The Messenger of Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said: “If a man were to be dragged on his face from the day he was born until the day he died in order to gain the Pleasure of Allah - the Exalted, he would not consider this to be enough on the Day of Resurrection.” [Al-Jaami as-Sagheer min Hadeeth al-Basheer an-Nadheer by Imaam As-Suyooti] On the Day of Judgement the life of this world will seem to have passed away in seconds while the reward for a life well used will be so phenomenal that whatever one suffered to gain the reward from Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) will seem insignificant. There was once a famous ruler called Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni and he had a devoted and wise slave called Ayaz. Sultan Mahmud loved Ayaz greatly and promoted him to the highest ranks. One day Mahmud and Ayaz were sitting together eating lunch. The Sultan shared half of his cucumber with him and Ayaz ate it with relish. When Ayaz had finished, Mahmud took a bite of his own half. But when Mahmud bit into the cucumber, he immediately spat it out, as it was terribly bitter. Glaring at Ayaz he demanded to know how he could have eaten his piece when it tasted like poison. Ayaz answered, “My dear king, I have enjoyed so many favours and blessings from you all these years; whatever you give me tastes sweet!” Ayaz didn’t mind the bitterness of the fruit because his focus was on the one who gave it to him – it was given to him by the king himself. Would he complain after all the favours he had enjoyed? This is the kind of relationship we need to cultivate with the King of kings, Allah (subhana wa ta’ala). Today we find some commandments of Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) bitter and hard to follow. However, we should obey them with love and pleasure because they are gifts to us from the Most Merciful. While a bitter cucumber might actually do you some harm, nothing from Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) can do you harm.
Posted on: Wed, 04 Dec 2013 10:50:44 +0000
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