PATH TO (HAPPINESS) PARADISE

By: Abdullah R. Sirad


We must admit that it takes time to recuperate from frustrations. Most of us usually submerged to the bedlam of our own challenges in life. Sometime, we are being unfair to our selves the way we deal with our problems. Perhaps, when we are in a severe pain we presume that we’re a loser and would be a loser no matter how we tried thus we can’t comprehend the reasons why such event happened to us though we feel all the pains it caused. I guess that’s the consequence when we failed to see the other side of the coin. We forget to consider that there are some odd events in our life which can help us grow and there are some good events which brings us to bad luck instead. When we are at pain, all we have in mind are those aches until we tend not to trust people, loss our self esteem, become hopeless and probably revengeful.

I know that convalescing from chaos does not happen overnight. We need time to patch it up. We need attentions and probably counseling from those people who loves us unconditionally like our parents, siblings, and friends. Most of all, we need to understand our relationship with GOD.

I had received a very interesting story (which I want to share to all my friends as well) about an old woman who was about to commit suicide due to severe heart ache after her husband died and a little boy who at his young age is committed to his ultimate purpose on earth of conveying God’s message. The story was shared to me through email but unfortunately the author’s name was not written in it. Read the short story and learn the message it brings.
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Every Friday afternoon, after the Juma’a prayers, the Imam and his eleven years old son would go out into their town and hand out “Path to Paradise” and other Islamic literature.

This particular and fortunate Friday afternoon, as the time came for the Imam and his Son to go out to the streets with their booklets, it was very cold outside, as well as pouring rain. The boy bundle up in his warmest and driest clothes and said, “Ok, Dad, I’m ready!”

His Dad asked, ‘ready for what? It’s time we go out and distribute these Islamic books, the Son replied. Dad responds, ‘Son, it’s very cold outside and it’s pouring rain.’

The boy gives his Dad a surprised look, asking, ‘But Dad, aren’t people still going to hell, even though it’s raining?’ Dad answers, ‘Son, I am not going out in this weather.’

Despondently, the boy asks, ‘Dad, can I go please?’ His father hesitated for the moment then said, ‘Son, you can go. Here are the booklets. Be careful son.’ Thanks Dad!’

And with that, he was off and out into the rain. This eleven year old boy walked the streets of the town going door to door and handing everybody he met in the street a pamphlet or a booklet.

After two hours of walking in the rain, he was soaking, bone-chilled wet and down to his VERY LAST BOOKLET. He stopped on a corner and looked for someone to hand a booklet to, but the streets were totally deserted.

Then he turned toward the first home he saw and started up the sidewalk to the front door and rang the door bell. He rang the bell, but nobody answered… He rang it again and again, but still no one answered. He waited but still no answer.

Finally, he turned the leave, but something stopped him. Again, he turned to the door and rang the bell and knocked loudly on the door with his fist. He waited, something holding him there on the front porch! He rang again and this time the door slowly opened.

Standing in the doorway was a very sad-looking elderly lady. She softly asked, ‘What can I do for you, son?’ with radiant eyes and a smile that lit up his world, this little boy said, ‘Ma’am, I’m sorry if I disturbed you, but I just want to tell you that ALLAH REALLY LOVES AND CARES FOR YOU and I came to give you my very last booklet which will tell you all about God, the real purpose of creation, and how to achieve His pleasure.’

With that, he handed her his last booklet and turned to leave. She called to him as he departed. ‘Thank you, son! And God bless you!.

Next week on Friday afternoon after Juma’a prayers, the Imam was giving some lectures. As he conclude the lectures, he asked, ‘Does anybody have questions or want to say anything?’ Slowly, in the back row among the ladies, an elderly lady’s voice was heard over the speaker.

‘No one in this gathering knows me. I’ve never been here before. You see, before last Friday I was not a Muslim, and thought I could be. My husband died last few years ago, leaving me totally alone in this world. Last Friday, being a particularly cold and rainy day, I was contemplating suicide as I had no hope left.

So I took a rope and a chair and ascended the stairway into the attic of my home. I fastened the rope securely to a rafter in the roof then stood on the chair and fastened the other end of the rope around my neck. Standing on that chair, so lonely and broken-hearted I was about to leaf off, when suddenly the loud ringing of my doorbell downstairs startled me. I thought, I’ll wait a minute, and whoever it is will go away.

I waited and waited, but the ringing doorbell seemed to get louder and more insistent, and then the person ringing also started knocking loudly…

I thought to myself again, ‘Who on earth could this be? Nobody ever rings my bell or comes to see me. ‘I loosened the rope from my neck and started for the front door, all the while the bell rang louder and louder. When I opened the door and looked I could hardly believe my eyes, for there on my front porch was the most radiant and angelic little boy I had ever seen in my life. His SMILE, oh, I could never describe it to you! The words that came from his mouth caused my heart that had long been dead TO LEAP TO LIFE as he exclaimed with a cherub-like voice, ‘Ma’am, I just came to tell you that ALLAH REALLY LOVES YOU AND CARES FOR YOU!’

