Topic: The brick of life,,

[Baroness]

Assalamu alaykum my dear admins and users of this beautiful forum.

I have come back to pass to you as i promised the rest of the treasures of english postings left in the safeenah.

i ask that u make good use of them and capitalize on the interesting, educational and contaversial issues involved in them

The following is a thread opened by Noor. Read it and tell the others what u think.

Noor wrote:   Bricks of Life

About ten years ago, a young and very successful executive named Josh was traveling down a Chicago neighborhood street. He was going a bit too fast in his sleek, black, 12 cylinder Jaguar XKE, which was only two months old. He was watching for kids darting out from between the cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no child darted out, but a brick sailed out and -WHUMP! smashed into the Jag's shiny black side door!

SCREECH...!!! Brakes slammed! Gears ground into reverse, and tires madly spun the Jaguar back to the spot from where the brick had been thrown. Josh jumped out of the car, grabbed the kid and pushed him up against a parked car.

He shouted at the kid, "What was that all about! Just what the heck are you doing?!" Building up a head of steam, he went on. "That's my new Jag, that brick you threw is gonna cost a lot of money! What were you thinking?!!!"

"Please, mister, please...I'm sorry! I didn't know what else to do!", pleaded the youngster. "I threw the brick because no one else would stop!" Tears were dripping down the boy's chin as he pointed around the parked car. "It's my brother, mister," he said. "He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up."

Sobbing, the boy asked the executive, "Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me."

Moved beyond words, the young executive tried desperately to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. Straining, he lifted the young man back into the wheelchair and took out his handkerchief and wiped the scrapes and cuts, checking to see that everything was going to be OK. He then watched the younger brother push him down the sidewalk toward their home.

It was a long walk back to the sleek, black, shining, 12 cylinder Jaguar XKE - a long and slow walk. Josh never did fix the side door of the Jaguar. He kept the dent to remind him not to live his life in a way that someone has to throw a brick at him to get his attention...

Some bricks are softer than others. Feel for the bricks of life coming to you.

Written by Noor, Moved by Baroness

[Baroness]

Captain wrote in responce.......



Dear NOOR, a thousand thanks for this very moving and very touchy story

real thank you from the heart.

sub7anallah, it is ture, sometimes, we need that brick !!!

those bricks are very much like shouts of a loving friend or a caring father ... they are hard and they hurt.... but they are necessary at times.

Written by Captain...moved by Baroness

[Baroness]

I answered Noor with a page of life that nearly every reader could relate t oin some way or another....

But some will never wake


Assalamu alaykum my dear brothers Noor and the Captain.

I finally found some time to address this post.
Brother Noor your story was indeed memorable and a classic example of what it takes for some people to wake up and (as they say) "smell the homos".

Unfortunaltely though most people will miss the plot and would rather remain materialisitc worried about how much its going to cost them to fix the car rather than think of how such a "calamity" could help them be better people.

That's what calamities are all about and its only the wise person who allows life to teach them.
This brick was an analogy for a lesson to be taught.....a waking call,,,just like the death of a loved one..  

We live our life with mum and dad by our side, helping us in all that we need, providing the safety of home, the satisfaction of food, clothing, pleasure, leasure and in some cases a good education. They are experts at making us beleieve we are the best whilst embedding in us the true meaning of life and all the necessary ethics. Yet what we have learnt from our parents will not surface without a trigger.

Whilst we are under our parents care we feel invincible, untouchable. Who can get to me??, they'd have to go through my highly educated, prestigious and affluent father. WHo dares.........??

then your out there, all alone but still your father is close by your side looking over every move someone makes towards you. You'r still safe, "i'm daddy's little girl...  

Then the one thing you never thought would happen to you does..........your moaning your father's death. Numbness, a feeling of emptyness, a biiiiiiig nothing you feel you are at the time they tell you .....Allah has released him from the pain of cancer and may Allah have mercy on him.

