When I was a teacher, I used to get quite upset when I worked out the unintended but deleterious effect some teachers had on their students. I used to hear over and over again – ‘If you don’t do this you’ll never get on’; or, ‘if you don’t work and study hard you’ll never pass your exams, and then you’ll end up unemployed, and then you won’t be able to afford nice things or have a good time’. And so on, and on. It was all a ploy, of course, to try to make school-children work harder and do better. The intentions were good.
But somehow, the
results of this constant nagging were not wonderful improvements in the
standards of the students. Not only did the words never seem to have any
positive effect on anyone, but on the contrary, youngsters who knew they only
had rather modest talents (if any!) soon got fed up, some stopped trying
altogether, and many ended up struggling with depression. Instead of being
quite proud of the things they had
done right, and the targets they had succeeded in, and the things they had
achieved, they felt that the grown-ups were never satisfied and the whole sorry
business just went on and on, making them want only to get out of school and
pack it in as soon as possible.
Maybe they would
never get jobs, but would spend years and years being unemployed. Maybe they
would never own homes of their own, but would live in rented rooms and rotten
places.
Ouch! This gave
me a bad feeling – because all the teachers really wanted to do was to make
their students do their absolute best, and get as much out of their education
as they possibly could. They wanted to encourage them, not finish them off!
Which brings me
to the subject of Paradise. I have heard so many people tell others that if
they do not do this or that, or try harder, or give up something they are doing
or like, they will never get into Paradise. All they will get is punishment,
and the place we call Hell.
What is Paradise
anyway? Some people also call it Heaven. It is the place of eternal life that
Allah has promised to all who believe in Him, and who do their best to live
good lives here on earth.
We Muslims do not
think that we are just born to wander willy-nilly through our lives for no
reason or purpose, until we eventually drop down dead, and that is the end of
it. We believe that we are all born for a purpose, even if we do not know
straight away what it is – or even if we never work it out, or find it out.
Allah knows what the purpose is for us, even if we don’t. But He is not trying
to catch us out – things will happen to us in our lives as we go along
according to His will for us, whether we like it or not.
We believe that
when things happen to us they are tests of our character. Suppose
something horrible happens, like we get
some terrible disease, or suffer a wound that cannot be fixed up in no time?
Suppose we receive a huge amount of money, or suddenly our families go
bankrupt? Suppose we have turned out to be really ugly, or people make fun of
us for some reason? Suppose we are extremely brainy, so much so that other kids
think we are snobs and swots and we get embarrassed? Suppose our parents get
divorced and we suddenly lose Mum or Dad, or perhaps have to live with a
different ‘Mum’ or ‘Dad’ we may not care much for?
All these things
are real trials to us – some nice and some nasty. The point is, everyone will have some of these trials
– and if we are learning to be good Muslims we will also try to have our wits
about us so that we can react to them in good ways.
If something bad
happens, we could get depressed, angry, hostile, bitter, cruel, selfish. But we
do not have to. We could be patient, gentle, thinking about others, trying to help
out, and so on. If something good happens, we could be very selfish, or get
conceited, or feel superior – but we do not have to. We might rather be
pleased, and happy to share, and grateful for our good fortune. Do you see what
I mean?
Sometimes well-meaning
people tell us that we must always ‘Fear Allah’, because if we do not, we will
be punished and horrible fates will await us. Whatever we do in life, we are
ordered to remember Allah’s anger and follow all sorts of rules, in case we
fail our tests and He gets angry with us, and we are not able to wipe out our
terrible record of failure.
In my opinion,
the words ‘Fear Allah’ are really wrong, except in a very few special
circumstances. What is meant most of the time is rather to ‘have reverence’ for Allah, to think
about Him with great love and respect, and awe and humility.
Well, suppose we
do commit sins and do things wrong? Isn’t Allah going to punish us, then? What
about His justice, His laws, His rules. Surely they all matter, especially if
we are trying to please Him?
Yes, they do
matter – but what matters much more is Allah’s love for us, His understanding,
His wisdom and His compassion. Of course He knows that none of us are perfect –
He should know, after all, for He created us in the first place. He knows our
characters, the things we are likely to do, our likes and dislikes, our
abilities to stand up to temptations. He knows all our background influences,
and things that might have affected us and altered the way we behave.
