A Letter From Egypt

I received this forwarded email from Faris,LSE.
And I think I should share the email with everyone else here...Truly inspiring indeed..

Daripada: faris fasri
Subjek: FW: A letter from Egypt
Kepada: ib_2k@hotmail. com, imranhashim86@ hotmail.com, "imran koyube" , inquinn@hotmail. com, "intan notts" , "iqbal botak" , "irina" , iriz_7@hotmail. com, "izwan j" , izzaidris@hotmail. com, "shafi ma" , sitinusrah@hotmail. com, sol_kimura@hotmail. com, "syafiq suhaimi" , "udon" , "yana pau" , via_salaria@ hotmail.com, "zainol reza" , "zaffiruddin abd rahman" , "zegreat ib"
Tarikh: Selasa, 10 Februari, 2009, 11:29 PM


Assalamualaikum people. I know we don't like reading long e-mails, but this letter from a LSE alumni in EGYPT is truly inspiring. enjoy..

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Hope you're all well insha'Allah, and that you're all fired up and ready for the week ahead, for both ISoc and Palsoc! Put in the effort and do as much as you can this week, because you have no idea how much of an impact it really has! Your genius of an occupation at LSE has had people over here talk about it!! Thats right - even people here in Egypt are praising it and they come up to me asking "weren't you at LSE?" To which i smugly reply "oh yes, indeed i was"!!!

Not only that but when i recently visited the main hospital in Cairo that is treating patients from Gaza, whenever I would tell them i was from the UK they would tell me how it brings joy to their hearts seeing their Muslim brothers and sisters in the UK demonstrating in such large numbers (who told you demonstrations didn't matter?), and how they're making dua for us as a result (how ironic that they are making dua for us and yet we sometimes forget to mention them in ours). There were many lessons to be learnt from them as they laid there injured and some even motionless. Their hearts and minds were truly inspirational, and i've been meaning to share my reflections on this for a while now - i guess now's as good a time as any to make sure you all GET OUT THERE, BE ACTIVE AND HELP ONE ANOTHER OUT THIS WEEK AS WELL AS DURING PALESTINE AWARENESS WEEK! (excuse me if this has already passed i'm really out of touch!)

The reflections on the hospital visit are below, split up into different sections, each one with a main message, and each one based on one of the truly amazing individuals who have given up so much for Islam.


The Dunya and the Akhira.

One of the patients i met was a mother, who in my view was the most inspirational one of all the patients i met. She told me of how she lost ALL of her 6 children during the bombing, a couple of whom because they were out fighting, and the rest of them, the really young children, died when their home was bombarded from high above. The mother was the only survivor. And as she lay there in the hospital with serious wounds and with everything that had happened to her, she was smiling the whole time, content that she's sacrificed more than any other person in the world for the sake of Allah, and indeed, who else can say that they've sacrificed everything for Allah, even their own children, and all of their children at that? Truly unbelievable. So she lay there content and happy despite the physical and emotional pain she was in, because she was so close to Allah, and so assured of Allah's Mercy that surely she was secured a place in Jannah for her sacrifices.

She's a truly remarkable individual but how many of us can think like her? How many of us are willing to sacrifice now in this temporary life for the sake of so much more in the hereafter? This woman sacrificed her children for the sake of Allah, and what have we done to deserve Jannah? What have we done for Palestine? And what have we done for the sake of Allah? How many times have we sacrificed something in this dunya for the sake of something in the akhira? Or have we been brain-washed and programmed to think only about instant gratification and never to think about disciplining our souls? How many times have we sacrificed large amounts of money for others? How many times have we sacrificed our sleep for worshipping Allah at night? How many times have we held ourselves back from the desire to do what is haram now for the sake of being patient and getting the reward later? How many times have we complained about things that happen in our lives while forgetting that this life is only temporary?

These questions are too reminiscent of so many verses in the Quran:

• These are they who buy the life of this world for the hereafter, so their chastisement shall not be lightened nor shall they be helped. (2:86)

• Beautified for mankind is love of the joys (that come) from women and offspring; and stored-up heaps of gold and silver, and horses branded (with their mark), and cattle and land. That is comfort of the life of the world. Allah! With Him is a more excellent abode. (3:14)

• Every soul will taste of death. And ye will be paid on the Day of Resurrection only that which ye have fairly earned. Whoso is removed from the Fire and is made to enter paradise, he indeed is triumphant. The life of this world is but comfort of illusion. (3:185)

And the Quran is full of these verses!

But this woman reminded me of the bliss and joy that we can have from tasting eeman and faith in our hearts and being close to Allah. She reminded me of the importance of staying away from everything that is haram, and of doing everything that Allah made obligatory in Islam, as this is the best way to get closer to Allah. And she reminded me of the importance of reflecting about death and the akhira, and that we shouldn't go a day without reflecting about death or else we'll get consumed by this dunya, and forget to sacrifice for the sake of Allah. For that reason, i called this section 'The Dunya and the Akhira'!

