Paradise in Our Homes
Episode 2
In the name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful. Peace and blessings of Allah be upon Prophet Muhammad (SAWS).
May Allah (SWT) accept our fasting. Remember, Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) was heard to have said that in Ramadan there are people who would be forgiven and saved every night from Hellfire. Take care that Allah is very generous and if He grants you forgiveness this night or this year, you will never be captured again among those who will be doomed to Hell. May we all be forgiven.
Today's episode is about the value of the family for Allah (SWT). I wish you can perceive precious it is. Allah (SWT) shakes the sky and earth for its sake; Allah (SWT) becomes double pleased with you because of it, as it is the base of the whole human world. Nowadays, we are underestimating the family's value; divorce rate is growing and for trivial reasons; sons share their secrets with their friends and are not likewise attached to their families, to the point that they may accept the same advice from a friend than from their own parents; brothers fight upon heir heritage forgetting their kinship.
Do you seek Allah's (SWT) forgiveness? Do you want to benefit from Ramadan, with mercy at its beginning, forgiveness in its middle, and salvation from Hellfire at its end?? Do you want Paradise doors to open and Hell doors to close? Your family has to be precious to you as it is for Allah (SWT).
Let us review the history of mankind to know how precious family bonds are. Let us start with Adam and Eve; the universe started with this one family although Allah could have created many others at the same time. However, Allah meant to raise the value of this family and present it as the first establishment on earth. Kinship ties were created before human beings, and it asked Allah (SWT) to make people keen to maintain its ties. Allah(SWT) replied that He will be pleased with those who maintain its ties and shall inflict punishment upon those who don't. Even in Paradise, people in higher ranks act as intercessors for their relatives to reach the same rank. See how precious the family is for Allah (SWT)!!
Marriage is a very strong bond and an important contract that must be taken more seriously by people. The aim of the program is to alert families to come closer and stop being isolated from each other. These words may seem theoretical to you; so let us take a practical example from hajj, during the sai' where we can remember the fear of a mother (Hajar) for her son (Isma'il AS). She was going to and forth looking for water to quinsh her little baby's thrist, jogging between the two hills 7 times (1/2 a km each round). At a certain point she heard her son screaming so she ran, and this is what we nowadays do during Umrah and hajj. Allah (SWT) is hereby reminding you of your own mother, her feelings for you and her efforts in bringing you up.
Remember also that Zamzam water was the result of a father's prayer. Ibrahim (AS) (Abraham) was frightened for his wife and child whom he left alone in the desert. He said what can be translated as, " Our Lord, surely I have made (some) of my offspring to dwell in a valley that is not under cultivation (Literally: other than that “owning” plantation) at Your Inviolable Home, our Lord, that they may keep up the prayer. So make heart-sights of mankind yearn towards them and provide them with products, that possibly they would thank (You)"(TMQ, 14:37). Allah (SWT) accepts Ibrahim's prayer and sends Jibril (AS) (Gabriel) to strike the earth under Isma'il's feet, and Zamzam water sprung where the whole world will keep drinking from this water till doom's day. Thus, the whole world would realize that fathers' prayers are esteemed by Allah (SWT).
Sacrifice is a symbol for a strong Father-Son relationship. Ibrahim (AS) saw himself in a dream slaughtering his son Isma'il and knew it was Allah's (SWT) command. He faced his son with this news and Isma'il was very obedient and knew it was a fact and accepted Allah's (SWT) will. Thus, Allah sent a ram to be slaughtered as a sacrifice instead of Isma'il, and He (SWT) ordered people to sacrifice every year to always remind this kind of relationship. This is why we say during our prayers, "All Prayers and Blessings of Allah be upon our master, the most noble Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) and his family as well as Ibrahim (AS) and his family". They are indeed great families.
Moreover, if we review the prophets' stories, we will find that their families' dimension is often mentioned, either through their marriage (e.g.: Adam and Eve, Ibrahim (AS) and Sarah, then Ibrahim (AS) and Hajar, the story of Musa's (Moses) marriage), or father-son relationship (e.g.: Ibrahim (AS) and Isma’il (Ishmael), Dawud (David) and Solaiman (Solomon)), or brothers' relationship (e.g: Musa and Harun (Aaron), Isa (Jesus) and his cousin Yahya (John)). You can also realize many other relationships:
- A Mother caring for her child: Musa's (AS) mother and Maryam (AS) “Mary”.
- Father – Son conflict: Ibrahim (AS) and his father Azar, Lut (Lot) and his son.
- Marital infidelity: Al-Aziz's wife.
- Brothers' conspiracy against their own brother: story of Yusuf (AS) (Joseph). In this story, Allah (SWT) warns parents from discriminating between their children in treatment. This story also clarifies that all kinds of relationships are illustrated in the Holy Qura'n, not only the ideal ones. Thus the Holy Qura'n is a reference for any kind of relationships.
