Baggage

Last Friday, I was given the opportunity to listen to a bayaan at the Abdul Ghafoor mosque at Dunlop street, where I go every Friday for Qur'an tafsir. The guest speaker for last Friday was Moulavi Al-Hafiz M.S. Abdul Qayyum Baqavi, the Imam of Masjid Bencoolen.

I had heard his speeches before, and have always been enthralled at this gift of the gab. He is witty, yet forceful in his emphasis on certain important points. The ahadith he quotes are mostly lesser-known ones, and if they are known, they are quoted in an extremely apt context. He is indeed a gift to the Tamil-speaking jama'at in Singapore, which needs forceful speakers to instill valuable knowledge and provoke thinking among individuals.

In his bayaan, entitled "Samuththuvan Karpitha Thoothar" or "The Messenger Who Taught Equality", he explained how the Prophet s.a.w. brought about a revolutionary social change in a society that was entrenched in the caste and status hierarchies of that time. He noted that the Europeans and Americans, who claimed to have wiped off racism and inequality, after about 200 years, have still not reached the stage the Prophet s.a.w. achieved in 23 years, 1,400 years ago, in view of the rampant racism still existing in their societies. (I believe that even in our multicultural society, there is a lot of latent racism in the form of narrow-minded stereotyping and baggages and baggages of deep-seated prejudice among many individuals of all races.) I now share a story which touched me to tears at the bayaan. [This may not be exactly as in the original hadith, as my memory fails me, but the gist is here].

The place is Medina. The lesser-known Sahaba, Julaybib r.a., who, prior to converting to Islam, was condemned by his townsfolk, for being slightly deformed, short, for not knowing his lineage (which, in Arab society that time, meant he would not be entitled to any support or protection from any tribe), and for basically everything else he was. He was considered the useless person with disability in that town. In fact, "Julaybib" means "small grown", indeed a dimunitive and discriminatory name to be associated with. No one would mix with him and he was a wretch. None of the men would mix with him, so he mostly turned to female company for companionship - even they had him in their midst just so they could make fun of him and laugh at him.

At that time, the Prophet s.a.w. was preaching to men equality among humankind, and that no one was higher or lower than anyone else except in in piety towards Allah. Julaybib entered the fold of Islam eventually, and the Prophet s.a.w., seeing that here was a Sahabah who had suffered much embarrassment and in need of company, asked if he would like to get married. Julaybib, having lived a life of condemnation before him, was understandably bewildered, but said yes, that he would like to, if anyone were willing. At once, the Prophet s.a.w. told him to see so-and-so, a person with noble lineage in Medina, and ask for his daughter's hand in marriage. Julaybib humbly asked if it would work out, and the Prophet said, "It would work out, just tell him I said so." Honoured but again bewildered, Julaybib obeyed his Master and went to do the same.

At the nobleman's house, he knocked, and the door opened. The nobleman and his wife were evidently puzzled at why Julaybib, the joke of the town and weakest of them all, was doing at their house. Julaybib asked for the nobleman's daughter's hand in marriage. The nobleman was shocked, and immediately refused with much disgust. Julaybib reinstated that he was asking based on the Prophet s.a.w.'s orders, to which the Nobleman assured that he will speak to the Prophet s.a.w. personally to sort out this confusion, and chased Julaybib away. In the house, the daughter asked the father who it was. "It was Julaybib... he asked for your hand in marriage! So I chased him away." The daughter asked on who's order Julaybib came, to which the answer was the Prophet s.a.w. Immediately, the daughter, may Allah bless her, ordered her father to call Julaybib back, as it was the order ofthe Prophet s.a.w. To cut a story short, soon after, Julaybib and the girl were married.

The time came when Julaybib was on an expedition, where a short battle took place with some enemy forces. Julaybib was subsequently martyred after downing 7 enemy men. After the battle, the Prophet s.a.w. asked his men, if they had lost someone of their relations.

Some answered - "I lost my brother." Others answered "I lost my father." Still some answered that they lost their uncle, or son, or someone close.

The Prophet s.a.w. said, "But I have lost Julaybib. Search for him in the battlefield."

They eventually found him, next to the seven men whom he managed to take down before he was taken down. His deformed, stunted body lay on the ground. The Prophet s.a.w. went to the body and said, "Julaybib is of me, and I am of him." The Prophet then dug for him a grave and personally buried him, as Julaybib had no relatives.

Alhamdulillah. The Prophet s.a.w. trancended the prejudiced social structure of that time by declaring Julaybib one of his own, by ordering a nobility to marry Julaybib, gain for him martyrdom and bury him as his own. The Prophet s.a.w. saw something in a man that others couldn't, or refused to see. In Julaybib he saw a sincere heart and a beautiful soul, willing to die for Islam.

For a lot of us, we carry a lot of mental and emotional baggages towards people, without even us realising it. We might not want to talk to Aziz because he's fat, and fat people are lazy, or we don't want anything to do with Abdul because he looks arrogant, people say he's arrogant and most probably he is arrogant. But we really don't know until we talk to them, and see the good in them and engage their good side.

A related point when alms-beggars come to you, well, begging for alms at mosque doorways in Singapore. Some of us shun them or look away from them, because we have a theory that they are actually fit and strong and can work, but they choose not to because they are lazy. The thing is, we don't know this. they could really have some problem that is preventing them from working. But if they are out to cheat us, they are answerable to the Lord. If they are using their small kids to gain emotional points to make us give money, they also have to answer. But it's our job to give alms when asked, because for all the limited info we have, they might need it. If we can't, then a short smile with a "maybe next time" will do, instead of a rude stare or feigning of ignorance. I'm guilty as charged - it's time to change my habits.