BismillaahirRahmaanir
Raheem 23rd Dhul Qadah 1437 A.H.
Assalaamu alaykum wa Rahmatullaahi wa Barkaatuhu
brothers and sisters in Islam. It is my prayer that you are well by the
unflinching, vast and endless mercy of Allah azza wa jal. We pray for Allah’s
peace and blessings upon the noblest of souls; the Messenger of Allah, Muhammad
and all of his household, companion and people.
So, it’s been a very long time I wrote an article. Been
caught up with publicizing my book; A Letter to the Maker of Laws (A Stage
Play); you should get your copy. Smiles! And of course, laziness suddenly being
my lot. Alhamdulillaah, I am finally getting this one done and I pray I am able
to get the many things on my mind and in my notes put together in an article
form for you to read in shaa Allah. I am thankful to two sisters especially who
are dear to my heart; Muslim Hawa and HikmatIddrissu, they inspired me to
overcome this laziness and get this done. I love you fiisabilillaah sisters.
Who is Aysha?
Aysha is a super woman, a newscaster – not an ordinary
one but the kind that turned all the people in her country into
time-keepers watching out for the time
she would appear on their screens to tell them the news of the day. She was the
kind people watched with full attention and admiration. She was on everyone’s
lips. She was the best and she knew that all too well.
Aysha had been brought up by her poor parents in a poor
neighbourhood. Her parents still lived in this neighbourhood. Even the road to
this community was a total mess. Aysha on the other hand had become successful
at her career and she now lived alone in a luxurious house in the city. She had
a luxurious car too. And let me guess; ‘a luxuriously fat account’ I believe.
Keep smiling to Jannah!
A Glimpse into Aysha’s
Life
Aysha had the habit of listening to powerful messages
of success from inspirational speakers in her car. These messages serve as one
of her motivations to soar to greater heights in life. She can repeat almost
all the lines as they are spoken – yes! That is how much she had become used to
them.
She has some favourite lines she speaks out before the
start of her programme. She says to herself;
‘You will be fine!
You always are! You will be this evening too! You are the best there is!’
And oh yes! She believed in that – her attitude said it
all.
She will say to herself after watching the
advertisement of her programme on TV before bedtime;
‘You are number
one. Nobody at all can compete with you AyshaOsberk. You are the best. Nobody
ever can get you down. Forget your troubles. Now, just get a good rest and
start a new day and you will be better than ever.’
Among Aysha’s habit too is that – SHE DOES NOT PICK HER
PARENTS’ CALLS. Yes! You read right. Aysha has succeeded in almost cutting her poor
parents who loved her ‘too much’ from her life. She believed they contributed
absolutely nothing to her success and so they should be shoved aside. When I
look at Aysha in her very big and nice living room and bedroom, I feel like she
is ignorantly preventing herself from enjoying the bliss her parents could offer
her.
Imagine Aysha came home and her loving parents were
those to welcome her, pamper her, listen to how her day went, laugh or cry with
her, give her ideas even, and then she eats her mum’s home-cooked food – listen
to her dad’s old tales. Plus get some kisses before sleep and even make people
meet her parents…etc…
Gosh! Wouldn’t that be lovelier than such a pitiful
lonely life?
A man who comes into her life as her consultant called
Sally, asks his spiritual master when he sees Aysha ignoring her mum’s call;
SALLY: Her mother is calling, why doesn’t she answer?
MASTER: She shuns them.
SALLY: Her own family?
MASTER: That and everything that reminds her of her old life
and poor upbringing.
And yes! She dumped another person too. Someone she
loved before. Her poor fiancé. She broke off the engagement with him. She tells
him one day on her way back from her parents’ after being coaxed into visiting
them by her godfather, the Chief Inspector of Police that;
‘I broke off with
you because our lives weren’t just compatible anymore. We live in completely
different worlds now.’
That was after he had crossed her path and tried to put
her into her place whilst expressing his anger at her for what she did to him.
He had mistaken her consultant and adviser, Sally, as a man she was introducing
to her family because he had class and fame.
