I think it was during the last eid that my youngest brother, umair, then, 8 year-old, was given AUSD50 as ang-pow. He then happily got himself into a deal with his dear 'wise' old brother who's 18 years older than him. the deal was to exchange his AUSD50 with RM100. Well, thats one of those problems u'll get when the age gap is too big.
Anyway, the point i'm trying to lay down here is the importance of knowing the value of things in this world.
If only umair knew the exchange rate, then he would surely refuse the 'offer.'
Once i read a book in which there was a story of a student who was asked by his teacher to go to the market to buy some things, in exchange to a stone. The student then went to the market and did as was told but the seller refused to accept the stone for the goods he was selling. So then the student came back to his teacher and told him what had happened. Then, his teacher told him to go to a gold smith and sell the stone to him. When the student showed the gold smith the stone, the gold smith was shocked to see such a valuable diamond stone that he didnt even have enough money to buy it.
Moral of the story is, we need to have knowledge on the values of things. The thing with us is that we tend to just look superficially on things and then ignore it so that we can go with the flow and move on with our lives in ignorance! and this thing sometimes happened again and again til suddenly we found ourselves in our late 20s, or our late 30s or 50s or 60's! And naudhubillah, we pray to Allah that we will not only realize it when we're in the grave.
Sometimes i cant help feeling sorry for those old folks who are still tiring themselves day and night in search for a better livelihood. Of course, what i meant by a better livelihood here is a bigger car or a fancier holidays or a bigger TV etc. Its only natural, that when the value of deen is not in our hearts then the value of this world will creep in. We dont have to tell our hearts that to own a big house is success, it will automatically creep into our hearts, given the very materialistic environment around us. Everyone around us is talking about it. Everyone is looking at what ur driving, how big is your house etc.
We have to get our values right. Of course the right values can only be found in our religion. If we turn to our own desires or other peoples values, people can say this and that and theres no guarantee that its gonna be the right thing. And its not a feel-good-channel kind of thing. As long as you feel good about it, its right... NO!
We have to turn to our Creator, cause in the end, we shall all return to Him.
So we have to tell our hearts, for the men, that praying in congregation in the musjid is so many times more valuable than praying alone at home. That 3 ayaat which one recite in his salat are better than 3 big pregnant and fat she-camels. That the 2 rakaat sunnah before the Fajr salah are more beloved in the eyes of the Prophet Sallahu'alayhiwasallam than the whole world.
That for the ladies: taking care of their home is their jihad. Some of us may regard homemaking, staying at home to take care of the children is a waste of time or substandard in todays so-called age of women liberation. But here, Islam declares that homemaking is a jihad for the ladies and jihad is the epitome of Islamic life. It is the highest possible status in an Islamic society. Jihad usually comes with sacrifice. And its easy to understand why being at home is a great jihad for ladies nowadays since to be at home nowadays means sacrificing their career, their chance to get more income, more certificates, name in the society, titles etc. But with any sacrifice in the name of Allah, there is that contentment and joy that can never be bought by anything in this world.
Everything in this world will soon perish and our life after death is a beginning to an eternal life.
Its difficult to find people talking about this so we need to find these people, talk about it ourselves, find that religious environment, gatherings of remembrance of Allah, the gardens of Jannah in this world.
We have to make effort to get deeni values into our hearts. Train our hearts to believe strongly on Allah's promises and rewards in the HereAfter.
Its very important for us to know the values of amal.
its human nature that we like rewards. Allah, Our Creator knows what we like, thats why its no wonder that there are so many verses of the Quran and hadith which mention the rewards of deeds promised by Allah for those people who perfom those deeds for the sake of Allah.
Let our ears listen to these promises again and again. Let our tongue talk about it again and again. InsyaAllah, Allah will give us the desire to do as much deed as possible to please Him.
Of course, its not just about the rewards, by knowing the rewards of deeds, then we'll more or less know how much that deed is loved by Allah. As an analogy, when a father promise to give a great gift for his son for achieving something, its only natural that the father really love that achievement of his son. Like my father last time used to promise me RM100 for every A i got in UPSR, then during my SPM, he promised me RM1k for every A. The more he loves the achievement, the more reward.
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| a diamond: before and after processing |
From my personal experience, just looking at my parents happy for my achievements is in itself a great joy for myself thats more than enough for me. Though initially you may thought that the rewards they promised will make you really happy, in the end you would realize that its not the reward, but its the fact that you knew you had made them happy, that gave you great joy and fulfillment.
Allah.. guide us ya Allah!
open our eyes and heart so that we can differentiate whats valuable and whats not in this life..
give us the right understanding before u call us back, ya Allah.
let this heart yearn for the things that are of value to You, O Allah.
this whole life is a test, and this test can only happen once. No second chance.
Let this heart love what You love and let it hate what You hate.
Amin.
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