EDITORIAL

Taking a Break to Please Allah

If anyone needs to take a break, the most secure one you may take is to please the most powerful and mighty of all entities, the Creator Lord.  Has man ever wondered why his Lord requires from him some specialized services at specific times of the day?  This is not particular to adherents of Islam only by the way.  One reason is because the Creator Lord who made humans complete along with their sustenance such as conducive oxygenated and vegetated environment [Rabb] deserves that man drops whatever he is doing at the exact appointed time set by Him, to dedicate that chosen time to communicate with his Lord, in pure display of gratitude. 

For humans of these generation, who practice under the guidance of the Last and final Messenger, Prophet Muhammad (may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) the task appears much simpler than that obligated upon earlier believers. We are always reminded about the status of Patriarch Abraham in the sight of his Lord, having earned the name Khalil [a friend] to his Lord. The Just Lord conferred a lot of favors and status to him because of the sheer extremes he went to demonstrate his belief, love, service, dedication and sacrifice to his Lord.  First he was willing to sacrifice his own life, when he was thrown into blazing fire while refusing to renounce his Lord.  Soon after that, he had to leave his family and land of birth because of his belief also.  Much later in life his loving wife Sarah was almost snatched away from him, and when he took a second one  from the palace of the King of Egypt, Hagar, who became the mother of his only male child, he was further tried when a vision came directing him to sacrifice that son Ismail.  He was obedient in all of these instances and was always saved at the last minute by his Lord having tested his dedication each time, i.e. his willingness to follow through with his vows.

Later on he was separated with his family from that same second wife, Hagar, who had her own trials.  Left alone in the desert with her infant child, his second wife Hagar stayed on with the belief that the Lord her husband had worshipped all these years will not forsake her and the child.  From that episode and fortitude of a loving mother the world got a blessed well of Zam Zam, a blessed place of pilgrimage called the city of Makkah with its blessed building first erected by the hands of patriarch Abraham himself, with the help of his Son Ismael.  Her pacing between the mounts Safa and Marwa in search of water for her thirsty child became today the footsteps that millions of faithfuls follow male and female, regardless of Hagar being a woman.

So do we today really want to be tried as were tried those before us? No.  But we do surely want to be admitted to the status of such great Prophets if we could.  It is for that reason, partially, that it was authentically reported from the Prophet Muhammad that he was given two lights [gifts] that no other messenger from Allah was given before him.  One of them is Suratul Fatiha [The Opening] with which every Muslim is obligated to read for his own good at the very least 17 times a day, while communing with his Creator during the five precisely timed daily obligated prayer [Salat].  The other of the two gifts to his followers being the last verses of Suratul Baqarah where a disturbed followership, frozen in fear of being judged for even what they contemplated in their minds on the day of judgment, were relieved with a prayer gifted from the mercy of their Lord.  These are parts of the true blessings of the Muslim adherents today. 

A humble servant, following in the footsteps of those great Prophets and the example set by their spouses took a break to undergo the lesser Pilgrimage [Umra].  And for that reason you did not hear from her, nor seen any update on the Optimist Site.  May the Lord Allah accept our service and those of all of His sincere worshippers, and accept our prayer for a more peaceful and just world (Amen).

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