She complains about the road to her neighbourhood as
she goes with Sally to see her parents briefly. She says;
‘Damn it! Damn it
to hell! Ever since I can remember these roads were like this. Not asingle person
ever came here to fix them.’
Then Sally replies her nicely;
‘You should help Aysha.
You have the power. Do a report this evening to help your neighbourhood out
with this.’
Then she says;
‘Sally, do not
interfere in my personal life if you please.’
He says;
‘I’m sorry. I
didn’t mean it that way.’
She retorted;
‘So, what did you
mean then huh?’
Now! She had only come to visit her parents because the
Chief Inspector of Police after congratulating her and Sally for revealing a
corruption scandal had spoken to her about her parents. Before the topic of her
parents came up, the Inspector made her know how proud he was that she was able
to expose the corruption case. Then she says;
‘Actually, Sally
here helped me a LITTLE with this.’
Yes, to her, his help was little even though he was
actually the one who brought the whole scandal out by teaching her what to do.
Smiles! And interestingly, after Sally had explained the psychology behind how
he could expose the man like that; she made it look like it was normal to know
that but the Inspector had said;
‘No! No! Don’t just
brush out Sally’s words like that. What he is saying about the man’s
psychological profile is correct.’
Then the issue of her parents came in. She tells Sally
about how the Inspector had helped her to become whom she was. The Inspector
explained that his only role had been to talk to a couple of acquaintances
about Aysha and that it is her efforts that contributed the greatest to her
success. Then she mentions her father;
AYSHA: My father was so happy when I started doing this work.
INSPECTOR: But he is very sorry now.
AYSHA:(Surprised) Why?
INSPECTOR: He called me last night. You haven’t been to see him
in months, he says. He misses you a lot. They said if they didn’t see you on
TV, they will never see you at all now.
Then she cuts in by excusing herself to leave. But the
Inspector says;
‘Aysha, my girl. I
feel like a father to you. I trained you so I think I have some right to say
this to you now. Don’t neglect your parents. They are very sad you know.’
That sent her to them…
This is how she describes the road to her community and
the community itself to Sally after they left her parent’s house;
AYSHA:Forgive me Sally for dragging you all the way to this
neighbourhood.
SALLY: I am a village boy myself Aysha. I love places like
this. Your mum and dad have really missed you.
AYSHA:Sure, they’ve missed me. Actually, I have to come more
frequently but I’m not who I used to be. They look at me in a different way in
my own neighbourhood. It makes me uncomfortable and this places can be so
depressing. Look at how ugly these houses are and the miserable condition of
the street.
Yet, she believed that an advice from Sally for her to
use her influence to get someone to help better the conditions of her people
was an ‘interference into her personal
life.’ Keep smiling!
The Aysha her Fans
Knew and the Real Aysha
She is hosting a woman whose husband is abusing her greatly.
Check that out;
AYSHA:(Sadly)So he actually beats you with an iron? (The woman nods) But why would he?
WOMAN: (Almost crying)
He used to hit me all the time. He used to whip me with a cable and he attacks
me with the iron too. He used to press it on my arms and hands when it was
burning hot (then she cries)…the
programme goes on…
AYSHA: (Almost about to
cry) I beg your pardon here on behalf of my entire country because
particularly, we the women of this country must join together to put an end to
this violence against women here and everywhere. Thank you for your bravery and
for coming on this programme…(etc. and
she wraps up sadly).
And just when she was told that she was off the TV; she
gives a huge hearty laugh…she is happy with herself for acting so well. Now,
this woman who is ignorant of the real Aysha calls on her for help as she
thanks her. She says;
‘Aysha Ma’am, may
God bless you. Thank you so much for that. You really are going to help me now,
aren’t you? (She cries).’
Aysha is pissed off and she says disgustingly;
‘Exactly how am I
supposed to help you ma’am? Am I the city government?’
And she walks off…leaving the woman in her tears.
Whilst this show was ongoing, her boss had been
speaking with Sally whom he had hired to assist Aysha get better. He believed
she was on top of things in her country but she needed somebody like Sally who
had had an international exposure in this field to train her so thatAysha can
fit into the international standards as well.
