Bilal's Bedtime Stories (part Two)

God Sees You Everywhere

A teacher had many good students in his class but had particular regard and high respect for one of them. Some of the students one day asked the teacher the reason for this. In reply he said "I shall tell you tomorrow."

The next day, he handed to each of those students one live chicken. He asked them to take the chickens to a place where they would not be seen by anyone and then slaughter them. After a while, they returned with their chicken duly slaughtered. But his favourite student came back with his chicken alive.

The teacher asked him why he had not slaughtered it. He replied, "You had asked me to go to a place where nobody would see me. I tried hard to find a place where God Almighty could not see me. But I failed. Everywhere I went I was sure that God could see me and I could not hide from Him. So I could not carry out your instructions."

On hearing this, the teacher turned to the other students and remarked, "The reason why I respect this student more is because of his constant awareness of the existence of God who can always see him, no matter where he is. Consequently, he does not commit any sin."

The sixth Imam, Jaafar-e-Sadiq (A.S.), said to one of his friends, Ishaq Bin Ammar, "Fear God as if you are able to see Him because He sees you. And if you think that He is not able to see you, then you become a non-believer. And if you believe that He sees you and you commit a sin in His presence, then you consider Him as the lowest of those seeing you."

TIT FOR TAT

It is a law of nature that whatever action we take in this world, there is always a reaction. If we do good, we stand to gain a good reward. If we do bad, we should expect a bad outcome ultimately. "What you sow, so you reap" is a popular saying.

The Holy Qur'an has also guided us on this subject. It says:

"If you do good, you will do good for your own souls, and if you do evil, it shall be for them. So when the second promise came (We raised another people) that they may bring you to grief and that they may enter the mosque as they entered it the first time, and that they might destroy whatever they gained ascendancy over with utter destruction." (17:7)

One of the companions of the Holy Prophet Mohammad (S.A.W.) was very fond of this verse of the Qur'an. He used to recite it loudly and repeatedly wherever he went. A Jewish woman who had heard him once wanted to prove him wrong and thus make him unpopular among his people. She thought up a plot against him.

She prepared some sweets mixed with poison and sent them to him as a present. When he received them, he went out of the city with them. On the way, he met two men who were returning home from a long journey. They appeared tired and hungry, so he thought of doing them a good turn. He offered them the sweets.

Of course, he was not aware that they were secretly mixed with poison. No sooner had the two travellers taken the sweets, they collapsed and died. When the news of their death reached Medina, the city where the Prophet resided, the man was arrested. He was brought in front of the Prophet and he related what had actually happened.

The Jewish woman who had mixed poison with the sweets, was also brought to the court of the Prophet. She was stunned to see the two dead bodies of the travellers there. They in fact turned out to be her own two sons who had gone away on a journey.

She admitted her evil intention before the Prophet and all the people present. Alas, the poison she had mixed in the sweets to kill the companion of the Prophet had instead killed her own two sons. What a splendid example of a tragic reaction to a bad action. It shows how one reaps what he sows. "Do as you would be done by" are words of wisdom from the learned and wise men of the past. They teach us to do good to others in the same way as we like others to do good to us.

Co-operation - The Key To Success

Co-operation is to work together for a common good. It is to undertake a job in which everyone plays his part sincerely to finish it. People in co-operation pool their resources for their common benefit. We come to hear or see co-operative societies established in many countries. Their benefit has been dignity of labour and self- dependence. The co-operative movement has been the cause of rapid economic progress in many countries.

There is a story of an old man who was on his death-bed. He called his sons and asked them to break a bundle of sticks which was bound together. Although the sons were strong and tried hard to break it, they failed. The old man then advised them to untie the bundle and to break the sticks seperately.

Everyone of them could do so very easily. The bundle of sticks is like co-operation and working together in unity which cannot be destroyed. Thus co-operation is strength.

The Prophet of Islam, Hazrat Mohammad (S.A.W.), was once travelling with his companions.They stopped at a place to have something to eat and then rest. They decided to slaughter a sheep and roast it. One of them said, "I shall do the slaughtering"

The other said "I shall remove the skin." The third one said, "I shall do the roasting." Each one of them volunteered to do one piece of work.

The Prophet of Islam said, "I shall collect and bring the firewood from the forest."

The companions said, "Oh Prophet! You need not take the trouble. We shall attend to everything." The Prophet said, "I know you can do everything. But I do not like to enjoy a preferential treatment from you. God Almighty - does not like to see a person distinguishing himself from his companions." Thus the Prophet went and brought firewood from the forest.

This is one of the examples set by the Prophet of Islam on co-operation and working together for a common good.

SHE HAD TRUE FAITH

Abu Baseer was once in the company of Imam Jaafer Sadiq (A.S.) when a woman came and said to the Imam, "I have come to ask a question. I am ill. Physicians in Iraq have told me to take liquor. Now I want to know what to do in such circumstances?"

The Imam asked her, "Why don't you drink what the doctors have prescribed for you?"

She replied, "As I am your follower, I shall obey what you say. If you permit me, I shall drink it; if not, I shall keep away from it; so that if I am asked by the Almighty God on the Day of Judgement why I did so, I shall reply that I followed the instructions of the Imam of the day."

Imam Jaafer Sadiq (A.S.) turned to Abu Baseer and said "O Abu Baseer. Did you listen to what this woman has to say? Are you not moved by her faith? Inspite of her illness, she is refraining from taking liquor without the Imam's permission."

The Imam then turned to the woman and said, "By God, I do not permit you to drink. If you do so, you shall be sorry when your soul reaches your throat (that is at the time of death)." So saying the Imam pointed at her throat; and asked her three times if she understood what he had said. The woman nodded her head.

One of the things which Islam has strongly forbidden is the taking of any intoxicating drink, like beer, wine. They are harmful to the body and mind. Under their influence one loses one's senses and is apt to commit criminal acts. We read of fatal accidents and crimes committed because of drinks. Even trading in liquor and sitting in bars where people are drinking are also forbidden in Islam so that there is no temptation in the way of people to taking them.

The holy Qur'an says,

"O you who believe! intoxicants and games of chance and (sacrificing to) stones set up and (dividing by) arrows are only an uncleanness, the Shaitan's work; shun it therefore that you may be successful. The Shaitan only desires to cause enmity and hatred to spring in your midst by means of intoxicants and games of chance, and to keep you off from the remembrance of Allah and from prayer. Will you then desist?" (5: 90-91)

The above verses from the Qur'an warn us of the effects of drinking.

The first Imam, Ali (A.S.), said, "Suppose a drop of liquor is put in a well and from its water a land is irrigated. Grass grows on the land and a sheep grazes there. That sheep then gets mixed in a flock of other sheep who have grazed elsewhere. If all the sheep are slaughtered making it difficult to identify the meat of the sheep who had grazed on a land which was irrigated from the water of the well, then I shall not eat any of that meat."

Thus Hazrat Ali (A.S.) has emphasized the evil of Alcohol. For the sake of our own physical, mental and spiritual welfare, we should always keep away from drinks.