NO ....NO Not my dad...im his little girl. You sit back and ponder in a shell of emptiness. WHo am i now??, where am i going??  

What should I do in my life........He left his wealth, his wife, his children, and he even left ME........his favourite little girl.

"the sun is surely not going to rise tomorrow" You say to yourself. But to add to your sadness.......it does.... and life goes on.

Qad Uqal you never thought you could hate the sun as you did when it rose the next day in the absence of your father.

Necessity calls for you this time to summon some power. You promise yourself that you will be the strength that your father had left within you among his other traits that you will soon learn about. And you will protect not just yourself but your younger siblings and mother whom have always looked at you as their source of power anyway....being daddy's little girl meant more than being spoilt.

It sometimes takes a brick such as that to give you purpose..to help you identify your role in life, and define who you are to yourself.

And it also clarifies how people look at you..how they identify with you.

It beccomes time to put your self behind and work up to their expectations....... . think of others first.

Do we all learn from lifes moments?

Noor it all boils down to a persons natural disposition...maybe called his FITRA..as to whether he wakes to learn from a brick. Dont you think?
Captain !!!!!!!!!! where are You

From Your humble servant.

[Baroness]

Yes the Captain had something to say, read this, I found it interesting........ Tell me what u think!!

Assalamu alaykum my dear brothers Noor and the Captain.

wa 3alaykom essalam wa ra7matullah .
 

That's what calamities are all about and its only the wise person who allows life to teach them. This brick was an analogy for a lesson to be taught.....a waking call,,,just like the death of a loved one..

sub7anallah, you have touched upon a very sensitive point sister.

.... Yet what we have learnt from our parents will not surface without a trigger.

hmm. I thought that as we learn step by step we become what we are, again, gradually. .

Whilst we are under our parents care we feel invincible, untouchable. Who can get to me??,

i wish every muslim kid was as sure of that as you are . I have dealt with many traumatized and absued kids Baronness who unfortunately did not have a childhood that is as brightful as yours. my heart aches for those. Ignorance in religious matters is undoubtedly most of the time the true reason behind that. may Allah save your kids and ours of that.

Then the one thing you never thought would happen to you does....

I am sorry to say there is a problem of education here. we should all remember well that we and all of our beloved ones would leave this world one day, and that this is NOT a bad thing, as long as the person ends up happy on the other day.

.

......your moaning your father's death.

sub7anallah. I share your pain. I am sorry.

NO ....NO Not my dad...

It should rather be, inna lillah wa inna ilayhee raji3oon.

.

You sit back and ponder in a shell of emptiness. WHo am i now??, where am i going??

I can help you find the answer in the Qoran :
you are a slave of Allah and you are going to face your judgment on the last day, so be prepared. Concerning the death of your father, be active truly active in making dou3a2 for him and giving donations for the sake of Allah, and incha2allah it will benefit your father in his grave. That grave that could be a very well lit and perfumed place.

 

What should I do in my life........

Follow up the message that your father carried over, and apply it to your life.

.

He left his wealth, his wife, his children, and he even left ME........his favourite little girl.

he left to you the qor2an and sunnah to follow. Allah does NOT die.

Necessity calls for you this time to summon some power. You promise yourself that you will be the strength that your father had left within you among his other traits that you will soon learn about. And you will protect not just yourself but your younger siblings and mother whom have always looked at you as their source of power anyway....being daddy's little girl meant more than being spoilt.

sub7anallah I was answering your post as I was reading. Now i can see that we DO agree in essence.

It sometimes takes a brick such as that to give you purpose..to help you identify your role in life, and define who you are to yourself.

that is right.

And it also clarifies how people look at you..how they identify with you.

that is NOT important. what really matters is that you be a true followe of the prophet.. If Allah accepts you, you should not really care much what others say about you. .

It beccomes time to put your self behind and work up to their expectations....... . think of others first.

Oh, that should have even been the case, not only after the death of your father. .