Allah will bring them victory - with or without us!

Our beloved Prophet Muhammad (saw) said:

"There will never cease to be a group from my Ummah fighting upon the truth until the last hour is established. They will not be harmed by those that oppose them or abandon them." (Bukhari)

Another one of the patients also spoke of how he had lost close ones but that this was normal for Palestinians. So I asked him what the mood was like in the streets of Gaza, how were their spirits? And what was their level of eeman given all the horrors being inflicted upon them? He answered smiling: "don't worry about them, they're all stronger than ever before, and their belief in Allah is deeper than ever before"!!!

I couldn't help but remember the hadith of the Prophet (saw) above, and how it really is a testament to his prophethood because these people, the Palestinian people, are exactly those people that are described in the hadith, fighting upon the truth for as long as it takes. And crucially, that they won't be harmed by those that oppose them nor by those who abandon them and betray them, as the Arabs did when they decided to hold an economic summit while their brothers, sisters, mothers and daughters were being massacred not more than an hour away! But the prophet (saw) says that this group of people will not be harmed by such betrayal because they're on the truth! In fact if anything the Quran speaks of how if these hypocrites were to join them and help them then they'll just hinder their progress, so they're better off without them!!

Allah says in Surah Al Taubah verse 47:

Had they gone forth with you, they would not have added to (your strength) except add corruption, and they would certainly have hurried about among you seeking (to sow) dissension among you, and among you there are those who hearken for their sake; and Allah knows the unjust.

And if the world wants to call them terrorists for defending themselves and fighting with honour instead of dying slowly in the prison that is Gaza today, then this doesn't affect them since they stand for the truth, and their light can't be extinguished, and Allah says in Surah Al Taubah verse 32:

They desire to put out the light of Allah with their mouths but Allah will not allow but that His light should be perfected, even though the Unbelievers may detest (it).

So i guess the lesson is that Allah will bring them victory with or without us (the title of this section!), so its up to us to decide whether we want Allah to count us amongst those who supported them with our actions, and our money, and our pens, and most importantly with our duas.

The Importance of Dua

You've all received (and read of course) the emails about the importance of dua, when to make dua and how to make dua, and i can't help but re-iterate this! Don't think that it's no use!! To think this is to give up on Allah, and this is the biggest crime we can commit - like EVER!! Allah says in surah Yusuf (verse 87):

and never give up hope of Allah's Soothing Mercy: truly no one despairs of Allah's Soothing Mercy, except those who are disbelievers. "

Another person i spoke to was a father who had lost 4 sons in the past 2 weeks (from when i spoke to him). And lying beside us was his last surviving son, his face completely burnt and the right side of his body completely paralysed. And the father told me to go back to the UK and tell everyone i knew, that we don't need your money, and we don't need your armies, we don't need anything, BUT the only thing we need is your duas. SUBHANALLAH! !! He's lost 4 sons, his final son is burnt and paralysed, and he believes WHOLEHEARTEDLY that what he needs is your dua and nothing else!!!

Now i can understand someone being stingy with his money (actually i can't) but to be stingy with your dua is just another level of disgustingness! !! Can we seriously not allocate even a minute of sincere and tearful dua after every prayer for our brothers and sisters in Palestine? And do we not make dua for them because we don't believe it will make any difference? Read the glorious verses of the Quran, and think again!!

Final comments....

Having spoken to these truly amazing individuals (and there were so many others i could have written about) I have realised just how important this group of people are to the ummah, they are the ones who are keeping the faith alive and they are the ones who have adorned themselves with Islam in their hearts and in their minds. We should allocate for them the highest status in our hearts and to make that a source of motivation and drive for us to live up to their standards, and to adorn ourselves also with Islam in our hearts and minds and actions. So I come back to my original message - DO AS MUCH AS YOU CAN THIS WEEK for the sake of Allah (swt) and to do so is to help the Palestinians directly and indirectly. And most importantly to you on the day of judgement, it is to help yourselves!!

We ask Allah to forgive us all for our sins and for our many shortcomings, and we ask Allah to nourish our hearts with the Quran and the Sunnah of Muhammad (saw), and we ask Allah to give us a taste of the beauty of worshipping Him and of thanking him for all the countless blessings that He has showered upon us

And if you would count Allah's favors, you will not be able to number them; most surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. (16:18)

I hope to see some of you again some time soon insha'Allah - thats if i make it back to the UK after the authorities see this email!! All the best with DIW and any PalSoc stuff - and help one another insha'Allah! !

Salam

Mustafa