Toothache

As I study The Quran, and as I become more and more cautious about Satan and his efforts to destroy humans, I hesitate to seek medical help, well-aware of its roots in ancient greek practice, lest I end up harming myself. 

So, one day, I developed a toothache. It hurt. The problem persisted for a few days. 

As I was praying, I went down in prostration, and asked Allah what to do. I didn't want to go to a dentist for a, b, & c, reasons. I wasn't even sure if going or not going was the right thing to do. So, I spoke my heart out. I asked...  

Later on, it occurred to me, to lather the aching tooth with a spoonful of honey. I cleaned my teeth, and then applied the honey on my teeth and gums, especially putting more on the area where it was hurting. After doing this routine for a few days, the pain went away. 

Shukar Alhamdolillah 

For more on my learnings and my hesitations, 

Disease & Cure 
https://signsandscience.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_19.html  

 

Indigestion

A few days ago, I kept a fast. I had a paratha (bread made from wheat flour) for the sehri (pre-dawn meal to keep the fast). 

Throughout the morning, I was feeling uncomfortable. It felt like its just sitting in my upper stomach, and just won't get digested. 

In zuhr (the afternoon prayer), I prayed to Allah to cure the indigestion. While I was still on my prayer mat, someone came to our door asking for some atta (wheat flour). We told him that we didn't have any new (un-opened) bags. He insisted that he wanted atta. He just wouldn't take no for an answer. Eventually, we gave him a little from our home ration. 

As soon as he took it, by the Mercy of Allah, my indigestion went away.  Shukar Alhamdolillah. 

In The Quran, spending in charity is linked to the removal of the bad effects of our deeds (وَيُكَفِّرُ عَنكُم مِّن سَيِّئَاتِكُمْ) (Q2:271). The beggar and the poor have a right in our wealth (Q2:177; Q17:26-30; Q51:19; Q70:24-25; Q93:8-10). From Moses' adventure (Q18:60-82) to learn righteousness (عُلِّمْتَ رُشْدً), we know that there is so much that we really don't know, and we really cannot encompass divine wisdom with our minds. 

It is attributed to our dear Prophet Muhammad ﷺ to treat your ill by giving sadqa (spending on the poor). 

Truly, our charities are actually for our own benefit. Subhan'Allah.  

Pledging Organs

Throughout the early 2000s, I kept hearing about organ transplants and how it was saving lives. 

As a parent of a child with health issues, I knew I would desperately want my child to be able to receive organs if needed. So, as I would like others' organs for my child, I thought I should also pledge my organs, for the benefit of others, to be harvested when I no longer need my body. 

I asked religious scholars on the permissibility to pledge organs. Nobody had anything for or against organ transplants. Curiously, the people I asked, none of them had pledged their organs. It was strange that they would bypass such a wonderful opportunity to continue earning the rewards for a deed even after their death. 

Although unsure and hesitant, I decided that I will pledge my organs. Somehow, it didn't feel the right thing to do. So, I prayed to Allah that if this is indeed a noble deed, then let this be the 'zakat' of my body, and accept it from me. And if it is not a noble deed, then please protect me from the sin of it. I went and pledged my organs at SIUT Pakistan. I don't remember the exact date, but I think it was 2012 +/-1 year. 

In 2014, by the Grace of Allah, I started studying the science mentioned in The Quran. In 2017, I came to realise the significance of our body: its not we who no longer need our body, but that when our nafs tastes death, we transition from the living to dead state, and disintegrate. Dead is also a state of being, though we have no knowledge about it. We are made of dust, and we will be resurrected thus. We are our body! 

With that understanding, by the Grace of Allah, I un-pledged my organs, and informed my family and friends that I am no longer an organ donor, nor do I wish to be an organ-recipient, God-forbid, if such a medical situation emerges. 

