Love for Allah's sake

Chapter 8

  It was friday. Zahrah and Aysha usually go to the mosque with their fathers. So they were rushing to get ready, as they determinedly want to listen to the sermon.

  "Zahrah, where is my white hijab, I want to dress in white today"  Aysha said as she rushed to the direction of the safe. She opened the safe and searched through it in few seconds.   "Zahrah talk to me, do you know where it is? " She added,  turning her gaze to Zahrah.

  "Check down there." Zahrah said nodding her head to the direction beside the safe.

She followed her gaze.

  "You mean inside that box?"

  "Exactly." Zahrah responded. She grasped her hijab from the hanger and dashed to the sitting room. "When you are done, you should meet me outside"

It took Aysha five minutes to get her white hijab. She was determined to use it, so she looked for it carefully.

On her way to the sitting room, she heard Zahra's father yelling at her to hasten up as they are getting out of time.

  When they got to the mosque, the Imam was about to start the sermon, so they sat down and listen with keen interest. Zahrah loved to listen to the sermon, is one of the reason why  she liked going to Friday mosque. The Imam's sermon was on Taqwa (piety).

He gave the sermon as follows:

Auzubillah minash shaytanir rajim, Bismillahir rahmanir rahim.
Taqwa (piety) is the goal of life and the gold of the here after. Esteem in this world comes through family, wealth and status, while honour in the world to come is based on Taqwa. Your wealth will accompany you as far as the door, your family follow you as far as the cemetery and only your deeds will be lowered with you into the grave. Allah Ta'ala declare in the holy Qur'an that the one worthy of honour in his exalted presence is the one who possesses Taqwa. Majority of Muslims have this natural desire to live a sin free life but the best , most could do is to sit on the fence, savouring the taste of sin on one hand while also engaging in some religious activities on the other hand. Because they are possessors of Iman, the prickling of conscience would not allow them to have rest of mind. Sins, being what they are, kept the heart in an unexplainable tension which most of the time appear on the face. Despite the tension and pains resulting from sins, however, the attraction becomes so overpowering that the ego is only waiting anxiously for the next opportunity.

The Imam paused for some minutes. Zahrah turned to look at Aysha who embraced both her knees with her hands, and was listening attentively.

The Imam went on:

  Indeed, the truly successful believer is the one who makes his intelligent his master and his desire his slave, and the greatest misfortune is to suppress one's intelligent to become slave to desires. The Angels have intelligence but no desires. The animals are all desire but no intelligence. Only human being combine both intelligence and desires. Any believer who follows his intelligence, giving up desire becomes like an Angel, and one who submit to his desires, turning away from intelligence becomes like an animal.
  The challenge of sins is today more terrifying to the Muslim than ever before due to the fact that all accessories to sins are made readily available to all, and evils that would take ages to plan in the past centuries is today a matter of pressing button. Leaving sins today requires the most sincere intention and determination, and a mind constantly reflecting on the akhirah. Sacrificing one's desires is something difficult, yet slavery to passion, greed and desires are the main seeds of destruction on the day of hisab.

At this point, the Imam concluded the sermon, and all raised to perform the Friday prayer.

As the Imam concluded the prayer, people dispersed to their various houses in their cars and on foot.

Zahrah and Aysha decided to trek home since the distance from the mosque to their house is not far.

  "Aysha I honestly enjoyed the Imam's sermon today." Zahrah uttered as they made their way through the crown,to the main road.

  "Me too. It really entered me. I felt like crying for my sins. Why is it so difficult to worship Allah, but so easy to commit sin" Aysha requested.

  "Can you remember the hadith we studied in the Islamic school last month, which says that the prophet (WAS) said, paradise had been decorated with difficult things, while hell had been decorated with sweet things. That's it, it is difficult to walks towards jannah, but very easy to fall into the pit of hell" Zahrah explained kindly to her. "So we should try by all means to see that we obey Allah, and He will blessed us with jannah as He promised.
Allah says in the Qur'an:

But whosoever turns away from my guidance, for him is a narrowed down and constricted life and we shall raise him blind on the day of judgement.

  We should not just lay down and say we depend on Allah, He will send us to Paradise, because nothing good comes easy, as the saying goes. The prophet (SAW) gave sign of intelligent and foolishness in his hadith. He says: intelligent is he who humbles himself and works for what comes after death, and foolishness is he who relies on Allah (SWT)  following his whims and passion. The true knowledge of Allah is like a stream, it requires lowering yourself down to drink. When we humble ourselves, then Allah will elevate us. We should not exhibit our good deeds, for that is riya, and is called the hidden shirk. "

  Aysha looked at her, eyes wide opened with awed admiration.

  "You are such a sheikh you know." she said to Zahrah.

  "And you are an ustad." Zahrah said to her smiling. "Aysha lets go to that fruiterer across the road and buy fruit. I want to eat fruit salad."

  "Yes your highness, if you want  we can buy the fruiterer himself" Aysha said in amusement.

As they were about to cross the road, a red sporty car stopped at their front. They looked at each other, then at the car.

The glass of the car was tinted, so they could hardly discern who the driver is.

After like two minutes, the door swung open and he came out. He looks tremendously handsome in his juma'at caftan.

  "Where are you coming from?" Adam asked as he set his feet on the ground.

  "From the mosque" Zahrah replied. She clenched to Aysha's hand as if he wants to cease her and run away. She still can't look into his eyes, despite how she feels about him. What pathetic state, she thought.

  "You do go to the mosque too?"

  "Yes, we do go with daddy and baba" Aysha responded.

  "Enter the car let me take you home"

  "We want to buy fruit first" Aysha announced.

  "OK get into the car let me cross to the other direction"

They both entered into the car and he drove to the fruiterer. He bought the fruit for them and drove them home.