In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum
Dear Friends
I pray that you are well.
Everything that is happening should remind us of how much we need Allah, that we can't do anything without His help and His tawfiq, but how little we see His blessings and how little we thank Him for everything.
Everyday, we can catch ourselves complaining about something, maybe not overtly but silently or indirectly. We complain when we have to wait in line for hours. Thank Allah that He gave you the two feet to enable you to stand up in the line for so long. We complain when people are not doing their jobs properly. Thank Allah that He gave you enough patience so that you don't lose control and start hitting and yelling at people, perhaps get yourself deported.
The other day, I was at the visa office to renew my visa and my children's visa. As expected, it was almost a whole day event with long standing in line and seeing impatient and angry foreigners and angry staff.
When I first arrived there was a line for women and another line for men which were group enforceable. I thought that was thoughtful. I stood behind the last person in the women's line. But after a while I realized the line wasn't moving. I asked the people in front of me if I could go to the front and see what was going on. They said ok (good luck!). I went to the window and tried to get the attention of the staff but no one bothered to look at the window. Some of them were chatting, eating, smoking, walking up and down and you wonder if much was being done. Finally, a staff came and I asked him if I was standing at the right window to process our visas. He grudgingly took our passports, looked at them and left the passports on the counter and walked away.
One of the ladies who was standing behind me said, "I used to have a lot of patience, but after I came to Egypt I lost it, and now I am trying to be patient." I said, this is the best place to teach patience and tawakkul (they don't call Egypt a factory of knowledge for no reason) and that we don't realize how little patience we had before and how much we relied on human systems until we come to Egypt. In US and Europe, everything runs like clock work and so we took many things for granted living there. We forget Allah is the One who is running everything, the clock and the clock work included.
We waited realizing that when Allah decides to send someone to process and give us the visas, it won't be a moment later. Some of the ladies had sat down on the floor because their feet couldn't take it anymore.
We comforted and reminded each other with words of the Qur'an, that Allah is with the patient, that Allah is the All Powerful, the All Hearing and the All Seeing (that He sees and hears everything was happening to us). We asked Allah to guide them and bring peace to Egypt (which is currently in huge turmoil again). One of the staffs must have overheard our conversation, looked over towards the pillar that separated me and him with a big smile. I took this great opportunity to ask him if someone would come and process our visas. Soon thereafter a staff came and took our passports for further processing. I said to him jazakallahu khairan.
Our lives yesterday, today, now and tomorrow is how Allah wants it to be. He has known everything before they be. Nothing moves, nothing remains still without His knowledge, His will, His power. La hawla wala quwwata illa billah. We are nothing without Allah. We are certain that we don't know what tomorrow will bring but we hope that Allah will have mercy on us and continue to shower us with His blessings and make us die with la illaha illallah at the highest of iman.
We thank Allah for by Him we see what we see in this deen, we hear what our teachers taught us about this deen, He did not choose us to be blind or deaf and did not make us be among those who are heedless and led astray.
وَلَقَدْ ذَرَأْنَا لِجَهَنَّمَ كَثِيرًا مِّنَ ٱلْجِنِّ وَٱلْإِنسِ ۖ لَهُمْ قُلُوبٌ لَّا يَفْقَهُونَ بِهَا وَلَهُمْ أَعْيُنٌ لَّا يُبْصِرُونَ بِهَا وَلَهُمْ ءَاذَانٌ لَّا يَسْمَعُونَ بِهَآ ۚ أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ كَٱلْأَنْعَـٰمِ بَلْ هُمْ أَضَلُّ ۚ أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْغَـٰفِلُونَ
"And We have certainly created for Hell many of the jinn and mankind. They have hearts with which they do not understand, they have eyes with which they do not see, and they have ears with which they do not hear. Those are like livestock; rather, they are more astray. It is they who are the heedless." Qur'an Al-A'raf 7:179
May Allah make us His grateful servants. Ameen. Please don't forget us in your night prayers. Jazakum Allahu khairan.
And Allah knows best.
Wassalaam
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