- A sister saving her brother: Musa's (AS) sister saving him from the Pharaoh's palace. Allah (SWT) says what can be translated as, "And she said to his sister, “Trail him,” and so she beheld him from afar, and they were not aware. And We had prohibited to him earlier wet-nurses. So she said, “Shall I indicate to you the family of a house who will sponsor him for you and advisably look after him?” (TMQ, 28:11, 12).
- A woman longing to have a child to care for: Asya the Pharaoh's wife, Musa's substitute mother.
- A grandfather and a grandmother yearning to have a child: Maryam's (AS) parents.
- Musa (AS) asking Allah (SWT) for the assistance of his brother: Allah (SWT) says what can be translated as, "And my brother (is) Harûn; (Aaron) he is more eloquent than I (am) in speech; (Literally: in tongue= regarding his tongue) so send him with me as an auxiliary to sincerely confirm me in (my speech). Surely I fear they will cry me lies.”(TMQ, 28:34).
- Musa (AS) quarrelling with his brother, when he returned and found his people abandoning their religion and worshipping a buffalo. He was so angry with his brother, but Harun (AS) reminded Musa (AS) of their mother and asked him not to grasp his beard before people, so Musa (AS) repented and asked for Allah's (SWT) forgiveness for himself and his brother.
The importance of the family is illustrated clearly in the seerah (the biography of Prophet Muhammad (SAWS)). We can see him as a grandson and how kind his grandfather was, compensating him for the loss of his father. We can also see him as a son excusing Allah (SWT) to visit his mother's grave 50 years after death, and crying for her loss till everyone around was moved by his feelings and cried too. We can see him as a father, when his daughter Fatimah knew he was dying because he could not get up and kiss her on her forehead as he usually did whenever he saw her. He never left Al-Madinah before visiting his daughter and, her house was the first to welcome him on his return. We can see him as a father-in-law, who for the sake of his daughter's husband (Ali Ibn Abi-Talib) covered his daughter's mother-in-law (Fatimah Bint Asad) when she died with his own cloak.
It is narrated that when the Prophet (SAWS) entered jannah (Paradise) on al-israa and al-mi’raj day he heard sounds of servants in a palace and when asked whose Palace it was, the angels told him that it was for Haritha Ibn Al-Noaman. Haritha was dutiful to his mother during his life and so deserved to be rewared after his death. He also saw Omm Solaim who was in Paradise as a reward for pleasing her husband and and for being obedient to him.
The family is so precious that you are double rewarded when you share a good deed with your family than doing it alone. A man is considered and is known as someone who remembers Allah (SWT) a lot when he merely wakes up at night and awakens his wife to pray two Raka’a (one unit of Islamic prayer).
One might ask me why is the family so precious? This is a logical question. We are created to reform earth and mankind were assigned this mission. This job is very hard and needs passion and feelings to help us accomplish it. Passion comes from kinship ties and family bond supporting eachother through the hardships of life. In our life it is so hard to keep those bonds from bieng shattered, but the Prophet (SAWS) was heard to have said that whoever was able to fulfil Allah's commands in a time when people are no longer doing so will be rewarded as if one migrated to Madinnah specially to visit the Pophet (SAWS).
When the west went through the industrial revolution, they discovered that science solved many of their problems and thought that they no longer needed family ties, and that the same theories can be applied socially. They did not compare the past state to the present, which led to their confusion and instability. We can overpower the west by our preservation of our family ties.
Let us see this reportage for a family that has lost its son. The aim of watching this is not to be sad but to realize how precious a family is and how hard it is to lose one of its members:
- The mother: I was very related and attached to my son Amr as he was my only child.
- The father: May be Allah wanted to purify me of my sins, so he took my son; thus I accepted Allah's (SWT) will.
- The mother: I lost my mother, my father and many other relatives, but I grieved for the loss of my son more than my grieve for all of them.
- The father: I want to tell my son that no matter how long we live, we surely shall all die and meet at last, hopefully in Paradise.
- The mother: When he took the Bachelors degree and was supposed to travel to England to study for the Masters and PHD, I refused and could not imagine the idea of not having him around. Everyone around blamed me for standing against fulfilling his future dreams. Now that he is dead, I do not know how to live without him. Of course, I am pleased with him and always pray for him, I do not have even the slightest anger against anything he did. He usually asked me if I had been pleased with him, and to my surprise he always used to tell me that I would go to Paradise because of him. I miss you my son.
TMQ=Translation of the Meaning of the Qur'an. This translation is for the realized meaning, so far, of the stated (Surah:Ayah) of the Qur'an. Reading the translated meaning of the Qur'an can never replace reading it in Arabic, the language in which it was revealed.
