Our Work: Some Reflections

Dr. Firdaus Kamalodeen

Allah give you all good health and long life. Your health and wellbeing is paramount as they say.

Allah bless you all for your wonderful work. Your example is always a motivation for all.

Some have suggested using “Distribution Agents” to do our work. It is a valuable suggestion. But we are not an industry looking to make money. We are in the business of winning hearts and minds for Allah.

Therefore, it is most important that these people read our literature and we engage them in becoming a part of this work – Working for Allah: “Taking the Qur’an to every home and heart that needs it.”

None of us knows who among us will be here and for how long. Our experience over the last however many decades have shown that people come and people go. Many were “onboard” with our work – Working for Allah – and for whatever reasons, they are no longer with us.

One reason may be attacks from Shaitaan. That is what we do when things don’t work out. We attribute all of it to Shaitaan. After all, that is the mission that he undertook. It is his avowed promise to God.

But let us not forget that we are the ones who walk away in whatever way and for whatever reason we walk away.

We lament from time to time about the absence of those who are not here, and it is sad yes and we sometimes could become demotivated. But maybe we should also celebrate as it were, each other – those who are still here.

By celebrate I mean we keep in contact regularly and help motivate each other and work together and share what we are doing and talk about the work we are doing. One of the amazing things about Working for Allah is that its not limited to one or the other thing. And it is not about running about helter skelter as it were. But it is directed to an outcome.

So equipping ourselves with the tools for doing this work is also part of the work. That means studying and learning and retooling as it were. So our education and training forms an integral part of the work.

In our case we have been blessed with the literature produced by Dr. Pasha over all these years. We have been blessed with being a part of the Dr. Pasha’s International Qur’an Programs that ran for nearly 10 years. And we have been blessed with Pasha Hour International for nearly 15 years now.

All of this came with the tag line “New Literature for a New Era.” But, at a deeper level, it is all Qur’an. And Qur’an has been around, right here on this earth, for over 1400 years.

And forever in Heaven: In Lawuh Mahfooz.

I continue to be amazed and be in awe of the Qur’an. Unfortunately, I don’t record every insight or cognition moment so that I can further reflect on them. But then Allah shows them again and again and again and …..

Only yesterday on a flight, I was making Wudu and it struck me on how practical and perfect Wudu is. Every aspect of it is so. But washing some body parts and wiping others is a perfect combination and fit that cannot be improved.

How would you improve it? What would you change in it? And I am not reflecting on the sequence as yet – Allahu Akbar.

And all of this in a place where water was scarce. As it is on airplanes.

Allah’s book – and Allah’s Deen – is so perfect, its so appropriate and apt for every situation, that words cannot even begin to describe.

And Allah’s Rasool sallallahu alaihi wasallam, is the most amazing man – unparalleled as it were. Again words cannot begin to describe.

And all of it is from Allah to us, for us – to guide and show us.

There is really no beauty as “natural” beauty – pure and untouched without the interference of us, people. As beautiful as are the amazing structures people have been able to conceive and construct, it all pales in front of one sunset.

And that is just a moment by the way, as the sunset changes from moment to moment.

Have we ever observed trees and the structure and design – their perfect symmetry?

And natural pure water – how beautiful it is and how refreshing – so much so people have made an industry out of it.

These are some of the more popular examples, almost clichés as it were, that some people would reference on this issue. But it extends to just about everything as it were that surrounds us. If it is pure and unpolluted by people, it's perfect. It's calming. It's in harmony. It's awesome. It's healthy. It's in equilibrium. It’s at and in peace.

And then there is the system Allah wants us to live by, which is exactly the same – perfect and awesome and in harmony and healthy. And its results are the same – equilibrium, contentment, happiness, peace as it were.

Who would want to deny you such? And how would you call such a person? Enemy, right?

The story of human beings is the same from inception – regardless of time or geography. It is all the same to me. Regardless of degree of civilization or technology, it is all the same.

It would seem that Shaitaan has no problem in adapting to changing times and circumstances to achieve his goal. He never loses focus.

As for us human beings, well that's a different story. We are his tools, agents and coconspirators in many regards, not just his targets.

But Muslims are the ones who are supposed to recognize all of this and try to guide and direct humanity towards this most perfect system which will minimize the impact as it were of the attacks of this enemy, Shaitaan. And that means we have to remind each other and we have reach out to the rest of humanity to show and guide them.

It is a monumental task, yes it is. But our job is to do that, such as we are. We are created and commissioned by God to do that. And we must not lose focus. And so we must support each other and work with each other, those of us who say we Work for Allah.

I am perhaps the least of us and I am in awe of all of you who are out there as they say, reaching out, trying to make this world a better place. But we must make no mistake about this – the world can only be better if it is better for everyone. And that means all human beings in whatever shapes, sizes, ethnicities, or other artificial compartments they may come, as well as the animals and the inanimate objects that inhabit this wonderful world of ours.

And that is where our literature – “New Literature for a new Era” – produced by Dr. Pasha, comes in. And so our “Distribution Agents” must become part of us and we must work towards making it so.

Otherwise we become yet another casualty of Shaitaan.

Allah’s blessings on all of you and your families.

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