Tales From Agrabah

• 3. Constant Changes

I have an imaginary friend, let's call her Maryam. She's a simple Muslimah, born in the typical middle class family. Though right now, problems she never thought would arise have sprung out on the roads she walks. And when she can, she cherishes the perfect days that shine brightly amidst her quickly darkening life. It's nothing suicidal, just things weighing down on her fragile form. 

Whenever there is a perfect day in her life, she records everything she did in her mind. She thinks that putting those things on paper, even virtually, would be too painful. It was weird twist, but she longed for it. But when I talked to her recently, she told me something that surprised and disappointed me. 

She was trying to recreate those perfect days. 

Sometimes it worked, she admitted while I listened with growing fear and concern. And sometimes, it became so much worse than what she had imagined. She would remember that on that perfect day, she had walked around the dining table in a clockwise manner, she had hung up her clothes to dry from the left side on the wire and she had placed her books aligning exactly to the geometric designs on the table cloth. She said it made her feel good. She said it gave her hope. She said she tried doing so everyday.

What she didn't understand was that this was a minor form of shirk.

Often we do these things without acknowledging and thinking about our actions. We try to "recreate", like my imaginary friend Maryam here, and try to disregard that nagging feeling. Bluntly speaking, it's haram. No matter what sort of explanations you try to give, it remains prohibited. Maryam has so much attachment to these actions that she has started associating it with how the day unfolds. You can't play with Qadr like that.

Remember that shirk is the only thing that Allah does not forgive. Perhaps it was ignorance, or maybe it was carelessness, but Maryam refused to believe that this was how it actually worked. She just knew it was going to work. She argued, as many people do nowadays, that Allah swt had already written for her to do this. Besides, there was no harm to anyone; she wasn't performing the greater aspects of other, more graver sins. 

But think, Reader, the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessing of Allah be upon him) say; "The thing that I fear most for you is minor shirk."

[Here's the full hadith, since the context with this one was about showing off; In al-Musnad (27742) where it is narrated that Mahmoud ibn Labeed said: The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Alaah be upon him) said: "The thing that I fear most for you is minor shirk." They said: "O Messenger of Allaah, what is minor shirk?" He said: "Showing off, for Allaah will say on the Day when people are recompensed for their actions: 'Go to those for whom you were showing off with your deeds in the world, and see what reward you find with them.'" Classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in al-Silsilah al-Saheehah, 951.]

Coming back to the point, Maryam was really surprised by the revelation. Alhamdulillah it was a deed done in ignorance, but it is one of those dark spots that attach to the Qalb that we all try to get rid of. Maryam never forget to do lots of Astaghfar for it though, as one can never see their scale of deeds until the End Of Time.

Later, she told me jokingly that the only constant in life was change. But being the thinker that I am, I couldn't help but expand on it, for that was the catch! And embracing that would automatically free you of the clutches of minor shirk, SubhanAllah. Constant changing would wield you with weapons that would help you fight off the nagging feeling of committing a sin, or even agree with it. Let's just all be friends with that voice in your head, I am! Sometimes our conversations are so interesting I put it in my stories. Lol. And when you can tie in philosophical sayings like the one Maryam quoted, to Islam, it just makes it so much more beautiful and deep.