2. KEEP PRAYING SINCERELY
A
Pakistani surgeon, Dr. Ihsan, went to the airport to attend a world seminar on
medicine to present his paper and explain his biggest discovery in the field of
medicine. The plane he was taking was already one hour in the air when suddenly
something was wrong with it and its pilot had to take an emergency landing at
the nearest airport. As it would take about sixteen hours to repair the damage
of the plane, and by then it would be too late for him to attend the seminar to
fly with it. He was so specialised his field, and his discovery would have
saved life in every minute. So, he asked the employee of the airport how long
it would take to reach his destination by car. He was told that it would take
about three hours. So, he rented a car and there he went.
While he was driving for
about five minutes the weather suddenly changed. It started to become cloudy,
then it rained and thundered, but he kept driving. After about two hours
driving he became tired, apparently he also lost his way. He saw a small house
where he could rest, ask direction and hire a telephone. But the host, an old
woman was so poor, that she did not have even electricity, let alone a
telephone. She entertained her guest with food and tea. She was a pious woman,
and after she prayed she made her supplication (du’a) for her grand
child who was beside her. She had been generous and liked to help needy people.
She said that only one of her du’as which had not yet been answered
by Allah. She heard that her grandchild needed a surgeon, and there was only
one surgeon who could treat the child with his new discovery, but she could not
afford to take him the hospital. She prayed that Allah would solve this
problem. She wept of joy when Dr. Ihsan told her that her supplication had been
answered, as he was the surgeon meant by her. Instead of going to the surgeon,
the surgeon himself came to him.
This is one of many examples
of how Allah answered our supplication. For Allah it is more important to visit
the sick child than attending the seminar which was so important for the
surgeon, where he could present his new discovery in medicine. “Misfortune”
befell him one after the other: the plane he was flying with had to take
emergency landing. He could not wait until the damage of the plain was repaired
which took about sixteen hours. Because of bad weather the car he rented led
him to the house of the old women who had prayed for his assistance.
Many things happened to us
and to people around us which looked bad, but there is wisdom behind each of
them. There is always something called “Allah’s wisdom” behind anything happens
to us.
عَنْ صُهَيْبٍ، قَالَ: قَالَ رَسُولُ اللهِ
صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ:
”عَجَبًا لِأَمْرِ الْمُؤْمِنِ، إِنَّ أَمْرَهُ كُلَّهُ
خَيْرٌ، وَلَيْسَ ذَاكَ لِأَحَدٍ إِلَّا لِلْمُؤْمِنِ،
إِنْ أَصَابَتْهُ سَرَّاءُ شَكَرَ، فَكَانَ
خَيْرًا لَهُ، وَإِنْ أَصَابَتْهُ ضَرَّاءُ،
صَبَرَ فَكَانَ خَيْرًا لَهُ “(رواه مسلم وابن حبان)
It was
narrated by Ṣuhayb r.a.who said that the
Messenger of Allah s.a.w. said: “How amazing is the
condition of a Muslim, that all his cases are good,
and this
would not happen
to anybody except to the believer: if
happiness (prosperity) befalls him, he thanks (Allah),and
it is good for
him; and if adversity befalls him he
becomes
patient, and it is (also) good for him.”
(Reported
by Muslim and Ibn Ḥibbān)
The well-known American
writer Dale Carnegie said in his book entitled How to Stop Worrying and
Start Living that he saw the Bedouins when something bad happened to them
they said maktūb (“it has been written”). Therefore they had no worry
and did not feel bad and blame anybody for what had happened.
On the contrary, people who have
pessimistic attitude in life see everything in a negative way. It is like
wearing a pair of pink glasses, where there is always pinkness in everything. In
one of Shakespeare’s plays, Hamlet, the prince of Denmark, considered not only
the palace he was living in to be a prison, but the whole country, Denmark. He
said: "there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."[1]
So, it is our attitude and thinking that make a situation good or bad.
عَنْ
أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ، عَنْ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ، قَالَ: أَنَّ
اللَّهَ
عَزَّ
وَجَلَّ قَالَ: "أَنَا عِنْدَ ظَنِّ عَبْدِي
بِي، إِنْ ظَنَّ بِي خَيْرًا فَلَهُ، وَإِنْ
ظَنَّ
شَرًّا فَلَهُ" (رواه أحمد و
ابن حبان)
Abū Hurayrah r.a.
narrated that the Messenger of Allah s.a.w. said: “Allah the Almighty said: “I
am with the thinking of My servant of Me; if he thinks of Me good, then it will
be so for him; and if he thinks of Me bad, then it will be so for him (too).”
(Reported by Aḥmad and Ibn Ḥibbān)
Therefore, we Muslims are supposed to be away from
worry and stress, let alone of having mental breakdown, since we have good
faith with our Creator, Allah the Almighty.
The Egyptian sufi Ibn ‘Aṭā’ Allāh al-Skandarī, said in
his Wisdom no. 6 in his book entitled al-Ḥikam (Wise Sayings), as
follows:
لَا يَكُنْ تَأَخر أمد العطاء مع الإلحاح في الدعاء
- موجبا ليأسك ،
فهو ضمِنَ لك الإجابة فيما يختاره لك لا فيما تختار لنفسك
وفي الوقت الذي يريد ، لا في الوقت الذي تريد
Do not
let the delay of the answer of what
you are fervently asking for make you despair.
He has guaranteed an answer to your prayers
in those things He chooses for you, not in those
things that you choose for yourself, and at the
time He wants, not at the time you want.
In other words, Allah guarantees that
He will accept our prayer (dua) with His choice, either all of them, or
half of them, or with something else as substitute,(such us protecting us from
any harm or disaster), and not with our choice. The time of His acceptance is
also up to Him; it could be tomorrow, next year, or even in the next life, the
Hereafter. We leave it to Him, for He knows exactly what is good for us.
However,
there are some conditions to be fulfilled for the answer of our dua:
sincerity in our dua, not asking bad things, such as sins and cutting
family relationship, being patient in waiting for the answer, and avoiding sin.
The Prophet s.a.w. mentioned the case of a person who prayed to Allah,
but his food was ḥarām and his clothing was ḥarām so that his
prayer would not be answered.
(CIVIC,
23 January, 2015)
المراجع:
المكتبة الشاملة
إبن عطاء الله السكندري. الحكم
Dale Carnegie. How to Stop Worrying and Start
Living
William Shakespeare. Hamlet.
