The little things that actually means a lot ...

When I came to Yemen, small things make me realize that they are actually things that remind us of our deen and help us connect to our CREATOR.  Everyone here gives you salam when they meet you ... spreading salam is a sunnah ... a prayer to wish you peace.  When we appreciate something of beauty, we say "MashaAllah", when we are grateful we say  "Alhamdulillah". when something befalls us we say "La haula wa la quwata illah" when we want to wish blessings to a person we say "Barakallahu feek", when we depart we also say salam. In our greeting and departing we make dua for each other.  We start everything that we do with "Bismillah" and we end our meetings with the tasbih kifarah..  When we want to thank someone we say "Jazakallahu khairan".  

There are no suraus here but we have masaajids (plural for masjid) at almost every corner that makes it easy for people to have access to the masjid for prayers, and in keeping in line that the best prayer for a woman is in her home, it is not as easy for women to have access to masjid for prayers.  When the time for prayers come, the azans from the different masjids are just so disctinct that it is impossible for you to miss the call for prayer.  When people want to pacify or advise you, they take from the stories of Rasulullah s.a.w or that of the companions.  When people seek advise they go and meet with the scholars whom are easily accessible at the masaajids.  Meeting qaadhi (judges) with your problem is not something that requires you to go through layers of clerks, but you get to meet the qaadhi direct with your problems before filing a proper case.  This is how it should be.

We do not have shopping malls like back home for people to hang around at and no cinemas to go to.  Public eating places are segregated ... so no dating between males and females.  In busses, we do not sit freely among the men, men will have to make way to provide a place for the women folk, its like playing musical chair, only the women get to sit in proper sitting places.  You do not see female teenagers out on the streets doing nothing.  The women folk here are pretty much protected.  It is not something that is normal for a girl to be allowed to a friends house.   We may look at all these as backward, but pondering deeper it is really to protect from the free mixing of gender that usually leads to other things.  Just look at where we are today with all the modernization and  globalization.  We have lost so much of any value we ever had, let alone Islamic values.

I guess my realization here is that I was very much heedless of my relationship with our CREATOR and practices of the deen, but little things that I have experienced in this now world renowned so called terrorist infested country with the most talented bomb makers in the world, have made me realized of how far away from the deen and the practise of it I was and still am, have made me desire to be living the lives of the companions - heeding to Allah's every command and prohibition and conforming to the sunnah of  Rasulullah s.a.w., have made me desire to be blessed with that unshakeable faith.

Be mindful of Allah, and Allah will protect you ...

"..Be mindful of Allah, you will find Him before you. Get to know Allah in prosperity and He will know you in adversity. Know that what has passed you was not going to befall you; and that what has befallen you was not going to pass you by. And know that victory comes with patience, relief with affliction, and ease with hardship."  narrated by Tirmidzi.


I cannot begin to share with you how much this hadeeth has been so true for me and especially lately.  Sometimes we read many hadeeth and it just passes us unknowingly but Allah has been kind to me always sending me back reminders through people around me.


I feel my whole life has been a trial, then again HE tells us that the world is not a place of rest, it is a place of trials for HIM to discern between the gem and the stone and that our place of rest is that in our final abode ... and rest is only when you pass the trials and with HIS grace.  My life in Yemen from day one has been a realization of consciousness of HIS presence.   The minute I stepped on this blessed land (Rasulullah s.a.w did ask Allah to bless this land) my heart found tranquility amidst chaos going on in my life and I find that people are just extending me help from every angle ... and that really is the nusrah (help) from Allah swt.  That nusrah has continued till today when I find that I am most isolated (be it by choice or design) from family and friends.


Most recently when I decided that I had to start some form of business, and because I no longer desire to be in a mix working environment and neither do I like the thought of meeting with strangers for marketing purposes - that left me the option of working from home.  So I decided to be in the food business.  To start with, I had no capital - I decided to ask for a small loan, not charity .. from a handful of close friends and people that I considered as family.  Two minutes after I wrote this email, a very old and dear friend replied offering to buy me my oven and to pay for another investment ... subhanallah ... I was very touched as he was a friend I have known for 25 years but have not seen him for the last 11 years and neither am I regularly in touch with him.  Not only did he offer, but he also told me that it was a gift.  


A few days later, my pet brother, a person who took me as his sister 30 years ago, visited me twice in the last two years and told me a year ago "now I know why Allah chose you as my pet sister 30 years ago ... he knew that I would be back in Yemen visiting my roots and that you would be there to take care of me and my family..."  and I guess I could add to that "and he knew that you would really be there in my times of need 30 years later", also contributed to the capital I needed.  This brother of mine has been a true brother, extending his help with no second thoughts and no conditions attached no expectations, but really to help me in my times of need this year, for the second time.  I will not forget, at the beginning of this year, when I was in devastation and really could not function, he was there for me, and not forgetting his wife, who is as much a sister to me as much as he is a brother.


When I started this business, I started only by selling soybean (at that time no oven yet and limited capital)/ I told myself I had to start with something.  My first sale was 10 bottles of soybean yielding me only about YR2000 (slightly less than MYR40), subhanallah ... I came home with an extra USD200 .. the person who bought those soybean from me said "this is to help you with your capital" ... instantly HE came to my mind. Now, within a month, my business has expanded to selling bread, frozen curry puff and pau, cookies and cakes and HE is still sending me HIS soldiers to aid me.  Last week, a friend that I have not seen since I left college, and that was 35 years ago, and we have only been in touch again recently, offered to buy me a freezer.  It is really an overwhelming feeling to know that you have friends that sincerely love you for the sake of Allah.


To top all that, recently HE sent me someone to make me feel that I am not alone in this journey of mine, although I am far away from family or friends.  This Yemeni brother, has taken me to be his mother and has really made me feel that someone is concerned for my well being and happiness and that of my children.  Though he has been extending his help to me in many ways previously, but recently it has extended by leaps and bounds, that I cannot begin to describe it to you in this blog but if you think of someone as your mother, you would go all extend to make a mother feel comfortable and cared for, and that is how he has been with me.


What I am trying to relate here is that ... be mindful of Allah and HE will take care of you ... HIS assistance/nusrah will come from our practice of the full deen, in all the amal of the prophet saw's sunnahs, no matter how small we perceive it to be, and I am seeing this in the reality right before my internal eyes.  Yes, I live in a land perceived by many as a land breeding terrorist, a land of no system, a government rampant in corruption (but which land is not) - but amidst all this I find the realities of HIS promises .. the strengthening of my weak self ... but most precious ... I found HIM by my side, and who better to be by your side than HIM.