I have explored the subject from various angles and have tried to share my learnings online for the benefit of the believers. The following are links to some relevant blogposts: 

Human: Body or Soul?
https://signsandscience.blogspot.com/2017/05/human-body-or-soul.html 

The Case against Organ Transplant 
https://expeditionthink.blogspot.com/2019/02/the-case-against-organ-transplant.html 
this post also contains links to other relevant learnings posted prior to it 

Our Record in Our Neck 
https://signsandscience.blogspot.com/2019/04/our-record-in-our-neck.html 

Non-Living & Living 
https://signsandscience.blogspot.com/2019/09/non-living-living.html  

Alhamdolillah! I gratefully thank Allah for the guidance, and praise Him in All His Perfection. May Allah keep us all in His Mercy and Protection, always.  

He Knows our thoughts ...

Many years ago, an old lady used to come by. She would ring the bell. She would gesture that she wants clothes. She was suffering from some kind of partial paralysis, and so couldn't speak properly. She could only manage a few sounds.  She was also very frail and petite. I used to generally honour her request, and give her some of my clothes. 

One day, the bell rang again. I picked up the intercom to ask who it was. She responded, as usual, with some sounds. So I knew it was her, and I headed towards my closet. 

In our culture, a ladies' suit is generally shalwar or pant, kameez and a dupatta.

As I went in to my closet to take out something for her, I thought to myself that I have never seen her wearing any of the clothes I part with. So, why not give her something I am not so fond of. So, I took off the hanger a suit which I didn't like and didn't want to wear. I put it in a bag and went to the gate. 

There she was, probably for the very first time, wearing a combination of three different suits of mine: a different shalwar, a different kameez and a different dupatta. All three suits I had been fond of; I had given them to her because we should give things we like when giving for the sake of Allah (Q2:267, Q3:92); and since it had been quite a while, I had even forgotten about these clothes. 

Though I had not spoken aloud, Allah knew my thoughts, and He showed me that He knows our thoughts, and remembers everything! (Q2:284, Q17:25, Q20:7)

It has been a while since the old lady passed away. I thank Allah for the opportunity to serve, and the lesson taught to me through her. May Allah forgive every opportunity we lost, or failed to use properly. May Allah accept our charities, and increase us in good thoughts and good deeds, which are accepted and invested in our eternal future. May Allah increase us in guidance and goodness. 

Diseases & Pandemics

The Quran 24:61 permits the diseased and the healthy to eat together or separately. It includes a clause to send salaam upon our own nafs... 

When the Covid-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) started affecting many people globally, countries went into lockdown. Social distancing became the norm. Everyone started wearing face masks. Those who were tested positive for the virus were put into isolation. ... The world was facing a pandemic! 

My daughter tested positive for the virus. She was in severe pain. By the Grace of Allah, we didn't have to hospitalise her or put her in isolation: a friend sent over his pulse oximeter; another sent over a portable oxygen concentrator. 

We were with her throughout her ordeal. We did not isolate her. We ate together. I even slept beside her on the same bed. I also developed a few symptoms. 

When her test first came positive, we had ourselves tested as well. By the Grace and Mercy of Allah, we tested negative. After her body had developed antibodies, I was tested again. Alhamdolillah, again my test result came negative. 

No, I'm not invincible. It was only the Mercy of Allah that He Protected me from the virus. 

The purpose to share this story is to glorify Allah and to help people realise that nothing happens without Allah decreeing it. All things good and bad happen with His Permission (Q57:22). The good is from Allah, while the bad is from our own nafs (Q4:79). We need to seek Allah's protection and forgiveness, and patiently endure whatever trials Allah decrees for us. May Allah help us, guide us, and improve our condition.

The رُوحُ الْقُدُسِ (Holy Spirit || Pure Command) has brought down The Quran in Truth from Our Lord (Q16:102). We need to learn to trust the guidance in The Quran.

   

If Allah Wills (in sha Allah)

We were setting-up our city’s first interactive science gallery in a space a naval museum had kindly made available to us for the purpose. We had purchased construction manuals of interactive exhibits from a foreign science centre. Working on a low budget, we were seeking out local manufacturers who could build those exhibits for us. With the Grace of Allah, and answered prayers, the effort initiated with an email to a nationally decorated scientist in 2011 to the inauguration of the science centre in 2013, took less than two years! 

