DON’T BELITTLE THE LITTLE
Quite often, we tend to
move heads-on with the “big” necessary acts of worship (which of cause are the
basics of the religion and should not be compromised) while undermining the
“not so significant” ones which could fetch us massive rewards with Allah.
Truth is the word of
Allah which says “…And the weighing of deeds on that day would be just,
so those whose scales are heavy – it is they who will be successful…”
So whatever deed we present with on the day of judgement would be justly
measured, which would ultimately determine our final abode. However, we remain
plunged into the oblivion of what our defining acts could be, which would provide
us with just the right amount of tilt needed to scale through.
It could be just that
smile that accompanied your Teslim to a fellow brethren or the cup of water you
offered a thirsty fellow, or the steps you took to go see a sick friend, or the
removal of a harmful object from people’s path, or the few notes you dropped
for the beggar on the streets, or the kind words you offered a person in
distress, or the whispered prayers for a friend who is in need just because you
couldn’t offer more, the hurtful words you bolted down for Allah’s sake even
when its duly deserved or even the burning restraint not to sin when in the
capacity to do so.
This reminds me of one
of the stories narrated to us by the prophet (SAW),
of a young man who gained Allah’s pleasure by offering some water to a stray
dog using his shoes. He definitely wouldn’t have thought much about it but Allah
granted him the privilege of forgiving all his sins just by doing that.
On the flip side, there
are those deeds that we consider minor and genuinely insignificant because
they’ve become so rampant that we rarely see anything wrong with them or
perhaps our instinct has become so resistant to their menace such that we
commit them on impulse. Whereas are unsightly with Allah(SWT).
The seemingly petty
lies we had told to better the joke, the unlawful glances and touch of the opposite
sex, the backbiting and slandering or the hurtful words we uttered to someone.
All these are among the many more trivial matters that are just as important
with Allah.
From the sayings of the
prophet,ﷺ is the story of two men who are being
tortured for seemingly trivial matters,with one not saving himself from being
soiled with urine and the other goes about sharing calumnies. A pious woman
also earned the anger of Allah by being unjust with an animal, while another
one would be punished for being unfair to her neighbours.
However, it behoves us
to constantly check ourselves and not trivialize any matter of the deen and strive
to gain more good deeds no matter how small they appear to us. As ibn Qayyim RahimahuLlah said”you may be asleep and rewards of good
deeds are accumulating for you. Whether it is from a poor man you aided or a
hungry person you fed or a sad person you made happily or a distressed person you helped. Never belittle the amount of
benefit any good deed can have even if it seems small” because we never
can tell which little magic could make or mar our status with Allah on the day
of judgement.
Aisha Ajadi
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