She had come to meet her boss who introduced her to
Sally as her consultant after she left the woman crying. She didn’t see any
need for him and what new he could teach her because she believed;
SHE WAS ALREADY THE
BEST…
And Sally had advised her about changing her wardrobe
in order to look better on screen. She knew he could teach her then.
Her next meeting with Sally had been just before he
helped her to expose the corruption case. She had come a bit late, dressed as
he had suggested, to meet him and other reporters around. She sent her
technician to check what was going in there in a rude manner and then she asked
Sally for her first lesson.
SALLY: Lesson one. You should be more polite to your
co-workers if you truly want to be a success.
AYSHA:Mr Consultant has just stepped over the line now. You
are really going to tell me how Aysha behaves to whom?
SALLY: If you behave professionally, people will respect
you, then they will continually want to do things for you because they respect
you. This way, your performance improves and as the quality of your work
increase, so the quality of the work you will receive.
Sally’s Master tells him something about Aysha one day.
He says;
‘Her ambition is
truly great but she herself is not as great as she thinks she is.’
She Chooses her
Career over Humanity
One day, as Aysha left her house to work, she hit a
sixteen (16) year old boy with her car. Just when she was about to call the
police with her phone, she stopped – probably thinking about the consequences
of such a scandal to her career. Luckily, she found the boy’s phone lying
somewhere and she used it to call the police without mentioning her name and
then she drove off – leaving the poor boy in his own pool of blood.
That was when her troubles began – She was determined
to hide the fact that she caused the accident even though all the news were
full of this scandal and the worse of it was that being the top newscaster that
she was; she was expected to do series of stories on this poor boy and his
family whom she later found out was a national soccer player and the only hope
for his poor family.
She forcefully had to study the story by watching what
the parents of the boy had to say about their grief. The mother’s boy is caught
on camera lamenting;
‘…they left my son
lying there like that and drove off. They are monsters. How could they do such
a thing? Don’t they even have any children, a mother or father? Whoever did
this isn’t even human…’
The crying super star sent the video backwards to
listen clearly. The mother says;
‘…I raised my son
to be a human being not to play soccer. I don’t care about his career or even
how much he is appreciated. He is my child and he is a good boy. I don’t care
about anything else. I just want my son to live…’
And then Aysha continued to cry like a baby. Her
technical assistant who has never seen her emotional except when she acted;
asked her whether she had started crying even before the real show began. Sally
assured him that this time around, the strong hearted Aysha was ‘really crying.’ He was shocked.
And do you know the interesting part of this scandal?
The mother of the boy she hit and run was the same woman who was on her show
once about undergoing abuse in her marriage. Small world, isn’t it? If only she
had treated her better!
The father whose son had been hit had pushed his son
into playing soccer even though the boy wanted to be a writer so badly and he
had such great writing skills too. His father had thought that he needed to
make money and writing was not going to get him anywhere. But in the end, even
as he worried most about whether his son who was in a critical condition could
play soccer again or not, he changed over to accept what his son loved to do
even before the boy’s full recovery.
Aysha and Sally had attended the farewell dinner of the
Chief Inspector of Police and the old man had made a submission that hit Aysha
to the core. He said;
‘I always tried to
be at the top of my profession but everything does come to an end. In ten years
from now, I will not be a successful Chief of Police but a simple retired cop.
I have tried hard to be a good person and I shall continue to be a good person.
Certainly, a person’s professional success, his reputation and his rank are
important but if you don’t have a clean conscience in life, none of these has
any value…’
The words were stabbing Aysha’s heart so much that she
had to excuse herself. Then Sally had informed her that the boy who was hit was
in critical condition and needed some blood type which was hard to get. Then Aysha
rushes to the hospital to donate her blood to him – it was her blood type. But
of course, she refused to meet with the boy’s parents after the donation.
SALLY:Aysha, Ona’s father and mother are here. Would you like
to meet them?
AYSHA:(Filled with fear
as she stared at the parent’s back turned to her) No! No! I want to go home. I want to go home right
away. I want to sleep and forget about everything.
SALLY: I don’t understand Aysha.
AYSHA: I am very tired ok. I want to forget everything (Then she begins to walk off).
