The shaykh and the prostitute

Did you hear of the story of the Shaykh from Azhar and the prostitute?
No …Well, here you go, as was narrated by Shaykh Ali Tantawi [May Allah(SWT) have mercy on him] in his memoir about Shaykh Ahmad Al-Zayaat[May Allah (SWT) have mercy on him].Shaykh Ali Tantawi said:
"The Shaykh (Ahmad Al-Zayaat) was a teacher, who did not know anything of this world except: The Azhar where he used to teach, the house he used to live in, and the road between them.
As years passed by, and he got older, his health started to deteriorate, and he needed to rest. So the doctor forced him to take some time of, and suggested that he goes somewhere away from his place of work and residence, and advised him to enjoy the quietness and calmness of the parks next to the Nile. So one day, the Shaykh went out and stopped a carriage (as cars were not that available at the time). He told the driver: My son, take me to a nice place were I can enjoy the view and relax. The driver of the carriage, however, was a wicked person, and took the Shaykh to a place in Egypt, which at the time had several prostitution houses.
After arriving he told the Shaykh: Here [we are].The Shaykh said: O son, Magrib prayer is drawing near, where can I pray? Take me first to the Masjid.The Driver [pointing to one of those houses] said: The Masjid is over there.The door [of the place] was open, and the lady running that house was sitting, in the manner those like her usually sit. When the Shaykh saw her, he lowered his gaze. He saw a seat, so he headed there and sat, waiting for the Call for prayer (Adhan). [The woman in confusion, just] stared at him.
What brought that man here?He doesn't look like any of her regular customers. She kept thinking to herself, but did not dare ask him what he was doing here. What kept her from asking was the shyness that remained in her heart,even as a prostitute. However, that shyness only appears in front of people of Piety.
He, on the other hand, kept doing Tasbeeh (saying Subhan Allah (SWT)),whilst looking at his watch, until he heard the Adhan of Maghrib from far away.He asked her: Where is the Moazin (Person who calls for prayers) here?Why didn't he call for prayer when the time entered?Are you his daughter?She … kept silent.
He waited for a while, and then said: My daughter, Maghrib time isshort, and it is not permissible to delay it, and I do not see anyone here, so if you have your Wudu (ablution) then pray behind me Jama'ah. He gave the call for prayer, and without looking at her, as he was about to give the Iqamah, he noticed stillness behind him?! He asked: What is wrong? Don't you have your Wudu? All of a sudden, as if her Iman (Faith) woke up and she remembered the old days. The days when she was filled with purity, and was away from sin, she started to cry loudly, and threw herself at his feet.The Shaykh surprised, did not know in what way he can calm her.She then, started narrating her story.He saw in her words great regret, and felt the truth in her repentance. He realized the sincerity in what she was saying, so he told her: Listen, my daughter, to what the Lord of all creation says:{Say, "O My servants who have transgressed against themselves [by sinning], do not despair of the Mercy of Allah (SWT). Indeed Allah(SWT) forgives all sins …"} (39:53).All sins, my daughter, all sins …The door of repentance is open to every sinner and it is so wide thatit can encompass them all no matter how heavy their load [of sins] is… even Kufr.
So whoever disbelieves in the all Mighty, after he was a believer, but repents before the hour of his death comes, and he was sincere in his repentance, and he renewed his Islam, Allah (SWT) will accept him.Allah (SWT), my dear daughter, is the most Generous of all. Did you ever hear of anyone generous shutting the door in the face of those who come seeking him? Stand up and go wash yourself, and cover yourself. Go and clean your skin with water and your heart with repentance and regret. Approach your Lord, and I will wait for you.But do not delay, so that we do not miss Maghrib prayer. She did as he asked, and returned to him with a new dress and a new heart. She stood behind him and prayed. She felt and tasted the sweetness of that prayer, and felt that this prayer purified her heart.
When the prayer was over, he told her: Come with me, and try to cut every relation you have with this place and everyone in it. Try to erase the time you spent here from your memory. Consistently ask Allah (SWT) for his forgiveness, and increase in doing righteous deeds. Verily, adultery is not as big a sin as Kufr, and Hind [bint `Utbah –May Allah (SWT) be pleased with her], who was a disbeliever and had animosity in her heart to the Prophet of Allah (SWT). After that she became from the righteous believers, and we started saying: Allah(SWT) is well-pleased with her. The Shaykh then took her to a house of righteous ladies, and then found her a righteous husband and advised him to take good care of her" 1/252.

