The Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) said: “There are seven whom Allah will shade in His Shade on the Day when there is no shade except His Shade:
- a just ruler;
- a youth who grew up in the worship of Allah- the Mighty and Majestic;
- a man whose heart is attached to the mosques;
- two men who love each other for Allah’s sake- meeting for that and parting upon that;
- a man who is called by a woman of beauty and position (for illegal intercourse), but he says: ‘I fear Allah’,
- a man who gives in charity and hides it, such that his left hand does not know what his right hand gives in charity;
- and a man who remembered Allah in private and so his eyes shed tears.’”
(Abu Hurairah & collected in Saheeh al-Bukhari (English trans.) vol.1, p.356, no.629 & Saheeh Muslim (English trans.) vol.2, p.493, no.2248)
I saw two people standing in jamaa’ for prayer on a sidewalk in Garhoud the other night.
They were teenagers, and they were praying Isha.
No older man/father/authority figure was leading the jamaa’, and there was no apparent need for the urgency in their salah- they could have prayed Isha later that night by themselves, at home on a rug instead of outside on hard cement in front of Fuddruckers.
May they grow to be righteous men, and may I be able to give them big, squeezy hugs in Jannah, where it won’t be a sin anymore. They made my day, and this old fogie of a thirty year old has a new respect for teenagers. Just because they dress like greasy, gangly doofuses in pink polo shirts with popped collars doesn’t mean they don’t have stronger Taqwa than I do.
May Allah grant them Jannatul Firdaus. 🙂 Ameen!
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