(COMMENTARY) - The Pond of 'Kausar' & Comment

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

In the name of ALLAH, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

The Pond of kausar, the bridge of sirat and the scales of justice

LINK: http://www.al-islam.edu.pk/marfulhadith/kausar.htm

The  article ‘Pond of Kausar’ from the link above, I basically shared with my email group in 2015. I was searching for an article on ‘Pond of Kausar’ on Internet and this article caught my eye though I had read some narrations in books before. It is good to circulate such articles for Muslims who are more comfortable with English though we have to attach equal importance with Urdu language as it is closer to Arabic.

Since it is Ramadan, it is important to understand that we have to fall in love with Islam above all. Many modern Muslims think that being a good human being is sufficient for a Muslim. They fail to acknowledge that being a good human being is just one aspect of Islam while the other part is our bond with Almighty Allah who is the Creator of entire Universe.

To achieve salvation in the hereafter or to put it more directly, to escape hellfire in the afterlife we have to ‘strive’ as good Muslims in both of these areas i.e. humanity factor and our devotion to God. As college students, can we skip Paper A and only attempt Paper B to pass the exam? Certainly not – we would fail the exam. So when it is a question of an everlasting afterlife, can we be so careless?

This means constant learning and improving ourselves till death while ‘slowly’ giving up those habits and ways that are not pleasing to God. All this eventually means that we would have to sacrifice at times also in the way of Allah. How to proceed in all of this requires us to consult scholars and religious people and building our knowledge through proper conventional sources of learning Islam.

Closeness with Allah or living life according to Islam is not really for abundance in this life but rather abundance in afterlife. It means even if a Muslim has achieved success in his respective professional field through permissible sources of earning (halal), he has to refrain from a lavish lifestyle in order to submit wholly to Allah Almighty (swt). Although he may still enjoy his success within certain limits but his overall inclination should be ‘striving’ to adopt simplicity in all spheres of life. Only then he would be successful in strengthening his bond with the Creator otherwise he would be lost in the glitter of modern day civilization and thus pursuit of everything in the name of fun and entertainment.

Let’s look from another perspective. If submission to Allah just means material success in this world then how come all Prophets (peace be upon them all) went through huge trials and sufferings in their lives? A Prophet was always the most righteous and most handsome man of his time or region. He should have been the King of the entire world since he was closest to God, if we believe closeness with Allah brings instant worldly success. However, most Prophets (peace be upon them all) lived like ordinary men except few like Prophet Daud (pbuh) and Prophet Sulaiman (pbuh) who were Kings of their regions.

The Holy Qur’an testifies that the Children of Israel or Bani-Israel (Israel was the title of Prophet Yaqoob pbuh) martyred many Prophets (peace be upon them all) after the time of Prophet Musa (pbuh). How come a Prophet of God is terminated by evil men if he is closest to Allah? He should have enjoyed the highest level of worldly success and glory in this world based on our premise. It is because Allah has a Divine Plan and He knows best!

For the same reason we see that the Holy Prophet’s (pbuh) grandson Hadhrat Imam Hussain (ra) was martyred along with his other close family members in Karbala. Satan or Shaitan makes life difficult for those men whose hearts are full of love for Allah - but this should not discourage us to strive and proceed on the path of Islam in our lives since Islam is the final message for the whole mankind with our Holy Prophet (SallAllahu Alaihi Wa-Alaihi Wassallam) delivering that message to us!

Hence let us resolve this Ramadan that we will strive to spend our lives in submission to Allah (Haqooq Allah) and will pay due attention to the rights of our close ones around us (Haqooq-ul-ibaad) besides caring for humanity at large. For submission to Allah, we have to start with obligatory acts of worship and then an understanding of overall spirit of Islam. Like, is Islam about liberalism or conservatism? These are fine concepts we need to understand even though we don’t have to cut ourselves from the world and live in isolation. Still, we need to assign certain limits to our lifestyles and preferences in this regard.

May Allah accept our worship and good deeds this Ramadan, and make us proceed on the path of true Islam with ease and without trials as we are very weak – Aameen.

- By Syed Roman Ahsan (May 23, 2018).