Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume I — Page 492
! ! 492 h e was sentence d to a hanging. Right before he was hung , he asked permission to say something to his mother. The mother was called and when she came forward, he asked to speak into her ear. He was allowed to do so and as he leaned in c lose to his mother , he bit her cheek. His mother screamed and st epped back. People rebuked him , saying , “ Y ou are a person of such i ll character that on the one hand you are about to be hanged, yet you still have not learned your lesson ! Your heart has not softened and now you have bitten your mother’s cheek? ” He replied, “You are unaware that today , I am being hanged due to my mother. Biting her cheek pales in comparison to m y being hanged. The truth of the matter is that my mother should be hanged instead of me. ” He further said, “ I was a young child, yet I used to wander about in the streets. If anyone c omplained to my mother about me , she would argue with him , ‘M y child could never be like this. People say this out of animosity. I do not know why people are so hateful against my child. My child is not wicked. ’ Whenever I stole pencils, paper, pen, ink, etc. , from school, my mother would tell me, ‘Don’t put it here , lest someone sees it. Rather, put it over there. ’ If someone complained of my stealing , my mother would curse them and claim that they are ruining my reputation. All this made me a thief and from a thief, I became a bandit. During a robbery , I killed someone and so now I am being hanged. My mother is entirely responsible for this murder. Therefore , instead of merely having her cheek bitten , she should be hanged in my place. ” Similarly, there are boys who would like to dedicate their lives to the service of the Jama'at , but their parents discourage them and advise them to find positions in other places , and serve the Jama'at later by paying chanda. However , where there is a need for individuals , c handa can not suffice in those cases. To an extent, I think this responsibility lies upon Lajna Ima’illah. If Lajna Ima’illah impresses the needs and significance of waqf up on the minds of women then within a year, women will a lso offer up their liver ; i t is often said that a motherland offers up its liver [a metaphor often used in India to denote the sacrifice of something most beloved to the person concerned ]. A wom a n’s liver is her children. If mothers motivate their sons to dedicate their lives for wa q f and involve themselves in other good deeds, I believe many more of our youth will dedicate their lives for waqf.