Absence

"Absence makes the heart grow fonder," said Thomas Haynes Bayly. If thats the case, theres no point of *just* being absent then. Sister Yasmin Mogahed has a better solution for us. She said, "if you want to kill something, neglect it. It happens in both good and bad. Neglect a relationship, it dies. Neglect your iman, it dies. But the same principal applies when you want to kill something like a thought or a desire. Neglect it, it dies."


As I am writting this, I am experiencing a heavy headache. I am thinking to change the topic to something like 'fail' or 'failure'. But nevermind. Why? Here we go..

There are times when we have to be absent in order to protect, that is when by being 'there' we're hurting others - we are protecting them from ourselves. And at different times, we have to present no matter what. Why? Because other than making the heart grows fonder, being absent has one more badness, that we're unable to protect what we're supposed to. By the will of Allah, that is.

We Muslims are like siblings to each other. And it is a duty of every Muslim to protect his Muslim sisters. It is painful enough to know that our sisters are hurt in Palestine, Iraq and so on. You know how it feels, when you got so angry that tears began to fall. And you felt so frustrated because there's nothing you can do.

Recently, our 16 years old Muslim sister was raped by her very own father. Yes, here in our country! I know her personally.. Poor child.. For a moment I was so angry that I really-really want to crush that man. And I was drowned in this massive sense of failure. I felt so frustrated, that I couldnt protect her. This place was just given under my watch recently, and I was the one who's in charge of the religious matters. What I've been doing?

My dear Muslim brothers, we are suppossed to protect the sisters, we're their guardians. Allah swt said in the al-Quran, "Men are the maintainers of women because Allah has made some of them to excel others and because they spend out of their property.. " [4:34]

But nowadays, what have we become..? All those premarriage pregnancies, all those poor abborted babies, were they entirely the sisters' fault? My dear sisters in Islam, why did you gave yourself up so easily?

May Allah grant us the strength to protect ourselves, our family and those around us. Aameen..