Taking Lessons from Flowers
by Hazrat Maulana Yunus Patel Saheb (rahmatullah ‘alayh)
Whilst taking a walk through Mitchell Park one morning after Fajr, breathing in the fresh morning air, we found the pathway covered with flowers having fallen off the trees.
I mentioned to my friends: ‘At one time, these flowers were on the trees, and they were admired. People enjoyed and appreciated their fragrance, inhaling and saying, ‘How beautiful…, ‘ ‘How sweet…’ and ‘How charming.’ However, when the slight breeze touched those flowers, they left the branches of the trees and fell onto the ground.
Then we found those people who once admired and enjoyed those pretty flowers trampling over them as they walked. Those pretty, colourful and fragrant flowers became a carpet on the ground and were crushed —as if those visitors were squashing the hearts of those flowers. After some time, the garden service swept those flowers away, and they were thrown into some bins. After that, the bin bags were disposed of at some dump.’
I then explained this as an analogy to my friends.
Once upon a time, Muslims were like those flowers on the trees. The fragrance of their Iman and Islam, their beautiful character and charming etiquette, were admired and appreciated by all. Their pleasant character and speech, honesty, sincerity and service to mankind emitted such beautiful fragrances which even non-Muslims benefited from.
The beautiful colours of their Ibadah – be it Salah, Zakah, business transactions and social interaction were the means of not only people changing their faith but also changing their culture and language, as we find in the time of the Sahabah (Radhiyallahu ’anhum). They spread to all parts of the world, undeniably influencing different nations.
People inhaled their fragrance when they were flowers on a tree, and they accepted Islam.
When the breeze of temptation and sin blew, then as we find today, many Muslims left the tree; they separated themselves from the strong, sturdy trunk of correct Aqa`id (beliefs) and lost the attachment they had to the branches of Ibadat (worship). They adopted the Western culture, and in turn, they lost their fragrance and their colours as they withered away.
Having fallen onto the ground, the Muslim Ummah globally is being ‘crushed’ underfoot by ther[1].
In whichever direction we turn, we find a picture to grieve over: So many amongst our precious youth cannot even be identified as the blossoming flowers of the Ummah. They have preferred to mix with sand and mud and, in so doing, have lost their fragrance and colour. The Hollywood/Bollywood culture, with all its immorality and sins, is that sand and mud —more exactly, it is quicksand, which readily swallows our young Muslim sons and daughters.
And then we have the picture of the burdensome yoke of injustice, oppression and suppression. The lives of Muslims have become so cheap that hundreds, if not thousands, are ‘swept’ into mass graves, where genocide has become a play and past time for many enemies of Islam.
We have the destruction of Muslim homes, the deliberate killing of Muslim children, the rape of Muslim women, and the theft of Muslim land —oppression compounded.
When we turn away from this sad, heart-wrenching sight, we see another picture to cry over: Many Muslims, in positions of authority and rule, are like puppets, and non-Muslim governments pull their strings.
Some are treated like animals – they are “broken in” or trained to listen and obey — as we find with some Muslim Governments, and there is no gain in return.
This is our reality; from where to where and from what to what.
But there is no despairing if only we return to Allah Ta’ala’s obedience and the Sunnah of Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam). All that is required is to plant the seeds of Taqwa, and those beautiful, fragrant, colourful flowers will soon be blooming and blossoming once more.
[1] Kuffar: Non-believers – those who have not brought Iman (faith) in Allah Ta’ala and the Risalat (Prophethood) of Sayyidina Muhammad (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam).