Why do parents forget what it was like to be a child or an adolescent?
Why do the newly rich forget what it was like to be poor?
Why do the healthy forget what it was like to be sick?
Why do the married forget what the struggles were like to be single?
Why do we forget and become ungrateful for all the things we now have? Worse. Why do we start pointing fingers, looking down upon and hurting people who are now in the position we once were? Where has the empathy gone?
Why do friends forget what it was like to have none? Why do they suddenly start avoiding the friends who are in need, inspite of them being there through thick and thin? What makes us act this way? So selfishly. As if the world revolves around us. As though we are right and everyone else is wrong. Our pain is pain but someone else’s pain is nothing. Someone else’s loss is meaningless.
How can we deal with people in such a selfish manner and then face Allah in prayer each day and cry in our duas asking for help and beg for mercy? Is that what Islam taught us? Do we even know Islam if this is our behaviour? If we can’t want for our brother/sister (in Islam) what we want for ourselves, are we really good Muslims?
May Allah place mercy and empathy in our hearts. Ameen.
I had typed up the post a week or so back but I’m only completing it now so here goes:
Have you ever looked at Islam from the point of view of a convert? I love learning about how they opened their hearts to Islam and what they saw in Islam and Muslims that attracted them. Many of the converts knew Muslims with amazing characters and usually it was the simple gestures that made them want to know more about Islam. That should be just one reason for us to be motivated enough to be better Muslims, inshaAllah.
Here’s one of the videos that I truly enjoyed watching:
Just some of the points that were brought up that I appreciated them talking about is:
1. Doing our work to please Allah (swt) rather than to simply please others. The benefit of that is that even though people may not appreciate you, Allah (swt) always will and He will reward us in ways no one else can.
2. How Allah is always watching us and is aware of all that we do and this knowledge prevents us from sinning and if we do sin then we constantly seek Allah (swt)’s Forgiveness.
3. Changing our purpose from wanting things from this life and material things to concentrating on pleasing Allah and being happy and thankful for with what we have.
4. Being humble and patient which most of us have difficulty with.
5. Looking at problems and difficulties as challenges and looking at it as a chance to please Allah (swt) and learn and benefit from them.
The purpose of sharing these thoughts is because often times we take our actions, our practice of Islam and Allah’s Mercy for granted and we tend to slack in aspects of how we practice Islam. By looking at other Muslims, it can inspire us to change and become better and closer to Allah, inshaAllah.
