Fragility ...
When we get caught up in every day life, and start worrying about the dunya too much ... we are hit with the harsh reality that this dunya isn't what we should be worrying about. The dunya is for us to strive on the straight path ... strive in the deen, and whether we reach that goal is what we should be worried about. Too often we forget that this world is incredibly fragile ... but we don't know where we will be tomorrow.
This past ramadan I've been thinking alot about family, especially those that have passed ...
As I alluded to in previous posts, I have been blessed to have had many strong women in my life. By far, the strongest woman in my life was my maternal grandmother, Amma. I will inshaAllah be the first female lawyer in my family (one of my cousins beat me to it because he went to lawschool in the UK - where its an undergraduate degree!!) - but I come from a long line of traditional firsts - Amma was the first memon woman to get a drivers licence in Bangalore, her brother (my Jaffer Mama) was the first memon to earn a Bachelors degree, my sister was the first to earn an MBA, Ma'shaAllah. Back to Amma and her driver's license, it was a license that she put to very good use - spending much of her time visiting people regardless of whether there was an occasion for a visit, driving people where they needed to go, etc. When she was home, her days started after Fajr prayer, and then off to get the work of the day done; she barely sat down to eat - breakfast was toast and tea, lunch may have been the same ... who knows. With Amma, it was more important that everyone else around her ate and was well fed with her goodies. It was a trait that she shared with her siblings, and passed on to her children ... something I hope that I have inherited.
As much as I miss Amma for her warm smile, tender heart and amazing culinary skills, I miss the time that I spent with her. I was infinitely blessed to have spent much of my childhood at Amma's house - but the one regret that I have is that I wasn't able to benefit from her knowledge and soak in her steadfast dedication to Islam. I remember sleeping over, and waking up in the middle of the night to find Amma in prayer ... rolling over, and waking up hours later to find her still in prayer. Subha'anAllah. It was not unusual to find Amma curled up on the janemaaz after Fajr or Asr, too tired to even lie down on the bed.
Amma was the rope that tied our family together, she was the reason we grew up so close. Weekly dinners were common, and one never had to ask where Eid dinner was. Alhamdullilah, as time went the long family room table filled up, and overflowed - but we still all squeezed in together. We are now all scattered across at least three continents, but our common family bond ... a bond that was strengthened by Amma, is what pulls us all together.
While I deeply regret not being able to stand in prayer next to her, and appreciate everything she tried to teach me ... I am eternally grateful that she was a part of my life. I can honestly say that I would not be the person that I am today if it wasn't for Amma - she was a living example of compassion, and the kind of person that I strive to be.
We're all blessed with amazing people in our lives - whether they enter for several minutes or several decades. Nothing is random, everything happens for a reason. No person enters the path of our lives without having made some impact on it ... and for that we should all be eternally grateful. Our time in this dunya is way too short not to be.
This past ramadan I've been thinking alot about family, especially those that have passed ...
As I alluded to in previous posts, I have been blessed to have had many strong women in my life. By far, the strongest woman in my life was my maternal grandmother, Amma. I will inshaAllah be the first female lawyer in my family (one of my cousins beat me to it because he went to lawschool in the UK - where its an undergraduate degree!!) - but I come from a long line of traditional firsts - Amma was the first memon woman to get a drivers licence in Bangalore, her brother (my Jaffer Mama) was the first memon to earn a Bachelors degree, my sister was the first to earn an MBA, Ma'shaAllah. Back to Amma and her driver's license, it was a license that she put to very good use - spending much of her time visiting people regardless of whether there was an occasion for a visit, driving people where they needed to go, etc. When she was home, her days started after Fajr prayer, and then off to get the work of the day done; she barely sat down to eat - breakfast was toast and tea, lunch may have been the same ... who knows. With Amma, it was more important that everyone else around her ate and was well fed with her goodies. It was a trait that she shared with her siblings, and passed on to her children ... something I hope that I have inherited.
As much as I miss Amma for her warm smile, tender heart and amazing culinary skills, I miss the time that I spent with her. I was infinitely blessed to have spent much of my childhood at Amma's house - but the one regret that I have is that I wasn't able to benefit from her knowledge and soak in her steadfast dedication to Islam. I remember sleeping over, and waking up in the middle of the night to find Amma in prayer ... rolling over, and waking up hours later to find her still in prayer. Subha'anAllah. It was not unusual to find Amma curled up on the janemaaz after Fajr or Asr, too tired to even lie down on the bed.
Amma was the rope that tied our family together, she was the reason we grew up so close. Weekly dinners were common, and one never had to ask where Eid dinner was. Alhamdullilah, as time went the long family room table filled up, and overflowed - but we still all squeezed in together. We are now all scattered across at least three continents, but our common family bond ... a bond that was strengthened by Amma, is what pulls us all together.
While I deeply regret not being able to stand in prayer next to her, and appreciate everything she tried to teach me ... I am eternally grateful that she was a part of my life. I can honestly say that I would not be the person that I am today if it wasn't for Amma - she was a living example of compassion, and the kind of person that I strive to be.
We're all blessed with amazing people in our lives - whether they enter for several minutes or several decades. Nothing is random, everything happens for a reason. No person enters the path of our lives without having made some impact on it ... and for that we should all be eternally grateful. Our time in this dunya is way too short not to be.
posted by zai5h at Sunday, October 29, 2006
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