Taking Lessons from Flowers

 بسم الله الرحمان الرحيم
In the Name of Allah,
the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

 












by Hazrat Maulana Yunus Patel Saheb (rahmatullah alayh)

Whilst taking a walk through Mitchell Park one morning, after  Fajr,
breathing in the fresh morning air, we found the pathway  covered
with flowers, having fallen off the trees.

I mentioned to my friends : ‘At one time these flowers were on 
the trees. They were admired. People enjoyed and appreciated their 
fragrance, inhaling and saying, ‘How beautiful…, ‘ ‘How sweet…’
‘How charming…’ However, when the slight breeze touched those
flowers, they left the branches of the trees. They fell onto the ground.
Then we found those same people, who once admired and enjoyed
those pretty flowers, trample over them as they took their walks.

Those pretty, colourful and fragrant flowers became a carpet on the
ground and were crushed underfoot – as if those visitors were 
squashing the hearts of those flowers. After some time, the garden 
service swept those flowers away and they were thrown into some bin.
Thereafter, the bin bags were disposed of at some dump.’

I then explained this as an analogy to my friends.

Once upon a time, Muslims were like those flowers on the trees.
The fragrance of their Imaan and Islam, of their beautiful character
and charming etiquette, were admired and appreciated by all. Their
pleasant character and speech, their honesty, sincerity and service
to mankind, emitted such beautiful fragrances which even non-Muslims
benefited from.

The beautiful colours of their Ibaadah – be it salaah, zakaat, business
transactions and social interaction were the means of not only people
changing their faith, but also changing their culture and language, as
we find in the time of the Sahaba-e-Kiraam (radiyallanho anhum).
They spread to all parts of the world – having an undeniable influence
on different nations.

When they were flowers on the tree, people inhaled their fragrance 
and accepted Islam. 

When the breeze of temptation and sin blew, then as we find today, many
Muslims have left the tree; they separated themselves from the strong,
sturdy trunk of correct Aqaa`id[1] and they lost the attachment they had
to the branches of Ibaadaat (worship). They adopted the Western culture,
and in turn, they lost their fragrance and they lost their colours as they
withered away.

Having fallen onto the ground, the Muslim Ummah, globally, is literally
being ‘crushed’ underfoot by the Kuffaar[2].

In whichever direction we turn, we find a picture to grieve over: So many
amongst our precious youth cannot even be identified as the blossoming
flowers of the Ummah. They have preferred to mix with sand and mud and
in so doing, have lost their fragrance and colour. The Hollywood / Bollywood
culture, with all its immorality and sins, is that sand and mud – more exactly,
it is quicksand, which readily swallows our young Muslim sons and daughters.


And then we have the picture of the burdensome yoke of injustice, oppression
and suppression. The lives of Muslims have become so cheap that hundreds,
if not thousands are ‘swept’ into mass graves, where genocide has become a
play and past time for many enemies of Islam. We have the destruction of
Muslim homes, the deliberate killing of Muslim children, the rape of Muslim
women, the theft of Muslim land – oppression compounded.

When we turn away from this sad, heart wrenching sight, we see another picture
to cry over : Many, many Muslims, in positions of authority and rule, are like
puppets and their strings are pulled by non-Muslim governments. Some are
treated like animals - they are “broken in”, or trained to listen and obey – as
we find with some Muslim Governments, and there is no gain in return.
 
This is our reality. …From where to where, and from what to what.

…But there is no despairing if only we to return to Allah Ta’ala’s obedience and
the Sunnah of Rasulullah (Sallallaahu ‘alayhi wasallam). All that is required is to
plant the seeds of Taqwa and those beautiful, fragrant, colourful flowers will soon
be blooming and blossoming once more.


[1] Aqaa`id : Beliefs
[2] Kuffaar : Non-believers – those who have not brought Imaan (faith) in Allah Ta’ala
 and the Risaalat (prophethood) of Sayyidina Muhammad (Sallallaahu ‘alayhi wasallam).

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