 

Do we all learn from lifes moments?

No, we are amasingly interesting forgetters. most of us. may Allah forgive us.

Noor it all boils down to a persons natural disposition...maybe called his FITRA..as to whether he wakes to learn from a brick. Dont you think?

Captain !!!!!!!!!! where are You

Sister, I think it is very much education dependent.. if you have had the right education, mostly you would actually take a moment to think of that brick and appreciate what it brought to your life.

From Your humble servant

may Allah protect you and your beloved family and take good care of everyone of them.



Written by Captain,,,, moved by BAroness

[Baroness]

Read my last reply on the issue which still awaits a responce from the Captain
 I wrote......

Bewarned this may be deep

A big smile and  Assalamu alaykum to bother Captain and sisters Noor, Tayibbah, and Maryam.

 Noor, thankyou for posting such a heart felt slice of life which is now the ground for deep discussion and a somewhat opinionated analysis of human behaviour and thought

Yes indeed how many bricks does it take to eally see life for what it is~~~~ a short passage way to the hereafter. We enter through one door of the house and exit from the other, as it was described by Prophet Nu7 3alayhis-salam, despite him living a long life of 1780 years (according to some sayings).
Captain your response was not at all disappointing. Slight disagreement or conflict is sometimes as appealing as seeing eye-to-eye and the joy of mutual compliments. Once again you draw my reply. I also call on Tayyibah, Maryam and Noor to comment where they feel like.


Our discussion so far has highlighted a few issues among them is the effect of death and our perception of it, individual development and the role of parents

Since you agree that death is a sensitive topic, I leave it to you to tell us how it affects different people in different ways. But no matter how differently it affects each of us, most people will tend to see death as being in the far future rather than a close event.

As I once said to you Captain, our discussions are as much on behalf of many and especially so when I say that the last thing on the mind of a teenager is to lose the one true man her eyes had set on---her father!!

Yes, in the religious bound upbringing, you learn very ealier in life Surat Al-^Ankabout, ayah 57: Kulu safsin thaa’iqatul-mawt, at a time willed by Allah in surat Azzoumar, ayah 42: ila ‘Ajalin musamma. But in our short life on earth described by the prophet as a brief stand under the shade of a tree, we tend to forget that death is sudden and closer than we want it to be. Ibn Majah narrated: wa ana wadonya, inama ana wadonya karaakibin istathala ta7ta shajarah thuma raa7a wa tarakaha.

A teenager who holds his/her parents in the highest light cannot image life without their support and may believe that their death will be much later…not that it will never happen. That is what is meant by my cliché “I never thought it would happen to me” and “No No not my dad”. I don’t know of a teenager who is ever prepared for such a loss. Do you? So the cliché is merely to add interest to the narrative as did your cliché in your story about Kyle

You told us how Kyle grew from a nerd into a handsome young man loved by all the girls and that this made you jealous at times. It’s only a natural human reflex to want people’s admiration and that’s how I read your cliché. I knew of course that if u had really wanted to seek to attract girls, I wouldn’t find you serving Islam in the Safeena. Jealousy as we know it is 7asad and that is to be active in taking a good thing from another person to gain it for yourself. This is a sin. I am sure of this, as I am sure that it was not what you meant. I hold my brother Captain in high regard, which keeps me active in ta7sen athun in what you write.

Death is a change in our life that very few of us are ever ready for. Sub7an Allah just look at the companions and their reaction to the death of our prophet, sallahu 3alayhi wa sallam. They were at a loss, bewildered by the timing of his death to a degree that Sayiduna Omar even threatened to kill the next person who says that the prophet had died. He assumed that the prophet would live longer than them. This, and the Quran was closer to their hearts than any one of us can claim, yet they seemed to have forgotten ayah 144 in surat ‘Aali-^imran. Other sa7abah even fainted. Allah kept the heart of Abu Bakr firm to show for his high rank. Sayiduna Aba Bakr stood and shook them awake with the recitation of that ayah which says: Wama Mu7ammadon illa rassoulon qad khalat min qablihir-rusol..afa’in maata 2aw qutila inqalabtom 3ala a3qaabikom,,wamay yanqalib 3ala 3aqibayhi falay-yodir-rallaha shay2u- wa-sayajzil-laahosh-shaakireen. Then Captain they focused back to the fact of your statement …Allah does not die.

