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.

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.