Monday, January 28, 2008

For The Good and Bad Times.

Before I start writing on the 'Muhibah' tag from Cikgu, I thought I'd put this entry first, a nice email someone sent.


www.FunAndFunOnly.net (SridhaR)

ONE PARAGRAPH THAT EXPLAINS LIFE!

Arthur Ashe, the legendary Wimbledon player was dying of AIDS which he got due to infected blood he received during a heart surgery in 1983.
From world over, he received letters from his fans, one of which conveyed: "Why does GOD have to select you for such a bad disease"?
To this Arthur Ashe replied:
" The world over -- 50 million children start playing tennis, 5 million learn to play tennis,

500,000 learn professional tennis, 50,000 come to the circuit, 5000 reach the grand slam,

50 reach Wimbledon, 4 to semi final, 2 to the finals,

when I was holding a cup I never asked GOD 'Why me?'.

And today in pain I should not be asking GOD 'Why me?' "

Happiness keeps you Sweet,

Trials keep you Strong,

Sorrow keeps you Human,

Failure keeps you humble and Success keeps you glowing, but only Faith & Attitude Keeps you going...




Reading through this, it reminds of a prophet. But before that, kindly forgive me as I have half forgotten the story and perhaps, even the prophet in the story. If I am right though, it is the Prophet Ayub alaihisalam.

The Prophet Ayub a.s. was blessed by Allah s.w.t. with wealth, health, several good sons and a devoted wife. He was well known throughout the land not just a wealthy man, but also as a humble and devoted servant of Allah s.w.t. But Allah has decreed it as such, Prophet Ayub a.s. was put to severe test.

First his wealth was taken away from him leaving him as a poor man. Later all his sons died. Yet, the Prophet Ayub showed tremendous patience throughout his ordeal. But soon after, a greater test was put to him where his health deteriorated so badly, even his wife was beginning to have doubts. In fact she even asked the Prophet Ayub a.s. to ask Allah s.w.t. for mercy and an end to the trial.
In replying to his wife the Prohet Ayub a.s. asked her "How long did we have the good times of wealth, family and good health?"
The wife replied "70 years."
Prophet Ayub a.s. asked again "How long have we gone through these bad times?"
The wife replied "7 years."
Then the Prophet Ayub said "70 years of good times and only 7 years of bad times, I am ashamed to ask Allah s.w.t."

If ever there is an error in the story, it is on my part and I hope it will be corrected. Thank you.

ps. In searching for reference to the above, I came across this interesting site which has animations on the story of the prophets in Islam; do give it a look at alqaem. A word of caution though, there are lots of bogus Islamic sites on the net. If you do find any, do NOT spread the word about the site, rather just inform several trusted people.

The simple reason for this is because many of these site depends heavily on fundings from certain anti-Islam organisation. Thus these sites would need to show a strong hit - the more the hits they get, the more fundings they receive. And people being people, the more we tell them not to go to such sites, the more they will out of curiousity.

ps ps. Apologies. The picture of Arthur Ashe just would not come out right.

15 comments:

Unknown said...

Yes, I remember AA, the first black player to win Wimbledon but sadly he succumbed to AIDS.

It seems that God is like a punching bad. He is questioned and blamed but very few thank Him.

Unknown said...

typo: bag not bad.

Anonymous said...

It is strange that even though he is not a Muslim, Arthur Ashe could put a lot of Muslims to shame by his reasoning. He understood the concept of "bersyukur" that is to be thankful for what we have.

God is often blamed for the misfortunes we face, but we are not thankful for the blessings that God has given us.

Muslims today seems to only remember God when they are in trouble.

cakapaje said...

Salam Cikgu,

Unfortunately, your 2nd para is quite true for many of us, including yours truly. InsyAllah, we will be better with each step, each mistake, we make.

Ps. I don't think I would be able to do the tag tonight! Wak Kasiran - my wtv8 cameraman/parter called to meet. Then later, I would have to send news as per my normal activity 6 nights a week; please forgive me. InsyAllah, I will do it tomorrow.

cakapaje said...

Salam miqdad,

True as you mentioned, it seems we take God for granted and as Cikgu mentioned, make Him like a punching bad, astaghfirullahil azim.

Unknown said...

Shah,
Hey, don't worry I understand. Do it only if you have time. Let me tell you this, I'd rather you go out on a date than do this, truthfully. So dah cuba ka belum? Kerja, kerja jugak, tackle, tackle jugak.

Mior Azhar said...

Shah,
This is a powerful entry. Thanks for sharing. Yes, we should be thankful to Allah all the time everyday. Macam orang2 tua kita pernah cakap: Kita rasa kita susah tetapi ramai lagi orang yang lebih parah susahnya.
Kena selalu beringatler.
Thanks again bro.

Mek Na said...

thanks for sharing this...together we redha n bersyukur

cakapaje said...

Cikgu,

Date? Lor...parents dia strict! Father dia ada senapang gajah cam cite P Ramlee, and mother dia ada pedang samurai...mati gue :)

Just kidding Cikgu. Every night after sending news, my brain's kind of fried already, and insyAllah, I will do the tag tomorrow after lunch.

cakapaje said...

Salam Pak Mior,

Alhamdulillah, thank you. And yes, we each serve as a reminder to another. So please do remind me if ever I get out of line.

cakapaje said...

Salam mek na,

You are most welcome ma'am. And yes, together we redha and bersyukur, insyAllah. Please remind me time and again.

Anonymous said...

salam shah,
thanks for the reminder shah. stuff like this keeps me going after afifah pulang.

tokasid said...

Salam Shah:

The AA story reminded me about many of us, me included. When ALLAH gave us His bountiful nikmat and rezeki, how many times do we say Alhamdulillah?

And I have seen many, too many in fact, when they are tested with musibah, they started to ask Why me??

In Islam, when we are showered with nikmat we should be grateful/syukur to ALLAH. And if were are tested with musibah we were taught to be patience/sabr. And the Sabr( with redha) that ALLAH counts is when we are first struck by musibah or news of musibah.

TQ Shah for the reminder.
This WHY ME thing shouldn't be in our vocabulary at all.Period.

cakapaje said...

Wa'alaikumusalam Accia,

Thank you for reading, ma'am. Semoga kita sesama mendapat pengajaran dan peringatan.

cakapaje said...

Wa'alaikumusalam Doc,

Thank you for the beautiful comment, Doc. It is a daunting task by itself, to exclude 'why me' from our vocabulary; but try it we must if we aim to be a servant who is eternally grateful to Allah Almighty.