The Elephant in My Life: Some Lessons from Surah Feel

Do you not see how your Lord dealt with the army of the Elephant?

Did He not utterly confound their plans?

He sent flocks of birds against them.

Pelting them with pellets of hard baked clay

He made them [like] cropped stubble

[Quran, Surah Feel Ch-105. Translation by Professor MAS Abdel Haleem]

Most of us probably know of the story of Abraha and how he tried to attack and destroy the Kaaba, and then was roundly defeated by the army of Allah (which here are the birds). More often than not, reading such stories I tend to think of people other than me, as if I am some righteous man guaranteed paradise. Seeing atrocities in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine, I would read this Surah in Salaah and remember how Allah destroyed this one oppressor and He can surely destroy those of this day as well. However, there are lots to take from this story, and I will share just a few reflections, both personal and worldly in sha Allah.

How to not let our ego get too big or our intentions clouded

While the 21st century has come with attacks upon Islam like never before, the numbers of energetic and enthusiastic young people coming towards Islam has dramatically risen. Muslim youth in the darkness of the life of this world suddenly came to find the light of Islam, and those shielded from faith itself are accepting Islam today at a rate never seen before. For all this we say Alhamdulillah.

However, to rest on our laurels and pat on our back would be a grave error, and indeed more so because our arch enemy – Shaytan – is constantly plotting and planning. And among his biggest tricks to deceive the young da’ee or the young student of knowledge is to let his ego inflate and make him arrogant and to cloud his intentions. When people question these brothers and sisters about Islam, and they show a real “know-it-all” attitude, looking down upon the people and always trying to prove their point by hook or by crook. Arrogance slowly leads to clouding of the intentions whereby the brother or sister is no longer learning and preaching for the sake of Allah but rather they are learning and preaching for the sake of winning arguments, for the sake of defeating their opponents and to prove the fact that they have “more knowledge”. Hence one will see many of them knowing lots about minor issues in Islam on which there is difference of opinion so that he can debate with others and put them down and yet many of the fundamentals of Islam he has no clue of them. One will see them also looking down upon and criticizing scholars and other preachers and in no way, shape or form accept criticism or correction. This, brothers and sisters, is disaster!

Moving that Mountain

Dear Reader

I would like you to go on a journey with me right now; a journey where we will imagine a scene. Imagine today, you open your facebook account, and you see 60 notifications and 10 inbox messages. And guess what, it is not just any message, it is messages from your favourite celebrity, whether it is Cristiano Ronaldo if you’re a football fan, Sumon of Aurthohin if you’re a music fan, John Abraham/Aishwarya Rai if your into Bollywood, maybe Tom Cruise/Angelina Jolie if your into Hollywood. I guess you understand what I mean. Just imagine someone who is a celebrity, one you always wanted to get to know, always craved to get a picture with, always wished for an autograph has just sent you a PRIVATE email, inbox message or text. How happy would you be? How pleased would you be?

How pleased would you be my brothers and sisters if you knew that your beloved celebrity now gives you a private meeting time every single day. Facebook status updates to profile pictures to maybe even articles on newspapers, we would do it all, feeling great honour and prestige at being able to be close and connected to this “great” celebrity. In fact if we found someone saying something bad about them or making jokes about we would vehemently defend them and stand up for them while in truth they do not mean anything to us in real life.

On the contrary, many a times when we see a notification or a wall post or an email that is talking of “Quran” or “Islam”, we immediately change screens, sometimes feel absolutely disheartened because we were expecting something “better”, and most probably put it in the trash, delete that tab and forget about it. Brothers and sisters, an important email has been rejected in our community, in our lives and it is not one of these “Quran” emails. It is the Quran itself. 

The Light on the Path

Muadh ibn Jabal (radi Allahu anhu) narrated that the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) said,

“Learn Knowledge, for learning knowledge is a type of Khashyah (awe,reverence, fear) of Allah, seeking it is an act of worship, studying it is a type of Tasbih (declaring the perfection of Allah), searching for it is a jihad, teaching it to those who do not know it is a charity and delivering it to those worthy of it is an act of drawing closer (to Allah).

Knowledge is the reference guide to the halal (allowed) and the haram (disallowed), a light on the path for the people of Paradise, the companion during loneliness, the friend during estrangement, the converser during seclusion, the guide in times of ease and times of difficulty; a weapon to use against the enemies and the quality that is valued by friends.

Allah elevates some people by knowledge to the rank of leaders in righteousness who are followed, their actions imitated and their opinions referred to. The angels long to attend their gatherings and shade them with their wings. Everything wet or dry, the fish in the sea and its creatures, beasts of prey and cattle that live on land invoke Allah to forgive them. Most certainly, this is because Knowledge is the life of the hearts against ignorance, and the lamps of the eyes in darkness. With knowledge the slave reaches the ranks of the righteous and the elevated grades in this life and the hereafter.

Reflections on a Failed Exam

Last week unfortunately was a hard one for me personally. I had failed in my first year final exams at University and will have to be sitting in for a resit in July. While it was a hard time, I remembered during those times that Ibn al-Jawzi used to say that the believer sees signs in everything that he comes across in his life. Having a hard time to get over it, I reflected upon the situation at hand, and thought to myself about a test I am already taking every single day of my life, and the result if bad will never allow me to have a resit!

I firmly remember being in the lab being a “subject” for my lab partners as they were measuring my blood pressure and heart rate when someone exclaimed, “the results are out!” Immediately my heart starting throbbing and my friends taking my blood pressure were saying that it had risen abnormaly! Indeed, there will be a time when another results day will be announced, and Allah records that “On the Day the blast [of the Horn] will convulse [creation]. There will follow it the subsequent [one]. Hearts, that Day, will tremble, their eyes humbled.”[1]

Traffic jams and utilizing them for the sake of Allah

All Praises are due to Allah and may His peace and blessings be upon Rasulullah

A common occurence if you are living in Dhaka is the unimaginable traffic jams. It is as if a third of our lives are being lost in these concrete slums of cars. Moreover, the honking of horns and the rickshaw-pullers playing NFS Underground on the streets really does make it even worse. The head goes into a “thob thob” situation and we feel like throwing up. At times people become so angry and frustrated by these jams that they come home and behave as if they just got dumped by their partners (:P).

Jokes aside, what everyone of us must understand that this traffic jam situation is not going to change, not for now at least. If you or I would try and obey traffic rules we would rather go to the hospital than the one breaking the rules having anything to suffer for it.