Message #14920

[Heba E. Husseyn]

Walaikum as-Salam sis      

Very interesting story as you always share dear sis.  Thank you.  But it is also a very sad story     I read it carefully and must say first, may Allah Almighty protect our families from such waywardness, conceit and misguidance. 

Only the grandparents seem to be rightly guided.  But what can one do in such situations?  This attitude is very common in many Muslim families.  It gets far worse when such families immigrate to non-Muslim countries where the daily lifestyle is geared up only to adjust the practical issues of life.  But the Quran commands us that our practical life is a part of our Faith.  Hence Muslim families with little or no spiritual foundation make their own rules to simplify their daily lives.  Sometimes they also create justifications and insist they are not doing anything Haram.  They don't realize how much their approach clashes with Quranic values because they never read the Quran .. and sometimes when they do ritualistically, it's only like a parrot without the slightest of following, let alone analysis, reflection and interest.

Actually this family hasn't been able to understand the fact that Allah's Message is not a ritual but a code of life itself.   Indeed Tawheed is the cornerstone of Faith without which everything else becomes useless.  Those parents say "are we born to serve Allah only?"  It only shows how little they have understood of truth and reality.  No one knows better than Allah how complex practical life is.   For that reason He has sent the complete set of instructions through His Final Message for humans who desire to be His loyal slaves need guidance at every step of life in order to adhere to the Halal track as best as they can.   

I don't know what they mean by saying that "things we do as Muslims do not benefit Allah."  Well of course, Allah is totally independent and does NOT need our worship nor our good deeds.  Allah is there forever, and He will forever remain the All-Knowing and the All-Powerful.  Our worship along with good deeds are for the benefit of our own souls and an evidence of the strength of our commitment to Him.  The stronger the commitment, the stronger our love for Him; the stronger our love for Him, the stronger our Faith in Him.  Thus, while Allah is not in need of us, He performs His task of Judging humanity by separating the hardworking slaves from the lazy ones.   An example: A teacher does not benefit whether or not the student works hard to pass his/her exams.  However, the teacher will give the student good marks if the student performs well, and will fail the student if he or she does badly.  Therefore, similarly, Allah is no doubt completely independent of us.  But by being heedful, we help ourselves and being heedless will only hurt our own souls for Allah is definitely a Watcher over all things.  He has created life with a purpose with all its demanding circumstances and thus He monitors how we handle those circumstances.  This family is obviously handling its circumstances of life very incorrectly.  As I already said, it doesn't even seem to have the right understanding of the Quranic ideology.  Obviously how will it when it doesn't even believe in recognizing the Message of Allah as the source of practical guidance, instructions and advise?

One of the jobs which the mother is doing as an astrologer it itself Haram.  Allah has said in the Quran loud & clear that NONE knows the unseen but HIM.  But to earn money she indulges in telling people the future when Allah has given her no such warrants.  She feels tired to pray after she returns home, but she doesn't feel tired to do a Haram job like astrology, fooling people with wrong information about the unseen.  How can such a mom be a good example for her kids?  Very sad situation    

Believing in good deeds is of course very important but it goes alongside the expression of our love for Allah, that is, reading His Final Message, performing salat, fasting.  Reading the Quran is very important especially for those who have hardly studied it until now. Quran is the source of pruning and adjusting our good deeds within our lives as believers.  Otherwise, just talking about good deeds, many kuffar also perform what they call "good deeds" by helping people, being honest etc.  But they don't do it with the thought of Allah in their hearts.  They claim the reason for their good deeds is the drive behind their conscience.  In that case, they may get their reward in this world but nothing in the next.  They did their good deeds with the thought of this world by excluding the thought of the Hereafter .. thus Allah will grant them the reward only in this world and nothing in the Hereafter.   They rejected Him in this world, so He will reject them in the next world. This doesn't mean that selfish and dishonest people will do well in the Hereafter by claiming they believe.  But again, this should not be taken as a viewpoint to decide that just performing good deeds without performing our daily devotion to Allah is okay.  If we detach ourselves from worshiping Allah and decide to perform our good deeds without the help of His guidance, then such "good deeds" run the risk of weakening and fizzling off with time because they lack the support and drive that comes with the thought of Allah and our commitment to Him.  The drive of one's conscience is never enough.  Conscience, if left to itself, can be good or bad or a mix of both.  It is Allah that grants guidance, depending upon how much we make ourselves worth His guidance.  Without Allah's guidance, human conscience has limited ability to grow, often being left stunted as we have seen in the cases of many.

