Mahal kita

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1. surya

   I seek refuge in Allah from Satan, the accursed.

   In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

   And may Peace and Blessings be upon the Prophet Muhammad

   Assalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh

   Dear kind Muslim Society friends,

   ……

   The Prophet Muhammad, may peace and blessings be upon him, once asked a mute woman “Where is God?” She pointed to the sky. Then, the Prophet asked “Who am I?” The woman pointed to the sky then brought her hands downwards with palms outstretched in the direction of the Prophet. A pithy way of saying “You are the Messenger of God”. (1)

   Hence it is sunna to point to the sky to signify Allah, the Compassionate and Merciful.

   It is also sunna to hold one’s anger. The dot dot dot dot dot dot you saw early in this email conveys my textual signification of holding my anger.

   Let me retrace.

   I have not known a person with a bigger heart than Mus’ab. He befriended everyone sincerely. To honor him, I let one of his friends, of Bangladeshi origin, inflicted with Singapore version of modern day slavery, entered the Chemical Engineering computer lab at Engineering 5 (E5) block. One of his few pleasures in Singapore which he could only enjoy around Mus’ab is access to Word typing, images viewing and Qur’an listening over the Internet at the said lab.

   Then, the Professor struck.

   Apparently, the Light of Allah (the meaning of Mus’ab’s friends name) lingered a minute too long at the lab’s door. The Professor, possibly out of civic duty, felt compelled to catch a better sight of this uncommonly dressed person. He barged into the lab.

   “Are you an NUS student,” the Professor intruded.

   “Yes,” I replied.

   “Is he your friend?” pointing at the Light of Allah.

   “Yes.”

   A suspicious gleam remained in his eye, but my answers somewhat pacified him. He exited the room.

   Two breaths later, he returned. His voice rising, “Are you a Chemical Engineering Student?”. “No, Civil” I said. Pausing, he scanned me quizzically. Still loud, he asked “A B. Tech student?”. “No, full time,” I replied.

   He exited the room again.

   I continued typing. By now, the Light of Allah sensed something wrong and sat frozen. For a while, I did not notice this.

   Two sentences later, the Professor arrived again. This time, I became aware of the situation.

   The Light of Allah looked out of place in the lab with his skull cap. My brown and his dark features seemed to fit the Professor’s mental image of OED’s beware-of-thief warning letters.

   “I’m calling security,” he thundered, concluding.

   My mind exploded.

   In his lecture Elements of Success, Syaikh Hamza Yusuf wept when citing the success of a black woman, whose name is not even known, entering Paradise because the Prophet noticed her cleaning a mosque. (2)

   I wept inwards thinking the lengthy nights the Light of Allah spent during Ramadhan at the Tentera mosque reciting the Quran.

   In his book, Limbo: Blue-Collar Roots, White-Collar Dreams, Alfred Lubrano, who studied at Columbia Unviersity, wept recounting the story of his construction worker father not allowed to enter the building his father’s hands helped built. (3) How many buildings in Singapore are built by people such as the Light of Allah?

   I once saw a sign when the Computer Centre was renovated: ‘Construction worker are not allowed to eat at the Engineering Canteen’.

   1 million foreigners in Singapore. All educated? A fine welcome for the educated foreigners but a grudging acceptance of people without whom buildings would not be built, streets would not be cleaned, houses and children would not be taken care of.

   What rubbish!

   The Professor might be successful in this world, but God willing, we would see the real success in the Other World.

   The world where we are judged only by our piety and fear of Allah, the Compassionate and Merciful.

   Wassalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.

   Endnotes:

   (1) ISNA 2007: Hamza Yusuf - Upholding Faith, Serving Humanity – minute 01:00 http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=6lSpxGxkLCA

   (2) Sheikh Hamza Yusuf - Elements Of Success Part 3 Of 4 – minute 01:20. http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=EjC-X8qPrys

   (3) Lubrano, Alfred. Limbo : blue-collar roots, white-collar dreams / Alfred Lubrano. Hoboken, NJ : Wiley, c2004.

   Posted by surya on 21 Oct 2008 at 9:41 pm | Permalink