part 37: (hanzalah)

**”Bismillahir rahmaanir raheem”
-in the name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful-**

Naseema was given strict instructions to take things easy. She needed as much bed rest as possible and needed the least amount of stress In her life. The cancer wasn’t in its beginning stages and unfortunately had taken out a lot of naseemas energy.

She was losing more and more weight by the day and nothing seemed to be staying inside. Everything she ate either was regurgitated or passed through very loose stool.

This drained her. She had very little energy and it depressed her for a while too. Naseema was used to always being independent and used to being the life wire of their household. But such is the plan of Allah.

Allah throws test our way that we never expected before. And its in no way to punish us. Its to teach us that everything lies in the hands of Allah alone. That even our very own lives are not controlled by us.

Allah ta’alah has given us all that we have as a blessing to us and He may take his blessings away whenever He wished so.

No matter how independent one may be, we are always in need of Allah ta’alah.

At first naseema felt really depressed about her situation, but as time went by, with the comfort and wisdom of her loving husband and son, she learnt that being depressed inevitably meant that she was being ungrateful for the favours of Allah upon her.

That sickness too was a blessing from Allah to cure one of whatever sins may have accumulated over the years.

That a true muslim is one who has patience in the time of adversity and shows ultimate gratitude in times of ease.

Hanzalah reminded his mother of the story of hazrat ayoob(alayhis salaam)…
“Ummi… Don’t you remember? You were the one who taught me the story at first…”

Hazrat ayoob (alayhis salaam) had everything of this dunya. He had wealth, family, health, property, cattle and everything good. And in a short period Allah had tested him by taking away his family, wealth and health.. But yet he was always grateful to Allah. He knew that it was a test from Allah and soon everything was granted back to him because of his patience and perseverance.

“Ummi, you didn’t lose your family… We still love you. And you looked after us all these years, now its our turn to serve you as best as we can….” Hanzalah consoled his mother.

“And ummi, you didn’t lose your wealth or anything that you own… You still have everything. Allah has just borrowed your health for a little while. He’ll give that back to you soon inshallah.. Just be strong!”Hanzalah said positively

A single tear rolled down the cheeks of his mother. How had her son grown to be such a sensible young man? She has definitely made him proud

Little did she realise, that it was all her efforts. She spent so much of her time and effort and invested all in her children. Teaching them right from wrong. Teaching them secular education, islamic education and most importantly, teaching them good character.

She didn’t teach her children what to think, but instead always taught them how to think… So now they were able to think for themselves.

Maybe not so much habeeba as she was still little. But for her age, she surely knew a lot too.

She missed her active mother. But cuddled up next to her mother ever so often with a book for her ummi to read to her.

She was determined to be like her mother oneday. To have the strength that her mother had. Her mother was her true role model.

How many of us can call our mothers a true role model? How many of us are true role models to our kids?

How do we behave? How do we dress? How do we talk to them? Are we who we would want our kids to be oneday?

With the help of Allah, naseema never missed her salaah. Even on days when she was unable to get up and perform her wudhu, hanzalah would help to bring a dish of water and assist her with wudhu.

She cried and prayed to Allah to sure her so that she could once again be there for her family.

It was oneday when she was feeling totally out of it that she sat with her husband in privacy and had a serious talk with him…

She thought about it often but never had the courage to actually have this talk with him.

Today however, she was determined to get it off her chest.

Posted by silent living…