Another important aspect here is intention or niyyah.  A person may get stuck in a harrowing routine which does not make any concessions offering them time for prayers or reading of the Quran; that person feels upset and guilty about it, and tries hard to find time whenever they can.  As a result, some days they are able to offer their prayers, read the Quran and do some zikr.  But on certain other days they lag behind and reluctantly, against their wishes, end up missing their spiritual duty.  In such cases the person will never try to justify the omission of their duty with impertinent statements like "Allah does not benefit by our worship" and so on.  Instead, they will be apologetic, full of remorse and extremely regretful.  They will reassure themselves and accordingly tell others that they are constantly trying, with the request to pray for their success in their efforts.  Therefore, such cases are different, in that, they are more humble who acknowledge their fault.  Allah may not always take into account how much we worship Him, but how hard we try to keep our commitment to Him by making efforts to be as regular as we can.   However, to lose track of worshiping Allah nor reading His Message after getting too wrapped up with the mundane issues of life, and on top of that, being convinced of their infallibility and misinterpreting their neglect as righteousness is definitely a rude and sinful act in the Sight of Allah and in the sight of sincere believers.  The bottom line about such people is that their Faith is weak and hence it got easily defeated when put to the test, but their ego won't let them admit it.  Hence they cannot even think of themselves as honest in the true sense of the term.   Maybe they are "honest" to each other concerning the daily issues of life, but not honest about their duties toward Allah which leaves their task pathetically incomplete.

Managing the stress of work and daily life is nothing new.  Everyone faces it.  Yet some are able to manage it well despite a busy life, some are not.  Children going to school and bringing home assignments aren't anything novel either.  Every child goes through this phase .. every child goes to school and college.  My kids get plenty of assignments from school.  My husband and I work like mules in our family business and return home drenched in fatigue.  But giving time to Allah is an embedded and inseparable part of our schedule.  We are so used to it that omitting it feels profoundly disturbing that it's impossible for us to shed our exhaustion & fatigue unless we don't keep returning to Allah through our worship at the times prescribed by Him.  Consequently it keeps strengthening our Faith and deepens our sincerity as guardians of the principles of our daily lives.  Accordingly we teach our kids and they devoutly follow it.  It's sad that this family which is being discussed thinks that they are the only ones who work and send their kids to school who return home with assignments.

Indeed you're right sis.  They are speaking on behalf of Shaitaan, the biggest enemy of Allah.  Shaitaan is always very happy with such people.   Allah says in Surah Al-Anam: "Thus have We appointed unto every prophet an adversary - devils of humankind and jinn who inspire in one another plausible discourse through guile. If thy Lord willed, they would not do so; so leave them alone with their devising; That the hearts of those who believe not in the Hereafter may incline thereto, and that they may take pleasure therein, and that they may earn what they are earning."  (6:112-113).   If you concentrate on the underlined portion in particular, this is exactly what's happening with that family you met.  Their claiming to be believers is a weak claim which they have themselves proven through their actions.  If they had true love of Allah in their hearts, their love for His guidance would also be much more; and in that case they would not say rude stuff like what will Allah benefit from this or that.   

Another important thing here is, which is also highlighted in the above verses, that no one can guide such creatures who have voluntarily chosen to put Allah behind them on the basis of their discrepant ideas and rudimentary excuses.  As you would know, Allah has elucidated in the Quran many times that He grants guidance only to those who open up their hearts and reach out to Him in search of His guidance. A person who has little or no commitment to spend time exclusively with Allah and also harbors no remorse over it, has made no effort to seek His guidance.  So why should Allah awaken them?  And if Allah does not awaken them, it's impossible for us to awaken their misguided minds.  It's people like these who drift toward Satan's outwardly colorful temptations and are yet convinced of their innocence.

I feel sad for their grandparents.  But they too are helpless.  My advise would be that let the grandparents not grieve for their misguided children and grandchildren. Everyone will have to answer to Allah only for themselves.  The grandparents have already called the younger members of their family to guidance, but they didn't heed.  So, it's not the grandparents' responsibility any more.  Thus as Allah says in Verse 6:112 "so leave them alone with their devising;"