Allah does not
judge us like a human being might judge us – if He did that, then probably
nobody would escape some sort of punishment. No, Allah knows all the facts in a
way that we can never do, and still loves us dearly. If we realise that we have
done something wrong and are sorry about it, He ALWAYS forgives us. The moment
we say sorry, He has already forgiven us. The bad thing is gone off our record.
There will be no horrible punishment to come sometime in the future, even if
have forgotten all about it.
The Prophet
(pbuh) once pointed out a mother hen to his friends – she was clucking around
looking after her chicks. She represented a good loving and caring mother.
Didn’t we know, the Prophet (pbuh) asked, that Allah cares for us much much
more than a hen cares for her chicks?
Even if our mothers get cross with us, and fed up with our moods and
tantrums, and ashamed of our bad habits, and petrified of us doing wrong –
don’t they still love us, no matter what we have done? Yes, they do. They
really do. Even if, at the end of the day, we really fall out with and separate
from our mothers – we can never be separated from the love of Allah, no matter what we do. He may well hate the sin
that we do, but He never hates us.
Our angels keep
two books of records about us – the good and the bad. The things in our good
book never disappear but are recorded for ever, even if nobody saw us doing
them. We will forget all about them, but they stay recorded for ever, and one
day we will see that record and realise how we were going along the right path
in our lives. We will also be shown our bad books, but even if we remember only
too well some of the wrong things we did, to our surprise they may not be there
in our records at all. This is because they just disappear and exist no more
the moment we are sorry and try to do something to put things right.
I like to think
of our good books as a kind of savings bank, into which we can put day by day
all our good deeds and thoughts, and things we do to help others, or to stop
ourselves from doing something we would be ashamed of people knowing about. You
might see an old lady drop a five-pound note. Here’s a temptation – what do you
do? Keep it, or give it back? Nobody saw it – oh, but wait a moment, Allah saw
it. If you do the right thing, there goes another entry in your good book.
But suppose you
kept it? What then? The entry goes into your bad book, and you have committed a
sin. Do you know what happens next? Your angels keep popping thoughts into your
mind that make you feel guilty and ashamed. It might be making you think how
you would feel if someone else found out what you had done – and I don’t mean a
pal who you know steals things and would not care less. You might suddenly
realise that the old lady could now not
buy any food or pay for her electrics, or something, and you would feel
bad. How could you put it right, especially if you had no idea how to find the
lady and pay it back?
Well, you could
hand it in to the police station, giving your name and address so that if she
never went to ask about it, it could be returned to you. Or you could keep an
eye out for the lady – she probably uses the same street regularly, and give it
back later. You could certainly tell yourself and promise Allah that you will
never fall for that particular temptation again. You could then do some good
deed to someone else that would act as what we call a ‘covering action’. Get
the idea?
We all know
people who would simply laugh at an honest person giving back that £5. The
world is full of them, many of our friends would be like that. But if we want
to be on the straight path, then we must not think like them but turn our
hearts as much as we can towards pleasing Allah. He may forgive us, but He will
not be very delighted if we steal and cheat and do not care about old ladies
and their money. He will know if we are dishonest, and not sorry for it.
So, we need to
have a positive strategy for putting al-Fatihah into practice. Do you remember
the words? ‘All Praise to Allah, Lord of all the worlds, the Compassionate, the
Most Kind, master of the Day of Judgement. You alone do we worship and to You
alone do we turn for help. Show us the next step along the straight path, the
path of those who are earning your pleasure and not that of those who are going
astray.’ (Surah 1).
By asking Him to
show us the next step, we are asking for help to see what is the right thing to
do in every fresh situation that we come across, one test and temptation or
challenge after another. There will not be a blinding flash of light from the
sky to tell us, but our angels will be working on our consciences, making us
feel uncomfortable if we are doing the wrong thing, and increasing in
confidence and freedom if we are doing right. You know it makes sense!
Every little
thing we do right, Allah is so pleased. We do not have to beg Him to forgive
us, or reward us – it is His nature to do so, His promise to us. To all who
believe in Him, and who do good deeds – on them shall be no fear or sorrow, and
they will most surely have their reward in the life to come, even if it seems
as if there is no reward forthcoming down here on earth. He knows we are not
perfect and not geniuses – all we have to do is TRY.
God bless,
wasalaam, Ruqaiyyah.
(With acknowledgements
to Reflect, the magazine of the Muslim Educational Trust).