  Here we are talking about some men whose faith measures greatly in comparison to our faith and even to the faith of the later sa7abah as is described in the hadith related by Muslim and Al-Bukhari: law anfaqa a7adakum mithla o7odin thahabun maa balagha modda a7adihim wala nsf.

Unlike a teenager who has only seen death on TV, those were adult men, men who adjusted to many calamities. They withstood bloody battles, the rugged desert terrain, the sinister plots of enemy attack, starvation, immigration and the adjustment to new rules of the religion and many other difficult situations of change all within no more than 26 years. Their endurance is what we can only try to understand thru text. Still their greater test of faith had yet to come with the calamity of the prophet’s death. Sayiduna Aba Bakr reminded them of who they are, what their purpose was and lead them to it during his two year khalifate.

You were right in saying that our pious ancestors leave us the guidance of the Quran and islam too. This is one of the ways that we stay connected to our deceased, which bring me to the role of parents and guardians. Every time I do a good that my father had taught me, I remember the moment he said it. I remember the long walks down that suburban street lined with trees and free from thoroughfare except the cars that drove to their homes. I remember my dad as he shared with me his secrets, problems, opinions and feelings towards his daily events and life experiences. I remember asking his advice and shedding my tears on his shoulder. I remember him as he passed to me from his wisdom and logic the most of which was our obligation to Allah. This is the kind of wealth that money cannot buy. This is the strength, the positive self esteem and attitude that a father plants into his children without them being aware of that gain, until one day when it’s needed. (still I talk in terms of a teenager Captain

The circumstances of age and time crystallize the result. This would not apply to a person who is 25 or 30 years old when his father died. At that age you would expect that such a person would have identified his path and already settled into it slowly and gradually, like u mentioned.

Yes Captain I know a lot of people who inherited money from their parents and with no religious knowledge, this money was--easy come easy go. On the other hand you have those who know that their parents are more deserving of their wealth they left behind, so they give it back in ways of sadaqaat. Noor what do have to add to this??

Captain, when I read your assumption that there may be a problem with my knowledge, I smiled   and remembered ayah 114 in surat Taha: wa qul rabi zidni 3ilmun.

I think its about time I stopped my post. I will end it with a tribute to a wise man I once new, to a man of power and strength….to my father and my last friend, I say this:
It must have been cold there in my shadow
to never have sunlight on your face.
You were content to let me shine, that's your way.

I was the one with all the glory,
while you were the one with all the strain.
A beautiful face to stand beside me,
A beautiful smile to hide the pain.

Did you ever know that you're my hero,
and everything I would like to be?
I can fly higher than an eagle,
for you are the wind beneath my wings
It might have appeared to go unnoticed,
but I've got it all here in my heart.

Allahuma ir7am walidaya kama rabayaani sagheera

This post still awaits the Captains thorough reply

[Baroness]

In his gallant style, the Captain came in to acknowledge that he read the post and will be back to answer it thoroughly

He wrote...... "wow .......let me take my breath before i could answer"

[Baroness]

And now as a last post from me let me say this........


Captain this post still awaits your reply as u promised you would. After that i invite any reader to add, agree, disagree or reply to this topic in what ever way they see fit. This is what this forum is all about "openness, honesty in opinion and friendly discussion"

Your Servant, Sweetheart, True Muslim, Tayyibah, Sanyorita ( i haven't seen her here yet), Noor, Muslim, As-Sunni, and all other.........the rest is up to you.