[Original writer in Arabic forum said]: Notice [May Allah (SWT) shower you with Mercy]
the state of this woman, how she was and how she changed. It was nothing more than simple words from an old man that led her into changing her life upside down. So if you only think how many people are just like this woman. People who are drowning in filth, people who the dust from their sins gathered around their hearts shedding away its light. These sins caused them to see the Truth as Falsehood and the Falsehood as Truth. How much are they in need of one to take by their hands, and to clear the dust away from their hearts.
They do not need complicated educational and behavioral philosophical treatments, or theories in the manners of interaction and persuasion. Neither are they in need of complicated statements. What they truly need is for someone to feel sorry for them and for their state … Someone to understand their situation and to hope for their guidance … Someone who would speak a word that would leave his heart, [and touch theirs]. A word which he seeks nothing from except the Face of Allah (SWT).After this the light, that was for so long covered with sins, would emerge and their souls would return to its Fitrah, and would return to its harmony with the universe and to the true manner of life.

SPECIAL GROCERY LIST

A a poorly dressed lady with a look of defeat on her face, walked into a grocery store.
She approached the owner of the store in a most humble manner and asked if he would let her charge a few groceries.

She softly explained that her husband was very ill and unable to work, they had seven children and they needed food. The grocer, scoffed at her and requested that she leave his store at once.

Visualizing the family needs, she said: "Please, sir! I will bring you the money just as soon as I can."

The grocer told her he could not give her credit, since she did not have a charge account at his store.

Standing beside the counter was a customer who overheard the conversation between the two. The customer walked forward and told the grocer that he would stand good for whatever she needed for her family. The grocer said in a very reluctant voice, "Do you have a grocery list?"

The lady replied, "Yes sir." "O.K" he said, "put your grocery list on the scales and whatever your grocery list weighs, I will give you that amount in groceries."

The poor lady, hesitated a moment with a bowed head, then she reached into her purse and took out a piece of paper and scribbled something on it.She then laid the piece of paper on the scale carefully with her head still bowed.

The eyes of the grocer and the customer showed amazement when the scales went down and stayed down.

The grocer, staring at the scales, turned slowly to the customer and said begrudgingly, "I can't believe it."

The customer smiled and the grocer started putting the groceries on the other side of the scales. The scale did not balance so he continued to put more and more groceries on them until the scales would hold no more.

The grocer stood there in utter disgust. Finally, he grabbed the piece of paper from the scales and looked at it with greater amazement.

It was not a grocery list, it was a prayer, which said:

"O Allah, you know my needs and I am leaving this in your hands."

The grocer gave her the groceries that he had gathered and stood in stunned silence.

The lady thanked him and left the store.The other customer handed a fifty-dollar bill to the grocer and said;

"It was worth every penny of it . Only Allah Knows how much a prayer weighs."

When you receive this, say a prayer. That's all you have to do. Just stop right now, and say a prayer of thanks for your own good fortune.

Ttrust Allah to heal the sick, provide food for the hungry, clothes and shelter for those that don't have as we do. Amen.

Prayer is one of the best free gifts we receive.There is no cost but a lot of rewards.

Love you over and over

A young boy lived in a village with his uncle who was a grumpy old man who never expressed any affection for his nephew. The boy's parents had died when he was a baby and the uncle was his only family. He often felt lonely and would watch with great sadness when walking through the village and seeing a mother who held her child's hand or put her arm around his shoulders or spoke gentle words of love and affection. The boy wished that just once someone would speak to him such words of endearment and affirmation.

One day he walked far from the village and found a place in a valley surrounded by mountains. He watched a bird flying high above him and out of loneliness cried out, "I love you." To his great surprise, he heard "I love you" over and over, and each time it was repeated, it grew fainter and fainter. The boy did not know it was an echo. Then he shouted, "You are so good" and again the echo reverberated the message many times. After that the boy often came to this spot and would call out, just to hear a positive message of love returned to his ear.