The naval museum had a dear friend by the name of  Cdr Siddiqui, an octogenarian, who had been associated with the museum and its library for the past sixteen years. The facility was like his own child. He loved it and constantly strived for it. 

The library was located in the ground floor of the museum. Cdr Siddiqui used to spend several hours  daily in the library. While setting-up the science centre, I also spent several hours supervising the work at the museum. We had many interesting conversations on a range of topics from the setting up of this museum to the science expedition to Antarctica in which he had sent Pakistani scientists. 

One day, he asked me to set up a sundial at the museum. I said in sha Allah (if Allah Wills) I will have a sundial built for the museum after we complete the interactive science gallery. He said people say in sha Allah when they don’t intend to honour their commitment. I replied that I know that people do abuse this phrase, but I must say it since Allah has ordered it (Q18:23-24). 

We inaugurated the interactive science gallery in August 2013. Now it was time to honour my commitment to build the sundial. I had the construction manual of an interactive sundial. I contacted the local astronomical society for expertise. They didn’t have anyone, but redirected me to a website of the person who had built a sundial on an intersection in our city. The website had an email address and two phone numbers. I emailed and also tried contacting him over the phone, but the numbers were incorrect. A few days passed and there was no response even to the email. With the sundial website open  in front of me, and I looking at the phone numbers, … it occurred to me that there were too many threes at the beginning of the numbers. So I tried to call with one less three at beginning. The call went through. He was a retired naval officer who had personal interest and expertise in building sundials. He hadn’t checked the email because all the years since he had built the sundial, hardly anybody ever contacted him on that email address. 

He had many designs for various types of static sundials. I shared the interactive sundial design with him and asked him if he could build that. He enthusiastically undertook the project. Working closely with the Director General of the Naval Museum, he built not one but two sundials for the price of one: an interactive one which people could stand on and their shadow pointing towards the time of the day on the dial, and the other a static traditional sundial. The sundial was paid for by the grant given by the Naval Chief.

That one 'in sha Allah', spoken with sincerity of intent, and Allah made it happen with hardly any effort on my part. Allah provided the funds, the expertise, the enthusiasm, and the supervision. I commissioned the project, and then I arranged for the inauguration of the sundial. Alhamdolillah! 

  

The Car went through The Gate

As I remember it: 

In 2005, a major earthquake hit northern Pakistan. We live in the south of the country. Many people came forward to help with the disaster relief efforts. Some went to the disaster site to personally help with the relief efforts. Some donated clothes and other essential items. Some contributed money. By the grace of Allah, the entire nation was united in helping those in need. 

In response to an alumnus' call, a school alumni was hastily formed to raise funds for the victims. We were a small group of women from various years. Our first fund-raiser was a success. We donated it to an organisation actively working for the cause. All thanks to Allah. 

We decided to continue with the alumni and organise fundraisers for various causes. ... along came a Fashion Show. I was perplexed. It was against my religious beliefs ... As a key member of the group, I didn't know whether to participate or walk away. 

As I was driving the car one morning, I earnestly spoke with Allah. I poured my heart out. My concerns about the religious aspects, and everything else that was on my mind. I don't remember all I said, but I do remember asking for a clear answer, and not a sign, as I would not understand it.   

I reached home and parked the car inside the gate. As usual, the metal gate was then closed, and locked with the sliding latch in place. I went into the kitchen. Few minutes later, our driver started shouting at someone to stop. I came out to see the car had reversed though our gate into the under-construction house across the street. 

The temporary brick room of the under-construction house was broken. Thank God, no one was inside it. It was re-erected by the workers by next morning.  

A big cane at the construction-site went through the rear window of our car, shattering it to pieces. The car also had some dents from the impact. 

Our metal gate was not broken, just the latch was slightly bent out of shape!  

Our driver, who had been standing somewhere near the car, said he saw someone seated in the car and reversing it. There was no one in it when the car halted across the street. 

I wanted to discuss what this meant, but couldn't speak with the people I wanted to consult on the matter. 

I went along with the fund-raiser, and eventually left the alumni group later when another project contrary to my religious values came along.