Poetry & Fiction

Ice Cubes and Candles

By Zabrina A. Bakar

My dearest friend called me yesterday. She was having a bad day, you know, the type that qualifies for ‘rock-bottom, and then me’ kind of day.

As she was ‘passionately’ describing her ‘memorable moments’ of the day, it was clear that her emotions were running high and her thoughts were all cluttered, disorganized and jumbled up. She wished for things that she had never asked to happen to anyone, to happen to the person that had caused her so much distressed.

I quickly reminded her of the verse of Allaah the Most Loving who said in His Holy Book that guides human souls,

Verily, those who are Al-Muttaqoon (the pious – see V.2:2), when an evil thought comes to them from Shaitan (Satan), they remember (Allah), and (indeed) they then see (aright) (A’raf 7: 201)

She made me think that day.

My friend is a lovely person but under a severely and extremely stressful circumstance, her thoughts wandered to a territory she had never crossed before.

I realized here that Allaah has made it clear that our minds could ‘stroll’ around if we do not control it. Of course if it strolled towards goodness, alhamdulillaah, right?

But what if it wandered towards something bad?

For example, when we got upset with someone, or injustice was done to us, or we found that someone had betrayed us, or we are angered, what were our thoughts at that time?

What were the things that crossed our minds? What were the words at the tip of our tongues? Was there an urge of retaliation? How about revenge? Perhaps intend to pay back? Maybe even a quick prayer of condemnation for the other person?

Well, perhaps some of our thoughts do not really qualify as evil thoughts but they sure do not qualify as good ones either, you agree?

And mind you, those thoughts are definitely whispered and ‘specially delivered’ to our mind courtesy from His enemy.

So, what did Allaah want us to do then?

Remember Him…and then only we could see what is right, inshaAllaah…

With that, I quickly reminded myself and my dearest friend of the words of our Creator, Allaah the Greatest, the Most Loving, the Best Planner with this verse,

Say: “nothing will happen to us except what Allah has decreed for us: He is our protector”: and on Allah let the Believers put their trust (At-Taubah 9:51)

Allaah has said that nothing will happen to us except with His Permission. Therefore, if we continuously be upset and failed to exercise patience, aren’t we sort of like showing our anger, dissatisfaction, frustration and irritation towards Allaah too?

Don’t you think this is what the satan wanted from us in the first place? To make us unhappy, angry and displeased with Allaah’s Plans, the One Who gave us life? Do we want to give the enemy of Allaah victory because we aren’t able to control our discontent over the small ‘mishaps’ we faced daily? Do we really want to see them doing the happy dance while we are fuming with anger? Do we want to allow them to use us as prove to Allaah of the unworthiness of His Creation- the human being? Do we?

Astaghfirullaah…

Billy Graham once said,

Hot heads and cold hearts never solved anything

So, I have decided to pour unto my head some ice-cube water to cease the heat and to light some candlelight in my heart to warm it up, inshaAllaah.

What about you my friends? Care to stock some ice-cubes and candle for future use?

Think about it…

Copyright © Sis Zabrina 2008

Sis Zabrina also known as Zabrina A. Bakar, is a Life Storyteller, motivational writer and speaker; and author of Islamic motivational book Life is an Open Secret www.lifeopensecret.com which contains 18 inspirational stories from ordinary life experiences. She passionately writes about life daily happenings, viewed and analyzed from unique perspective, blended with the Qur’anic verses and Hadeeth of the Prophet SAW for solutions to illustrate the easiness, simplicity, relevancy and completeness of Islam to today’s world. Her works are published in various countries across the Muslim world. She maintains an active blog at www.wisdomthruwords.blogspot.com.

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  • She’s the dollars
    She’s my protection
    Yeah she’s a promise
    In the year of election
    Oh sister, I can’t let you go
    Like a preacher stealing hearts
    At a traveling show
    For love or money money money
    Money money money money money
    Money money money
    And the fever, getting higher
    Desire…

  • Bismillaah

    Wa’alaykum salaam D. JazakAllaah khayran. Alhamdulillaah. Do come back from future stories, inshaAllaah

    Salaams
    Sis Zabrina
    ~ Life Storyteller ~

  • Sis Zabrina,

    Well, I thought I was that strong to put ice-cube water in my head to cool it down when I’m “outa proportion”.. Thought I can control my sadness & sorrows by remembering that it’s all God’s Will.. Thought my iman was high..

    But recently, it proved me wrong somehow.. One of the people I know has passed away in a car accident & that was hard, my first reaction was atotal breakdown! 🙁

    TOTAL BREAKDOWN !

    And eventually I carried on breathing..

    Daddy said that a real mu’min is shown in such times 🙁 I felt really bad 🙁

    Alhamdulillah for having a warm heart.. But my head? I need some work on that now 🙂

    Thanks for sharing your thoughts dear sis..

    I’ll try not to forget teh ice-cube water 😉

    lovingly,

  • Bismillaah

    Sis Sara, i know what you mean. Despite reminding myself numerous times to take control of my reactions towards adverse situations, i nearly always find myself fail to do so! Guess i must always keep my ice cube water handy! 🙂 It is a struggle, but, a well worth one, inshaAllaah!

    Hopefully as days went by, inshaAllaah, we will need less and less ice water cubes, ameen… :))

    Hugs
    Sis Zabrina
    ~ Life Storyteller ~

  • I know what you mean, but its really hard to keep a cool head when someone has done a wrong to you, any helpful Duas on getting justice done….or are we supposed to just be passive and let things be? Is patience mean going to let the other person get away with the hurt they’ve caused me?

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