That’s My Name: Don’t Wear It Out

Today my family and I hopped in the car and drove to the masjid for a seminar entitled The Final Journey.  The program included how to take care of the sick, what to do when approaching death, what to do at the time of death, how to perform ghusl on the deceased, how to wrap the body, how to pray salaatul Janazah, how to bury the deceased, and how to deal with grief.  It was really informative, and well organized.  The turn out was amazing, masha’Allah.  May Allah reward the organizers.

On the way back home, my family and I had an interesting discussion.  My sister and I were telling my mom and dad that the only part of the program we thought was unnecessary was the 20 minutes spent on being patient after death.  It was something worth mentioning, but I was convinced that people already *knew* all that, so what was the point on saying it over and over again?  Abu countered my statement with:

(51:55) And remind, for indeed, the reminder benefits the believers

He said that Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala tells us that we are forgetful, so of course we need reminding. So my sister said she had heard in a Dr. Jackson speech that Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala has ninety names which are His attributes and characteristics, and that humans also have certain names and attributes that are found in the Qur’an:  the forgetful, the ungrateful, the losers, etc.

I jokingly said to my sister, “Wow, we sound awesome!”

My mom interjected with, “Now wait a minute, we also have some good names:  the patient, the believers, the righteous…” But then my sister pointed out that those names are only given to us when we work for it.  I agreed, it seemed like at the base level, on the whole humans are pretty pathetic, but we have to earn the good names.

So then my sister came to another conclusion:  we’re told that it’s somewhat natural for us to be impatient, ungrateful, and forgetful.  But then we’re also told that we are the best of creation.  And maybe we’re the best because inspite of what is naturally inside of us, we fight to overcome it.

(3:110) You are the best nation produced [as an example] for mankind. You enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and believe in Allah .

Now that’s something we could all agree on.