Then he gave me this booklet, Path to Paradise that I now hold in my hand. As the little angel disappeared back out into the cold and rain, I closed my door and read slowly every word of this book. Then I went up to my attic to get my rope and chair. I wouldn’t need them anymore.

You see? I am now a Happy Vicegerent of the One True God. Since the address of your congregation was stamped on the back of this booklet, I have come here to personally say THANK YOU to God’s little angel who came just in the nick of time and by so doing, spared my soul from an eternity in hell.’

There was not a dry eye in the Mosque. The shouts of Takbir ‘ALLAHO AKBAR’ rented the air. Imam-Dad descended from the pulpit to the front row where the little angel was seated… He took his son in his arms and sobbed uncontrollably. Probably no Jama’at has had a more glorious moment, and probably this Universe has never seen a father that was more filled with love and honor for his son… except for One. This very one…

Blessed are your eyes for reading this message.

Don’t let this message die, read it again and pass it to others. Heaven is for His people! Remember, God’s message CAN make the difference in the life of someone close to you.



Q 5:3: This day I’ve perfected your religion for you, and completed my favor on you, and chose Islam for you as your religion.

EXPERIENCES ARE LIFE’s CONSTANT TEST

By: Abdullah R. Sirad


I had read a quotable quote of Anthony Robbins from Patric Chan’s Your Ultimate Inspirational Guide book which says: “It's not the events of our lives that shape us, but our beliefs as to what those events mean”.

I then pondered deeply on the message of the quote and tried to evaluate myself against those events or experiences I had undergone. I realized that in some way, I was able to grasp the meaning of those events because I wasn’t able to be carried away by my previous dark experiences in life. We may believe that experience is our best teacher. But it won’t help us grow unless we come to realize and interpret the meaning of those events and take them as inspiration in struggling to reach our quest in life.

I remember when I was a freshman college student when at the middle of the second semester; my mother pulled me out in the University and told me that I cannot go back to school anymore due to feudal (Redo as we termed it) problem that our family had once involved. I felt as if that was a total havoc on my future the fact that I thought I would be like my childhood relatives who grown up with revenge motivation on their mind. It was after a year that my mother thought it’s already safe for me to go away from home and continue my study but I was a bit frustrated already. I know I couldn’t be qualified anymore to our University’s academic and extracurricular scholarship grants and that I’m a year behind to my batch. I was blaming it all to the feud tragedy that stricken our family.

With my mother and some friends’ counseling, I was able to realize that such tragedy was allowed by ALLAH (God) to touch our lives because He wants something for us. Through such tumultuous event that I was able to be strong enough to face the challenges of paddling my own canoe to combat with life’s constant tests. It may be hurtful to see some of my relatives defending our clan from the feud we were involved but on other hand, I thought it wouldn’t be fair if I will regret to my professional quest for after all it would benefit the entire family.

If I was convinced that such life smashing event brings us to dark side of life no matter how we tried considering that feud in our culture is timeless, I wouldn’t be as I am right now.I would have been in the far flung places in the mountains carrying rifle all the times. Thanks to God that he let me think that indeed, problem couldn’t be solved by another problem.

Same story was shared by my colleague – Aleem Abubakar Sharief. He wasn’t able to finish his secondary study due to financial constraints but when he grown and turned responsible as Fadre de Familia, he realized to at least finish his Arabic study and so he succeeded in it. He said he was thankful enough that his frustrations when he was a young man served as his inspiration because he truly understood that God wants him to be a preacher.

We see, our life on earth is full of challenges. God allows these challenges to interfere in our living because God wants to test our level of patients and commitment to overcome terrific problems. Right now, we are facing our individual struggles and in every step, it coupled with different challenges be it good or odd. OFWs cynical moment is another example of it. There are times we received good news from our loved ones in the country like when they let us know that they are bouncing for happiness for the money we had sent or in contrast, we learned that the money we sent was spent irresponsibly thus we feel devastated. Now, if we failed to understand the reasons behind such event, we would probably take wrong decisions like we will keep our loved ones to be dependent or we might keep grudge against them for their irresponsibility.

In our office setting, especially when we are working with different nationalities with different kind of behaviors, we usually encounter event that we cannot ingest like when we were reproached of something we are not responsible of or when we are a victim of blame passing. This event usually makes some people to decide quitting and end their career pointless. But for some who take such event meaningful in their quest, it serves them to be strong and more committed to their work. These are those people who likely to succeed in their battle.

You see, it's never the environment; it's never the events of our lives, but the meaning we attach to the events -- how we interpret them -- that shapes who we are today and who we'll become tomorrow (as Anthony Robbins further quoted).

I have eventful happenings in my life. You have yours too. But it shouldn’t stop us in our journey to reach the point of our aimed destiny. Rest if we must but don’t quit because experiences are just life’s constant test.