Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume I — Page 71
! ! 71 other to wake them. Such a home is most blessed. ” Remember, rewards are obtained only by enduring hardship. God Almighty has promise d us Heaven , but it will not be obtained without any effort. As far as prayer is concerned , one should offer n awafil as well as Fardh. Of all the voluntary prayers , Tahajjud is the best. If you wake up in the middle of the night for the sake of your child , merely because you believe that when he is grown he will make you proud , can you not then wake up for the sake of God? If you awake for God, your name will last eternally and if you remain awake for one hour at night, He will bless you with everlasting life. One of the many etiquettes of Salāt is t o offer Salāt slowly. Salāt is a means through which we see God and sh ould therefore be offered in a n unhurried manner with the thought that as long as we remain engaged in observing Salāt our time in His presence is prolonged. The Promised Messiah as has said: “Nowadays, the prostrations of men and women are like tha t of a hen pecking at its food. ” Thus , one of the many ways to attain Allah ’s blessings is to take as much time in Salāt as one can. Remember, Salāt is not a game of hide and seek you play with God, but rath er a visit you pay to meet Him. Now I w ill elaborate on a few m ore commands of Shariah. Apart from offering Salāt , God Almighty has ordained that if a person possesses forty rupees, he should spend one rupee from it in the way of Allah. This is Zakat and is a means of purification. Zakat is obligatory for men and women. Ha z rat Muhammad sa greatly emphasized this. During the time of Ha z rat Abu Bakr ra , some people refused to pay Zakat. They declared that they would not pay Zakat, which led to such an uproar , that except for [those in] M e dina and one other small town, many apostatized. At that time , Ha z rat ‘Umar ra , who was a very brave man , counse led Ha z rat Abu Bakr ra to use a gentle approach towards them. T hey would eventually concede. Ha z rat Abu Bakr ra responded, “You are afraid that they are many and we are few. So be it, I shall go a lone and fight them for the sake of Zakat. If they neglect to pay even one raddi [smallest coin], I shall still fight against them, for this is Allah ’s comm andment. ” Take note. These people followed all the