Hey salaam everyone!
It has definitely been a while!
The message of this post is really all in the title. As you might have been able to tell MT has been kind of not moving much the past few months. I’ve been traveling for work, Ledo has been busy with LSAT stuff, Nora summer school, and Zamin getting better – it is been tough cranking out new designs.
Unfortunately to make matters more complicated Zamin’s computer was stolen last week and along with it our new designs. I once heard a story in a juma’a that I thought of instantly when I heard of Zamin’s recent unfortunate incident.
As my memory recalls it goes like this: There was a sheikh who was a prominent merchant in a land and while in a halaqa or some gathering a messenger came to him and said, “Oh sheikh your vessel caught fire while coming to port and sunk along with all the goods on board.” The sheikh looked down for a moment and then back up and said ‘alhamdulilah.’ Later on, the messenger came back and told the sheikh that he was mistaken and it was not his boat that sank. Again the sheikh looked down for a moment and then said ‘alhamdulilah’ in the same manner as before.
A student asked him why he did that upon hearing both sets of news explaining that he himself would have been devastated when hearing the first set of news and overjoyed at the second set. The shiekh said, “When I heard that my ship and goods were lost I took a moment to see if my faith was affected. When I found that my faith had remained fully in tact I was thankful to Allah. Then when I learned my ship was safe and again went back to make sure my faith had remained unchanged. When I found that it was I was thankful to Allah.”
Like I said, I do not remember the story exact and can not find it online (if you know it please share it). But the point (which I am getting to) still remains valid. Things WILL happen in our lives, we WILL be tested by Allah! As promised in the Quran (and easily accesible by Islamicity.com’s awesome Quran search):
21:35 Every human being is bound to taste death; and We test you [all] through the bad and the good [things of life] by way of trial: and unto Us you all must return.
In the sheikhs case he was tested by both the bad (loosing the ship) and good (regaining the ship) of this life. We just have to be careful enough not to get caught up in either or.
Zamin, you my brother are being tested now, and through your tests the MT team is being tested. InshaAllah you will remain patient and inshaAllah we will remain patient along side you. If you yourself are being tested right now just keep the end in mind and remember how quick fortunes can change. Remember like life, the deen is a marathon and not a sprint.
Salaam,
AbdulAziz