Sally had advised her thus;
‘The solution is
neither to forget nor to run away. I think you should listen to the voice of
your conscience. Remember the useful advice of your mother from long ago. Just
be true to yourself and listen to your heart.’
She was surprised because she had no idea that Sally
knew it all and that he was from the spiritual realm and his mission in her
life at the moment was to help her overcome her pride (don’t ask me about the spiritual thing…heheheee!)
Aysha had been plagued with nightmares but she was
still battling between coming clean and jeopardizing her career. Then her
fiancé and the Chief Inspector of Police had both come to find out from her
behavior that she was the one that caused the boy’s accident and they both
tried to coerce her in various ways to come clean but she was still behaving
tough. And oh! She was now messing up on screen whenever she had to talk about
the scandal. She had to host the boy’s father one day. Check this out!
AYSHA:…Mohammed Sir, we know your son Ona was a young rising
star and a very talented soccer player. Could you tell us a little about his
goals as a professional soccer player?(The
man is quiet) Didn’t you have many career goals that you outlined together
for your son, Sir?
FATHER: Well, I always wanted him to be a great player and
have a bright future up till today. What I want to say is that I didn’t care
what his wishes were or what he really wanted in life but now I see how truly
wrong I was about this. What is important is not what I wanted for him but what
he wants. I think what will make him happy and bring him great success would be
‘being a writer.’ And we as a family will support him as much as we can to
realize this. Aysha, I now understand that our value could not be measured by
the titles that come in front of our names (Aysha
who had been almost breathless all the while suddenly breathed out – you can
imagine). I almost made a terrible mistake. One that could have ruined my
son’s entire life.
AYSHA:Errrmmm! Mohammed Sir, is there anything you will like
to say now that all these have happened? Go ahead and tell us.
FATHER: As you well know, the person or persons who hit my son
have not yet been found. In fact, the investigation is ongoing but I just want
to appeal to the consciences of those persons who were the cause of this
terrible hit and run accident on my son as he suffers in the hospital at this
moment. How can a human being just leave a helpless 16 year old boy by the side
of the road and drive off. It’s hard to understand. What sort of hard
heartedness is this Aysha?
Then Aysha began to cry on screen saying she was sorry
and then she left the man on the programme.
Then she had met with her fiancé at where they used to
meet when they were young and he had almost forced her to go and confess after
letting her know that he knew about the accident.
FIANCÉ: You hit Ona, didn’t you?
AYSHA: I did! And then I drove off.
FIANCÉ: But it is not a mistake that can’t be corrected. You
can go to the boy’s family and explain everything to them. You tell them that
you were afraid to speak until now. You are only human. I am sure they will
understand.
AYSHA: It’s easy for you to say all these. You have nothing
to lose here. Just think about what will happen if I do that. All the effort
I’ve made up to now will be for nothing. My career will be over and what will people
say behind my back? They will say I am a criminal; The Famous Newscaster, AyshaOsberk,
Hit Some Kid and Left Him for Death…and then she invited his father to be on
her news programme. A total scandal.
FIANCÉ:(Angrily) I can’t believe what you said. Your ambition has
blinded you here. You seriously injured a boy. He is struggling for his life
now. His family is miserable and what are you doing? You! You’re thinking about
your career now.
AYSHA:(Also angry) I got where I am the hard way, Nusret. Of course I
don’t want to lose everything I have gained. You just wouldn’t understand this
ok.
FIANCÉ: No, I don’t understand and I don’t want to. This can’t
be you. You weren’t like this. The things you own, this car, that house, your
new life, your new associations; look at what caused you to acquire these
things. You turn your back on your family and our love. On our love. You just
threw away my love!
AYSHA:(Shouting)That’s enough! (Then
she begins to run to her car) I don’t have to listen to this anymore.
FIANCÉ: Don’t go! How far are you going to run now? How far
huh!
And do you know the funny thing that happened. As Aysha
drove away crying vigorously, her car began its drama again. It began to
recite;
‘Let us repeat
together. I am successful. I believe in myself. Nothing can stop me doing what
I want to do. I can overcome any obstacle. What is important is my…’
Then Aysha pulls out the cassette screaming at it
saying;
‘You haven’t
succeeded in anything. Not a thing!’
