By Yasmeen Figueroa

A good friend shared an interesting story with me. I would like to share the story with everyone. I hope that it will inspire, illicit thought, and perhaps produce change. After this story, I realized our “true” purpose in this life. It is not to eat and sleep, pray or even fast. We were created for a bigger purpose – “Kuntum Hkayra ummatin ukhrijat linnas.”

Everyday 500,000 people die without the kalimah, and may go to Hell. Who is responsible for them? We are. Who will be blamed and questioned, them or us? Of course, they will be questioned, but so will we.

The example the elders were given was that of a man who sent his eldest son to call his younger brothers to prayer. His younger brothers were playing outside making mud castles. It was getting dark, and prayer would be out shortly.

When the eldest son went to call them, they said, “We’ll be inside in a second, we just want to finish this.”

But the eldest brother said, “No, right now.”

Then, they replied, “Just wait we’re almost done building the castle.”

After noticing that they were building the castle incorrectly, the eldest brother said, “No, that is not how you do it. Let me show you.” So the eldest son stayed with them to show them how to build mud castles.

While waiting for his sons to come inside, the father becomes worried and upset, and thus he decides to go outside to see what has happened.

And now here is the big question.
Who does the father blame?
His youngest sons or his eldest son?
Of course, he blames the older son.

In the same way, we were sent for the Ummah of Muhammad (pbuh) but we ended up playing with them and forgot why we came. We ended up building mud castles instead of bringing them inside.

The problem is that we don’t have appreciation for our religion. Because we have it so easy, we take it for granted. The Sahaba (rda) were starved, tortured, and many were killed. They sacrificed so much to ensure we would have our great religion today. However, since we don’t sacrifice for our deen, we have no real value for it.

Allah (swt) has told us that Muhammad (saw) is the last messenger to mankind; as a result, our duty is to continue to spread the message. He has left us with a purpose. We are all Da’e of Islam.

May Allah give us strength to pursue His plan.
May He give us patience with ourselves and His creation.
May He give us knowledge to unveil the eyes of people.

Ameen.