. it all comes down to bir ur walidayn (sp).anyways i can go on and on regarding this topic, but i didnt originally set out to discuss this, so ill stop here.

a couple of saturdays ago my good friends father passed away. around the age of 50, he fell victim to a heart attack. as you can imagine, i was deeply moved by this. how hard must it be to lose one's parent, or any loved one for that matter. now my friend becomes the man of the household and he is responsible for the well being of his widowed mother and two younger siblings. what a heavy burden he has on his shoulders. all this while hes in his early 20s. we prayed salat ul janazah then made our way to the graveyard to bury his father. afterwards i didnt know how to approach him. ive been to a few funerals but i never really was good at consoling people. i hugged him and uttered a few words of condolence. other than that, i didnt know what to do, and frankly i dont think my words would mean anything to him. i mean the guy just lost his father, and the last thing he wants to hear is "dont worry, everything will be alright." perhaps he would find some comfort and closure in his lamentations. inshallah everything will work out for anas and his family, ameen.

as i stated earlier, the whole experience was deeply moving and served as a reawakening. while seeing the body being lowered into the grave and then covered by the dirt a sense of fear descended upon me (im sure i wasnt the only one that felt this way). "what condition will i be in when i enter my grave" i asked myself as i prayed, "in what state will i present myself to Allah?" there is some hikma in RasoolAllah's encouraging us to visit the graves of deceased, perhaps so we will be reminded that we will have the same fate. and maybe this reminder will instill fear in us, a fear that will make us strive to be on the path of rightesousness. so goes the reality of life, and the reality of death.

and Allah Almighty knows best.

ma'salama
your brother in islam, sheik speare.