And then out she throws it through the window…and then
she goes off to her dressing room to express her grief at herself breaking the
mirror and trying to use a piece of it to cut her wrist. Then Sally appears
telling her not to do it. She was shocked because it was very late and he
should not be around.
SALLY: I know you caused the accident Aysha.
AYSHA:Yes, I did it and then I went right on with my life as
if nothing had happened. Like some horrible monster.
SALLY: But you didn’t act exactly like that. If you hadn’t
cared, if you had killed the humanity that fills your soul, you wouldn’t be in
this state now.
AYSHA: May be. But what good is it? Now, I can’t be the
person I was nor can I go on living this stupid life as if nothing had ever
happened at all. I’m finished. It’s over.
SALLY: No! You now understand, you are aware. Your core
values and your essence are still part of you. You just need to take a step
back and see your family. They have raised you to be strong in such situations,
to hold fast with your values and to cherish your life and the lives of others
before all.
And then he was gone…disappeared! (Don’t ask me about that either…smile to Jannah!)
Sally and his master are caught at one point saying;
MASTER: Fame can make people think that they are something
they are not. Then they become slaves to money, titles or material possessions.
They want always to be praised and applauded. They live in continual fear of
losing these things.
SALLY: Then, is it worth it to live with such a burden at
all?
MASTER:No, it isn’t but as long as you can’t unburden
yourself, you just go on adding one sorrow on top of another.
SALLY: In that case, she still has a lot more to suffer.
MASTER: It is her CHOICE!
The Chief Inspector of Police had come to tell her
parents about the fact that it was Aysha who hit the boy and that she needs
them because she was breaking down. Her parents wondered if she would come when
they called. He assured them that he believed that she would come now because
she cannot handle the situation herself. Then Aysha came right there crying and
confessing. Her mum advised her thus;
‘…there is a way to
atone for everything. You just have to see your fault…’
Then Aysha explains her crime. Her mum added;
‘Aysha, listen
darling. You have to own up to your mistakes as well as to your successes. If
you did something wrong, the solution is not to run away and ignore it. Go! Go
to the mother of the child you hit. Talk to her. Tell her the truth.’
She agrees as her father and the Inspector look on. She
requested an arrest after she sees Ona’s parents. She goes to Ona’s mother and
Sally and his master put it beautifully as they looked on;
SALLY: She both confessed and asked for forgiveness and she
also turned her back on her fame.
MASTER: She threw the luggage off her back and on to the ship.
Now, she will succeed in her repentance because whoever understands their own
powerlessness is reinforced by their true strength.
SALLY: And whoever finds God, what could he possibly lose?
And the Chief Inspector of Police had come with the
policemen to arrest her. As she gave her hand to be arrested, he shoved them
off and held her like the daughter she was and they walked off. Luckily, the
court had pardoned her as Ona’s family did not press charges against her. She
was finally relieved and happy. One of the reporters had asked her;
‘So would you go
back to your profession now?’
She replies;
‘The only thing I
do know is; right now I am going back to live with my parents.’
She was happy and Ona and his family came to see her.
Ona tells her that it was good she hit him because she had helped his dream of
becoming a writer come to pass. He gave her a copy of his book that had been
published and the family told her that he is going to be writing for magazines
and his other books too are going to be published. They agreed to be friends.
Aysha goes to see Nusret who brought her a bouquet of
flowers…
(Story from an episode of the Fifth Dimension)
And so the end was blissful. The lessons in this story
are profound and I pray that you don’t just read it but reflect on every aspect
of Aysha’s life and try to inculcate the lessons in your life as well. It is
lengthy but you read it – May Allah azza wa jal ease for you all of your
affairs and grant you the best of everything both in this Dunya and the Akhira.
Aameen Yaa Mujeebud’dua Yaa Allah! Rubaba is grateful. Do
remember her in your du’a always.
Jazaakumullaahukhairan!
Love fiisabilillaah
Rubaba-ElhaamMmahajia-RahmaSabtiu-Morla
