How Long Can You Last?

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum

Dear Friends

I pray that you have a blessed Ramadhan with full acceptance of works of righteousness.

If you think your life is difficult, think again. Just imagine how long you can last in an over 100 degrees weather wiping and cleaning people's pathways. Many of you men have jobs in nice offices, with good paying jobs. And many of you ladies have husbands to bring food to your table, to buy you nice things, to take care of your children's needs, and for some to provide for your yearly vacation. In short there is nothing to complain about but so much to be thankful about if only we reflect. But we tend to be short sighted. If we just look around us--we don't have to go very far, we don't have to see with our own eyes even, although if we open our eyes, we should see many many people around us who are in a worse situation than us. So if we are grateful for what we have, we don't complain. Instead, we are merciful to people and help those who are less fortunate.

I had to travel to the US Embassy in Cairo the other day with my son to take care of some work for him. We decided to take the bus. By mistake, we stopped a little further than where we were supposed to stop. So we had to walk quite a ways to get to the Embassy! We took the pedestrian pathways to avoid the challenge of crossing the busy roads. This added to the amount of walking we had to do. I felt a little tired after a while (because of the heat and we were fasting) but did not want to show that to my son who was walking behind me, who was quite tired as well. As we were walking, there was this very skinny old man (at least he looked very old) with a bucket of muddy water and a rag on his knees wiping the floors. I pointed that out to my son--that we should be grateful that we were not in his shoes. My son was quiet so I didn't have to say more. On the way back, we took the commuter train. As we were walking to the main bus stop from the train station, there was this very skinny old woman (at least she looked very old) with a dust pan and an old broom sweeping the floor. I pointed that out to my son and ask Allah not to test me with that! My son was very quiet.

May Allah help all the Muslims and not lay a burden on us more than we can handle and may He make us among His grateful servants. Ameen. Please don't forget us in your night prayers. Jazakallahu khairan.

And Allah knows best.
Wassalaam