A Pearl from the Ummah – Umm Sayyid

Jump to Comments

Written by brother Sayyid  {taken from a forum}

Edited by Umm `Abdillah

 

 

 

From the time I could remember, I mostly saw sadness and a concern over my mothers face. She, who should not be so old looking in her age, looked about ten years above her age.

 I saw her praying all the prayers and the mandatory prayers.  I saw her reciting the qur’an everyday. This was before she knew the straight path. I used to observe that she was very strict in the matters of Islam which was spread in our place due to culture. Whenever music was played she would say,‘it is the singing of shaytaan’. Whenever she saw women dancing she would say, ‘most people of hell are women  and the fire of the hell is set ablaze due to the open laughter of women’.  

It  was like this until a change came into our house…

We as a whole family were not living according to the sunnah or multazimeen but this was introduced in to my house.

My mother was from the first who took this path. At that time the people who acted on sunnah were very few in my place, like a hand full. People used to mock my family members due to our acting on Islam (fully).

A big change was seen in her after she started practicing the sunnah.  She was even more firm in her `aqeedah and actions.

Her daily routine would be that she would awake for tahajjud  and after praying tahajjud she would recite qu’ran in the night. I used to hear her voice when I awoke. She would sleep half an hour before fajr and get up for fajr again. After fajr she would recite the adhkaar and then go and prepare breakfast. After preparing breakfast she would be seen doing house chores. After she was done with this, she would be seen reading the translation of the Qur’an and believe me that was all we had from books. She never abandoned dhuhaa – four rak’ats always  and as for tahajjud, I think she prayed 5-7.  She was always seen fasting on Mondays and Thursdays. Then she prepared lunch and prayed dhuhr. After dhuhr she would serve us lunch and after finishing that, she would again be seen reciting the qur’an and then she would do siesta.

She would awake for `asr and after `asr she’d prepare some tea. After doing little chores for the house, she’d be seen reciting qur’an and making adhkaar. She’d get ready for prayers always. Seldom, would I see her not ready for prayers when the prayer was called for. After maghrib she would again recite Qur’an with its translation. After a while she would prepare dinner and after Isha she would sleep early. She was a very kind women who spoke little. I never heard her back bite or involved in gossip.  Rather,  I saw her sometimes stop her friends in a very kind manner from which none would be offended.

The neighbours would never hear her voice spoken out aloud. I never did hear her laugh out loud but while she laughed a voice would not be heard. She was known for her good behaviour. She would never argue with anyone. She would always forgive. She would advice me to do the same. She didn’t hold a grudge with any one except the taghuts and their allies. She was greatly harmed by our neighbours due to their criticizing, as they detested us for practising Islam. Also before that many could be seen jealous. However my mother was extremely kind and lenient towards them.

She would take for them from what she cooked. She never frowned while she spoke. Even her enemies testify that she was a extremely pious woman. She would repay bad with good. I remember one of our neighbours who would harm my mother with her tongue a lot, until sometimes my mother would be seen crying due to what our neighbour said. But my mother was always kind to her and treated her exceptionally well. After sometime, this woman was struck with poverty and my mother used to always ask her about her health and she used to be kind to her to the extent that this woman once cried one night in my house, saying to my mother ‘how good and generous you are’ …

I always remember that my house was never empty of a stranger who would come to eat. These were mostly little children with poor clothes. Later I came to know that they were cast aways and orphans whom my mother used to take care of…

She would always send me with some food, like a rice bag or flour or money to houses in different places. All of that was charity. A lot of her spending was not known to us until she passed away, for when she passed away many poor people came and said she would always send them money and take care of them…

She loved the religion so much that she was called ‘leader of the sisters’ by all the practising brothers in our place who were very few. She was always praised by the brothers and sisters. They would call her (not in front of her) a living example of Islam and they would all call her mother . When we knew about the sunnah she was almost in her fifties. She would always invite brothers and sisters for some food. Many decisions for marriage would pass by under her consultation.

She was also tried by the apostate so called Islamic regime of our country and was jailed thrice because she practised Islam firmly without compromise. But that never changed her stance for she was seen even stronger after they released her. These periods of imprisonment were for a small period each time. She was even feared by the investigators, as these investigators would beg her not to pray against them for they saw that her prayers would be accepted…

This made her have a clearer stance on the govt. and its false scholars and she would say that she would slay so and so because they mocked the sunnah of the prophet salallahu `alayhe wassallam.

As for connection with me, she was a very soft mother but very harsh on religious matters. She prayed for me a lot and sent me to study Islam abroad when I was young. She loved me a lot and would cry a lot due to my absence due to my studies abroad (my sisters said she almost fainted the first time I left to study although she was the one who sent me there). (Also the reason I first went to study Islam was due to her crying appeal that I must learn Islam not because I preferred it, but later Allah put love of it in my heart).

She would always advice me in her letters to act on what I learn. She never encouraged that I become just a sheikh with a certificate but rather a person with action. Her wasiyya for me was short, she said

“Study Islam, act on it and preach it, and be patient on what you face, and don’t come back to see me again. Rather after you study, run to the fields of Jihad and seek martyrdom, for I hope we will meet in jannah! Insha Allah“

and I saw tears flowing out of her eyes after she said that…

She passed away in an accident in a foreign country while she was in her early sixties and many mourned her death with praising her.

Later I came to know in her last days about the sadness which she used to hide under her smile, that was her fear for Allah.

She would spend time thinking about matters, thinking very deep. I used to wonder what made her so old so soon…

She told me that she never liked sins even from her childhood and when ever a sin was thought of, some how Allah took her heart away from it. She once told me, [before I was born], her friends who were women of her age come to take to her to the cinema and she would go there. But she said ‘not one night could she think of what was happening in the film.’  For her thoughts went  beyond what was  on the screen and she said she thought about all the sins and free mixing which was occurring and the fear of Allah.

This was when her age was about 25-35 and she started showing excuses to her friends, they understood and left her alone.

She was formally educated, as she was from a noble family as in tradition. But she never knew much about religion. But I always saw her holding fast to what ever she knew.

4 Comments

Filed under Classics