While surfing the net a
few days ago I came across this very interesting, thought-provoking account of a
person who was transformed from a ear-shattering-high-volume-music-listener to a
person who no more listened to music and not just him, his whole office and that
too by a single person who never preached.
Intrigued? Aren’t we? So let’s just plunge straight into the story.
“Hi! My name is Ahmed and I have been working at a private firm for many years.
The environment of my firm had always been very frank and open. There’s one big
hall with desks set all around it, so that all the employees share the same
room. There have been both male and female employees working together in my
office and all of us have always been like close friends; men and women alike.
Almost all of us have had speakers attached to our systems and all of us liked
to play songs aloud; so yeah my office’s environment has always been pretty
cool. It was around 4 years ago when my organization got a huge dream project to
work on and we had to ask the headquarters to provide us with an electrical
engineer for the project. Soon a young, enthusiastic & intelligent Electrical
Engineer (named Ali) moved into our office, but what we (me and my colleagues
alike) didn’t like about the young man was that he had a “six inch long beard”
and used to “wear his pants a little higher than his ankles”. So we all decided
to ignore that guy and keep our routines intact, with all the high music, long
gossips, loud laughter and free mixing of men and women. But none of us had
anticipated what was in store for us. On the very first day we were all
surprised when he got up from his chair came around each of our tables with a
pleasant smile and polite manners he invited each and every one of us for
‘Dhuhr’ prayers. Determined as we were to ignore him, we refused to be impressed
by him and refused to join him in his prayers. He then brought his prayer rug in
the hall (much to our astonishment) and started praying then and there and so we
had to stop the music to let him say his prayers in peace and silence (since we
are all born Muslims, so we did have this much respect of the prayers at least).
Anyhow we resumed our chatter and music as soon as he was done, but had to stop
it all again at Asr time because he did what he’d done at Dhuhr prayer again.
And then it started happening on a daily basis. It was like a routine for him,
he would come to us he would invite us to pray and then he would pray in the
middle of the hall. Slowly and unknowingly most of us started using headphones
as a respect to his routine. Ali was a very kind, down-to-earth person, always
ready to help everyone around him even before his help was asked for. He would
speak softly, listen to our issues and provide us with the best solutions,
cracks jokes and be kind, he would even go to kitchen and fetch water, coffee
and teas for his subordinates and serve them. Before we knew we were all tied in
the bond of friendship and love with Ali. After a while few people started
joining him in his prayers.
Few days past and most of us permanently dismounted our speakers from our
computers. Before we realized almost all of us had ceased to listen to music
altogether, and those bold and vulgar jokes and loud laughter were replaced by
nice words and kind smiles, while the number of men who offered congregational
prayers with him in office increased still; until there wasn’t a single person
left in the office who won’t pray. Two months flew by and our “SO COOL” office
had literally been transformed into a “peacefully productive” office. At the
completion of our project came the time of his sad departure and he left us all
in tears but with better faith. Alhumdulillah.
Today someone asked me, “Who is a true Muslim?” Ali was the first person who
came into my mind. Yes! He was the best Muslim.
What I learnt from this story is that good manners are the first step to wining
people’s heart and persistence is the key to success. When we look at our Holy
Prophet صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم and his Sunnah, the first thing that we get to learn
from it is Holy Prophet (صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم’s ikhlaaq (good manners), even his
staunch enemies couldn’t deny his good manners. We (Muslims) as a nation need to
promote and develop good manners in ourselves and in our coming generations.
Don’t you agree?
Secondly, we should have enough courage to act upon what we believe to be right.
We shouldn’t feel embarrassed in saying our prayers or in acting upon any order
of Allah in a place where no one else is doing so. For, our actions may just
become a ‘sadaqah-i-jariyyah’ for us