

see end of page for buttoned useful links

Thursday, November 20, 2008

consolation for the heart

What happens to you when you hear the adhan, especially when you are outside the mosque and you hear it on the loudspeaker. I guess in Western countries the adhan on the mike is forbidden, so many there would not know the feeling I have on hearing it.

I said in a post that I went to Karachi in 1977 from London. There:

I met my mother, siblings and assorted nephews and nieces, handed over the keys of my suitcase to my youngest sister, ate what mother had prepared for me, took a shower and changed.

I was about to lie down to rest when I heard it:

Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar

Allah is Great, Allah is Great
meaning: "Allah is the Greatest, or Allah is the Great One"
(As I heard it, it registered with me how much I had missed this declaration. Yes indeed Allah is the Greatest, nay Allah is the Only Great One.)

Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar

Ash-hadu anla ilaha illallah
meaning: "I bear witness that there is no God but Allah"
(Allah is derived from al-ilaha, the God, the One and Only God)

Ash-hadu anla ilaha illallah

Ash-hadu anna Muhammadan Rasulullah
meaning: "I bear witness that Muhammad (sallahu alaehi wa sallam) is His (last) Prophet

Ash-hadu anna Muhammadan Rasulullah

Hayya alas-salah
meaning: "Come to offer prayers"
(Lahawla wa la quwwata illa billah
There is no power to do good or to refrain from bad except through the Power of Allah)

Hayya alas-salah

Hayya alal-falah
meaning: "Come to Salvation"
(Lahawla wa la quwwata illa billah

Hayya alal-falah

Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar

La ilaha illal-lah
meaning: "There is no God but Allah"
(Indeed there is no God but Him!)

As I finished answering the adhan, I recalled that we are to make this dua:
Allahumma Rabba hazehid-Dawatitta`mma
WasSalatil Qaaima
Aati Muhammada nil waseelata wal fadilah
Wabhashu maqamam mahmoodanilladhi wa`adtah

Hearing the adhan, I felt strangely empowered. This feeling lasted for more than 25 years. Any time I was down, all I had to wait for was the time of the adhan, and I would hear it, and all worries, all weights on my shoulders would be lifted. Allah is Great, so what do I have to worry about? It is only in the last three or so years that on hearing the adhan, I no longer feel that internal strength to face anything in the world. Maybe it is the age, maybe I need to rejuvinate my faith.

I wouldn't exchange hearing, answering the adhan and this feeling of empowerment for a trillion dollars.

1 Comment:

timbuktu58 said...

It is indeed the declaration which sets you free:

Woh ik sajda jisay tu graan samajhta haey
Hazaar sajdon sey deta haey nijaat

That one prostration that you consider difficult (to perform)

Gives you relief from a thousand prostrations (to false gods)

--- Iqbal