Saturday, September 10, 2011

Nice

There were tears of despair. In between sobs, she confided,'I always treat people nicely, but why are they mean to me.'


Then it struck me. Before I left for UK to study ages ago, my mum wrote a short reminder in my autograph book. The message was short but I never took much notice, until this afternoon.


'Buat baik berpada-pada, buat jahat jangan sekali,' she wrote.


Actually,you can be nice to people, but please make sure that the people that you are nice to are nice! There shouldn't be any hidden motives for being nice to other people; in other words be nice sincerely. Allah knows what's in our hearts and for every good deeds that you've done, Allah would give you great rewards.


I don't know the statistics of bad people versus nice people. But I'm really sure that nice people outnumber bad people. We need to be careful when getting acquainted with a new person; not to reveal too much about ourselves and always be nice to your own self before you are good to others!


I always refer to the seerah of the prophet whenever I came across a problem. Read this touching story about Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) and realise how patient and noble he was during his lifetime.


In the corner of the marketplace of Madinah, was a blind Jewish beggar, who would cry out daily to all those who came near him, "O my brothers, don't be near Muhammad! He's a lunatic, he's a liar, a sorcerer! If you are to be close to him, you will be influenced by him!"

No matter whoever approached him, the blind Jewish beggar will definitely not waste his chance to incite them to hate the Prophet Muhammad, Sallalahu Alaihi Wassallam (peace be upon him).



All kinds of curses would spew forth from the beggar's mouth even though he had never known the Prophet personally!

The news about the blind Jewish beggar's daily cursing and badmouthing him came to the knowledge of the Prophet (pbuh).

Even then, the Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) did not get angry and he ignored the blind Jewish beggar's insults against himself!

On the contrary, from that day onwards, at each morning, the Prophet (pbuh) visited the blind beggar and brought food for him!

Without saying a single word, the Blessed Messenger (pbuh) would feed the beggar with his own hand!

The blind beggar would chew the food being fed to him and eat contentedly. Once he was full, he'd express his gratitude without knowing that the one who had fed him was the Holy Prophet of Allah, Muhammad (pbuh).

The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) continued to feed the blind beggar without fail each day till the day he died! Throughout his service to the blind beggar, he never revealed his identity to the blind Jewish beggar.

After the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) had passed away, no one brought food to the blind beggar anymore.

The blind Jewish beggar waited daily and was perplexed as to why the kind man did no longer come to feed him and provide for him as he had done all this while. The blind beggar waited in vain for the kind gentleman who had fed him

One day, the closest Companion of the Holy Prophet (pbuh), Saiyidina Abu Bakar As Siddiq @ The Truthful One, Radhiallahu Anhu (May Allah be pleased with him) visited the home of his daughter, Saiyidatina Aishah, Radhiallahu Anha (May Allah be pleased with her), the widow of the Blessed Messenger (SAW).

Abu Bakar asked Aishah, "O my child, is there any habit of my beloved (Prophet) that I have yet to carry on?"

Aisyah replied, "Dear Father, you are verily a follower of the Sunnah (Habits) of the Prophet and there is none that you have yet to do except for one deed only!"

"What is that?" asked Abu Bakar.

"Every morning, the Prophet of Allah (pbuh) will go to the end of the marketplace, bringing food to a blind old Jewish beggar who lives there and feed him by his hand," said Aishah.

The next day, Abu Bakar As Siddiq went to the marketplace with food for the blind beggar. Abu Bakar As Siddiq approached the beggar and started to feed him.

At the first handfull of food being fed to him, the blind Jewish beggar became angry and shouted out, "Who are you?"

Abu Bakar answered, "I am the one who usually feeds you every morning".

"No! Don't you lie to me!" objected the blind beggar.

Abu Bakar was shocked, thus he asked, "Why do you say so?"

The blind Jewish beggar answered, "Because when he comes to me, I always felt it easy to hold his hand and found it easy to chew the food he fed me! The man who used to feed me would make the food fine before feeding it to me!"

Abu Bakar As Siddiq could not hold back his tears anymore and he burst out crying and had to disclose who he actually was to the beggar.

"Verily, I am not the one who used to come and feed you. I am one of his Companions for the noble one is alive no more! He was none other than the Blessed Prophet of Allah, Muhammad Sallalahu Alaihi Wassallam!"

"Muhammad?" asked the blind old Jewish beggar, totally shocked with what he had just heard.

"You mean to tell me that the one who came each morning without fail and fed me by his hand was Muhammad?" asked the beggar.
"Yes! It was Muhammad!" answered Abu Bakar.

Immediately, the blind old Jewish beggar wailed out in despair and cried so pitifully coming to realise that it was none other than the Holy Prophet (pbuh) who had been feeding him all this while.

"All this while!... all this while, I had been cursing him, I had been slandering him! Not once has he ever scolded me! He kept coming every morning to feed me! He is so noble!.." cried the old blind Jewish beggar as he wiped away his flowing tears on his cheeks.

The blind beggar reached out to Saiyidina Abu Bakar As Siddiq, the first Caliph of the Muslims and testified before him the Kalimah Shahadah