Sacrifies
(After going through a rough patch in my life, I was inspired to write this in January 2007)
“My Lord, my Lord. I am sick. I’m in need of healing and you are the Cure.”
In the life of a believer, one would hope that eventually, he or she realizes the extent of their illness. We all suffer from various diseases of the heart. Some are obvious while others hide themselves so well that it takes long periods of time to uncover them. As I am getting closer to my third year as a Muslim, I see that I have a lot of work to do.
But have any of you noticed that when you decide to pull yourselves away from the world, if only for a few minutes, your nafs starts complaining? Really, it becomes like a child, whining and complaining because you have denied it something. And often times that something is not a good thing. Also, have you noticed that the harder you work on polishing your heart, the more the dunya, hawa, nafs and Shaytan (may God protect us), work to pull you away? Of course it’s easy during the month of Ramadan to fast and pray since one of our major enemies is locked up for the whole month. But what about the times when you aim to fast for six days in Shawwal or simple sunnah fasts? Or, goodness, what if you aim to get yourself out of bed on some random day to pray qiyam al layl? That’s when you hear all the pleas of the nafs. “Go back to sleep, you’ve prayed enough. Stop being so hard on yourself.” Subhan’Allah. In order to increase our taqwa and the possibility of a joyous afterlife, we have to make sacrifices.
I’ve wanted to write about this for sometime but I’ve kept this to myself for various reasons. One of my pre-conversion fears was I wouldn’t be able to practice this religion on my own without a husband, Muslim friends or a large community. I swear, sometimes I take myself out of the game before I start to play.
Let me tell you about a particular group of Muslims. They were known for their austere practice of Islam and their ability to recite the Qur’an by heart. They were learned men and women who were well versed in hadith and knowledgeable about fiqh and other matters of Islamic law. They served as advisors to kings and they were teachers of large communities. From this description, you could say that these Muslims could be from anywhere but the ones I’m talking about came from West Africa. These learned holy men and women saw their world turned upside down by the Atlantic slave trade. If you really want to learn about these great people, please read Sylviane A. Diouf’s Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas. After reading this book and honestly, I was amazed and embarrassed. I was amazed by the intellectual and religious achievements of these pious people and frankly, quite embarrassed for myself and other Muslims I’ve known.
One of the many complaints that I heard from some Muslims before my conversion was that Islam is too hard. “It doesn’t make life easier. Fasting is stupid. Who can pray five times day?” While I can understand their complaints, I don’t think they realize that they are mocking the practices of the prophets (alayhim salaam). That person may think fasting is stupid but it was good enough for Jesus (alayhi salaam) or that hijab is stupid but one of the purest women of God’s creation, Mary (alayha salaam) observed it. But alhamdulillah, I met well adjusted, practicing Muslims later on that helped me on my path to Islam. Those particular Muslims weren’t aware of the sacrifices of those who came before us–especially in regard to those captured Muslim slaves.
Your heart will break when you read about Muslims who were beaten for performing the daily prayer. What about our sisters who were fully clothed in Africa? They were stripped naked and raped by merchant sailors and slave masters. Their lives were expendable and they were only given a meager portion of food a day. Despite the humiliation, depression and grief of servitude, many of those slaves fulfilled their religious duties. For those slaves that earned a little money, the Muslim slaves preferred to use it to purchase pens and ink to make copies of surahs rather than drowning their sorrows in alcohol. They led huge revolts in the Americas. Before preparing for battle on those terrible plantations, they made ghusl and wore white clothes so that they could prepare themselves for death rather than return to servitude. Some slaves slaughtered their own meat rather than eat the slop that was given to them. Many of them fasted the month of Ramadan while picking cotton or cutting sugar cane.
In light of all this, do we have the right to say that our situation is so drastically different that we can’t make the same sacrifices? How can some of us not even attempt to fast when others fasted under horrific conditions? How can we completely kill off the prayer when those who came before us prayed with the knowledge that they could be killed or whipped? I chose to discuss the plight of African slaves because their struggle is more recent in our umma’s history. Also, I chose them and not the Sahaba (may God bless them) so that no one could come with the excuse of “well, back then things were different.”
I certainly don’t deny the dangers that come with practicing this religion in America, but the fact remains that after 9/11, you could still go to the mosque. If such an attack occurred in some other place, the government would have closed the mosques and prevented people from congregational prayer. Despite the ridiculous media campaign against us, your employer can’t fire you going for to Friday prayer or for wearing a beard. If they do, alhamdulillah, you can file a complaint and/or sue them! Despite all the negativity, people are still entering into Islam and we (at this moment) can still establish it without too much trouble. And if you think it’s hard trying to find a Muslim to marry, remember that the ratio of slaves was seven men for every three women and only a third of them were Muslim. Most of our Muslim slave ancestors remained bachelors for lack of Muslim sisters or they married Christian or animist women knowing that they couldn’t pass on the religion to their children.
So yes, there are times when my nafs starts complaining, as it will always do when I turn off the TV, when I pray beyond the obligatory, when I fast or do anything remotely beneficial for the afterlife. But when I think about those who came before me and all they did to make sure that they died in a state of submission, I can’t help but feel like our current troubles pale in comparison. Our current situation is difficult but we shouldn’t act as if our times are so unique that we can’t draw inspiration from those who came before us. I promise you, somewhere in the world there’s a sister, crying her eyes out, in prayer to her Lord as bombs fall all around her. What excuse, what reason will we have for God on the Day of Judgment for our lack of faith and action other than “But in America….”?
Responses
Asalaamu alaikum.
Heartfelt and beautiful. And oh so true. It’s time we stop making excuses and blaming all of our failures on everything and everyone except ourselves. We are each responsible for our own deen and must work harder. No one else is going to be answering for us on the Day of Judgment and there will be nowhere for us to turn, no excuses accepted.
Salaams
Thanks for this beautiful beautiful entry.
Alhamdulillah for His SWT guidance to this entry.
I just posted a note on a similar issue.( copy below)
I think we just thanks Allah SWT for the decency and openness of the American ppl..
IN the older times, let us not forget the sufferings of the Ahl e Bayt ( AS) and the rightly guided Sahaba (RA).. from KArbala to the persecution of the Prophet’s SAW family itself.
Alhamdulillah.
Thanks for sharing and JAzaye Khair
Qoute:
Salaams all I had a question, espcially for those who have grown up in non Muslim societies.
What does Allah SWT say about ppl who hate Islam/ Muslims?
I recall the Ayat which says ’ the idolators are the most averse to the believers..” Does this explain the deep rooted hatred ppl have for ISlam in places like INdia- despite the long association and blessings of Islam and many Auliya (RA) there. I dont think Muslims in the US have this problem as much, though parts of Europe and redneck places may have it. But across the board, I feel more ‘defensive’ with non Muslim from Asia, than I do with ppl from all over the world- in fact I have more non Muslim ‘western’ freinds than I have from Asia.
Just wondering.. and this is one thing which prevents/ scares ppl from treading the path of Islam. I have a friend- a non Muslim who loves ISlam and Sufism and currently learning to read the Holy Quran..and she would love to learn more, but consequences for a Hindu to become Muslim are very serious. than for a person to revert in the West, despite all the apparent constraints Alhamdulillah.. I haev seen many marriges of Hindu girils with Muslim guys, where ultimately (despite ppl reverting with their free will) the guy had to ‘adjust’ and put up with idol worship (Astg) just to fit in and look like an ‘acceptable’ Muslim..in other cases, like in the West or elsewhere, marrying a non Muslim doesnt have such serious consequences, even if they revert or not.
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