Years later he would tell the story to his own son, explaining that he thought at the time that God was speaking to him and providing him with the kind and affectionate words that he so desperately wanted to hear. The lonely sad boy was now a father who held his own child's hand, put his arm around his shoulder, and spoke gentle loving words to him. And he taught his son to always remember that what we give out in goodness comes back to us many times over

Forgiveness: A Lesson From Buddha

The Buddha was sitting under a tree talking to his disciples when a man came and spit on his face. He wiped it off, and he asked the man, “What next? What do you want to say next?” The man was a little puzzled because he himself never expected that when you spit on somebody’s face, he will ask, “What next?” He had no such experience in his past. He had insulted people and they had become angry and they had reacted. Or if they were cowards and weaklings, they had smiled, trying to bribe the man. But Buddha was like neither, he was not angry nor in any way offended, nor in any way cowardly. But just matter-of-factly he said, “What next?” There was no reaction on his part.
Buddha’s disciples became angry, they reacted. His closest disciple, Ananda, said, “This is too much, and we cannot tolerate it. He has to be punished for it. Otherwise everybody will start doing things like this.”
Buddha said, “You keep silent. He has not offended me, but you are offending me. He is new, a stranger. He must have heard from people something about me, that this man is an atheist, a dangerous man who is throwing people off their track, a revolutionary, a corrupter. And he may have formed some idea, a notion of me. He has not spit on me, he has spit on his notion. He has spit on his idea of me because he does not know me at all, so how can he spit on me?
“If you think on it deeply,” Buddha said, “he has spit on his own mind. I am not part of it, and I can see that this poor man must have something else to say because this is a way of saying something. Spitting is a way of saying something. There are moments when you feel that language is impotent: in deep love, in intense anger, in hate, in prayer. There are intense moments when language is impotent. Then you have to do something. When you are angry, intensely angry, you hit the person, you spit on him, you are saying something. I can understand him. He must have something more to say, that’s why I’m asking, “What next?”
The man was even more puzzled! And Buddha said to his disciples, “I am more offended by you because you know me, and you have lived for years with me, and still you react.”
Puzzled, confused, the man returned home. He could not sleep the whole night. When you see a Buddha, it is difficult, impossible to sleep again the way you used to sleep before. Again and again he was haunted by the experience. He could not explain it to himself, what had happened. He was trembling all over and perspiring. He had never come across such a man; he shattered his whole mind and his whole pattern, his whole past.
The next morning he was back there. He threw himself at Buddha’s feet. Buddha asked him again, “What next? This, too, is a way of saying something that cannot be said in language. When you come and touch my feet, you are saying something that cannot be said ordinarily, for which all words are a little narrow; it cannot be contained in them.” Buddha said, “Look, Ananda, this man is again here, he is saying something. This man is a man of deep emotions.”
The man looked at Buddha and said, “Forgive me for what I did yesterday.”
Buddha said, “Forgive? But I am not the same man to whom you did it. The Ganges goes on flowing, it is never the same Ganges again. Every man is a river. The man you spit upon is no longer here. I look just like him, but I am not the same, much has happened in these twenty-four hours! The river has flowed so much. So I cannot forgive you because I have no grudge against you.”
“And you also are new. I can see you are not the same man who came yesterday because that man was angry and he spit, whereas you are bowing at my feet, touching my feet. How can you be the same man? You are not the same man, so let us forget about it. Those two people, the man who spit and the man on whom he spit, both are no more. Come closer. Let us talk of something else.”

The Blind Boy

A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said: ‘I am blind, please help.’ There were only a few coins in the hat.
A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words.
He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.
Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, ‘Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?’
The man said, ‘I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way.’
What he had written was: ‘Today is a beautiful day and I cannot see it.’
Do you think the first sign and the second sign were saying the same thing?
Of course both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second sign told people they were so lucky that they were not blind.
Should we be surprised that the second sign was more effective?
Moral of the Story: Be thankful for what you have.Be creative. Be innovative. Think differently and positively.