Remembering Him.

It is a pity I had only thought of writing this article after our beloved's birthday, but as they say better late than never.

We've all heard stories of how incredible our Prophet is, but the one that I really connected with, other than this, is the story I'm about to write here.

Once upon a time, our beloved Prophet was fasting with his wife Aisyah. On the first day, when it was time to break fast, they only food they had was four pieces of kurma
. So our Prophet took two, and his wife took two, and they ate.

On the second day, they only had two pieces of kurma with them. So they made do with what they had and they both took a piece to break their fast.

On the third day, all they had was one single piece of kurma. Seeing this, our Prophet divided that one single piece of kurma into four equal pieces. Three pieces he gave to Aisyah, one piece he took for himself.

So before breaking fast, he held up his hands to make doa. As the story goes, they were apparently being watched by two angels nearby, and when Rasulullah held up his hands, they were afraid.

They were afraid that if in the doa Rasulullah mentioned about the lack of food, and they just stood there and watched, they would face Allah's wrath. So they decided to do something about it.

The first angel materialized himself in front of Rasulullah. He then said to him, "Ya Rasulullah, I am the guardian of the seas. Say the word, and I shall bring forth to you from the deepest depths of the ocean, a most exquisite dish that no one before you has ever tasted."

But Rasulullah said nothing.

The second angel then tried his luck. He then materialized himself and said to our Prophet, "Ya Rasulullah, I am the guardian of the earth. Say the word, and I shall extract from the very centre of the earth, minerals of immense value, which will bring wealth beyond measure not only to you, but even to your children's children."

But again, Rasulullah did not respond.

He then proceeded to make his doa, which in Bahasa Malaysia can be roughly translated as:

"Hanya Engkau yang aku maksudkan, dan keredhaan-Mu yang aku tuntuti."

And he then ate his kurma.

Why is this particular story so touching to me?

First of all, everything happens according to God's will. It is His will that we are who we are today, be it rich or poor, naughty or nice.

In other words, it is God's will, and God's will alone that our Prophet had only one piece of kurma that fateful day. And it is God's will that the two angels sitting there, offered what they had offered.

So our Prophet, knowing this, also knows that if God had wished for him to live in the lap of luxury, he would already be so. So despite the unbelievably tempting offers by the two angels, he declined. He accepted his fate.

How many of us are happy with what we have? We live extremely luxurious lifestyles as compared to our Prophet, yet are we satisfied? We still crave more.

If we can't be thankful with what we have now, how can we be so sure that we will be thankful when we get what we crave so much?

And also, when we ask for more, do we act as if we know whats best for us? Perhaps more is less. And what we have at the moment is the best. God should know whats best for us, don't you think?

Secondly, the word 'tuntut' in this context means 'to study, or to learn' as in 'penuntut Universiti', not 'penuntut hutang'. Therefore, when our Prophet said " keredhaan-Mu yang aku tuntuti", it can be interpreted as our Rasulullah is learning or trying to understand what God has planned for him.

In other words, he does not fully understand why he is in the condition that he is, but he accepts that what God gave him is the best, and he tries to comprehend it.

When you think about it, no man wants to see his wife having only 3/4 of a date to break fast with. No man wants that. But he believes 100% that God knows whats best for him, and thus it is only down to him to try and comprehend the reason behind it all.

So with that humility in mind, he only points out that he is learning what God has given him, and dares not ask even the slightest bit more.

It truly brings a tear to my eye sometimes when this story comes to mind. How humble, how faithful a servant to God our Prophet is. We all know that he is created to perfection, yet perhaps what we don't realize is that there is also immense effort on his part to actually be perfect.

We know that he is perfect. But we must also never forget that he is human. If he is the ideal condition for a human being and it is impossible to be like him, if we can reach even 10% of what he is like, if that were to be your lifetime achievement, you would have lived an incredible life.

In essence, this story was told to me by my father as it is, but there may be slight inaccuracies within the details. Also, the interpretations for the most part are mine alone, I do not claim it be accurate nor true, only my humblest of opinions and thoughts.

Peace.