What would you do if, on a particular day, you come across a broken car in the middle of the road? A car that, because of him, the traffic is slower than usual, and you are already late for an early morning meeting or lecture.
Would you:
a) Curse that guy for causing a massive traffic jam? OR
b) Whisper a prayer so that Allah will help the poor guy and make his car working again?
Which one of the above is your habit? Something to ponder and reflect upon, isn’t it? Sadly enough, I am sure that the majority of us tend to go for the first option. We have made it our habit to treat other people’s problem as, their problem, not ours.
“Just make sure that your problem does not cause a problem to me, because if it does, then you’re in a bigger problem, you get that?” Sounds familiar? Thought so.
Well, listen to this.
A hadith of the prophet S.A.W says that one is not considered a believer if he does not like for his brothers, what he would like for himself. A very wonderful teaching of our beloved prophet which urges us to care and love for our brothers and sisters in Islam if we are true believers. It translates into the fact that, just as we would be very happy to be chosen as the department’s best worker of the week, for example, and should the title be awarded to someone else, we should be as happy for him as we would be should it be awarded to us. Likewise, as sad and broken-hearted we would be if we were to fail a particular exam, should a friend of us be in that position instead, the very same feeling is what we should feel for that friend. It is also mentioned in another hadith of our beloved prophet that goes : “The Muslim Ummah is like one body. If the eye is in pain then the whole body is in pain and if the head is in pain then the whole body is in pain”.
So, the question to ask ourselves now is, are we a believer?
Now, let’s look at why we should make it a habit to whisper a prayer for other muslims. Firstly, it is because our prophet had said that du’a is the weapon of a muslim. How lucky we are to have the most powerful weapon, which can be easily carried around and not to be detected by any security scanner! And as much as this weapon can protect us from harm, disaster, mishap, sadness and sorrows, the same weapon is what we can use to protect our fellow brothers and sisters in Islam against the same thing. We don’t have to be ‘the mechanic’ when a brother’s car broke down, or ‘the doctor’ when a sister is admitted in hospital for a chronic disease, or ‘the rich guy with all the money’ whenever we come across poor people or orphanages, because as much as we would want to be the ‘superhero’ for everyone, we have to admit that we don’t always have the capacity or authority to do so.
But there is one thing that we can do to help, no matter where we are, or who we are, and that is to pray for them. Pray so that Allah gives them shelter, pray so that Allah gives them food to eat, pray so that Allah will ease them in the examination hall, pray so that Allah fixes the family’s vehicle, pray so that Allah cheers up this sad person, pray so that Allah heals their wounds, pray, pray and keep praying, because a prayer is a muslim’s weapon. And I bet this hadith reported by Abu Daw’ud and Tirmidhi will further convince you. It says that the Prophet S.A.W said: ‘The supplication that gets the quickest answer is the one made by one Muslim for another in his absence”. See? You really can be a superhero after all!
Secondly, and I hope this one is motivating enough for you to get into the habit of making du’a for others, is the hadith by Abu Darda’ saying that Rasulullah S.A.W said: Whenever you make a supplication for another believer and he is not present, an angel will say ‘and same to you’. Subhanallah! Imagine, every time we see someone less fortunate than us, and we whisper a prayer may Allah give that person wealth and health, the angels will pray the same thing for us too! Or imagine, in the examination hall, sitting for our Final Exams, and we whisper a prayer to Allah may He ease our friend’s task in answering the exam papers with flying colours, the angels are praying the same thing for us! Masya-Allah! How great and generous is Allah! By doing a kind deed for someone else, we don’t lose anything; in fact, we gain a lot from it ourselves.
So let’s not be selfish in our du’a. Let’s not just pray for our own selves. Instead, let’s make it a habit to pray for other muslims too, not only after prayers, but at anytime of the day and anywhere in this world. If everyone makes it a habit to pray goodness for others, imagine how many people would also be praying for us, and just imagine how much better the world would be?
Remember, we have nothing to lose.
Hanan bt Othman
Geoscientist
PETRONAS Carigali Sdn Bhd
http://fairytaleho.wordpress.
