thank you…

Today I was at the masjid for Isha and an interesting thing happened to me.  As I arrived for prayer, the congregation had just begun as I walked in to the masjid.  As people usually do, they started to load up on the right side of the line, leaving the left side pretty bare.  Anyways, I walked over to the left side and began to pray.  When I joined the line, I was pretty much the last person on the side (there was a small spot left but no one came and filled it).

That is the tightest fade I have ever seen...

A few rakah had passed (I don’t know if it was 1 or 2, but I know some had passed) and this young brother joined next to me.  When we finished our prayer, this kid had done salaam as well with the congregation when he had some rakah to make up (because he had joined late).  Knowing that he had missed some, I instinctively leaned over and put my hand on his head and very nicely just said “hey buddy, didn’t you miss a rakah?”  Realizing he made a mistake he was like “oh man yeah I totally forgot” shot up and began to pray again.  I was impressed to see this kid jump up with such enthusiasm, but mash’Allah he is a really good kid (I have seen this kid since he was like 4 years old until now, which is 13, and man do I feel old).

So I prayed my sunnah and began to head out of the mosque.  As I got near the exit, I hear someone call out my name.  I look back and it was the same kid who had prayed next to me.  He was running towards me and stopped right next to me and stuck his hand out to me with a very genuine smile and said his salaam and then said “man, thanks a lot for telling me I missed some rakah.  I completely forgot, but thanks a lot.”  Subhan’Allah I was completely floored by this sincerity that this young kid had shown.

How many times have we been corrected by other people in a nice way?  Whether it be a matter of religion or a matter of anything else, we all have been correctly nicely and kindly.  And how have we felt or reacted?  How many of us have really humbled ourselves, have put aside our ego and regardless of the age of the person correcting us, genuinely smiled and appreciated the fact that they were truly looking out for our best interest?  I know I have been corrected many times and I often catch myself thinking “ugh you know it all” or something like that when I really should react how this young cat did and be extremely and genuinely thankful that someone corrected but did so nicely.  On the other hand, how many times have we corrected people in an arrogant way (big ups to me for being so knowledgeable and correcting you) or to make them feel bad or stupid (man, how could you do that, don’t you know any better)?

We need to remember that if we are about to correct someone in something, that we must do so in a very kind and gentle manner.  And if we are being corrected, we need to remind ourselves that the person correcting us truly loves and cares about us and just wants what’s best for us.

Finally, I have said this before and I’ll say it again.  Be open to learning life’s lessons from people of all ages, shapes, sizes, and religions.  If you let someone’s age, religion, or anything else hinder your ability to gain some good from that person, that you need to check yourself before you wreck yourself (big ups to Imam Suhaib for using that line over and over again) because there your ego is getting in the way of gaining good from the people around you…

-peace-