Serious Socks

When I was a kid, my mum always told me: “don’t laugh too much, or you’ll end up crying.” True enough, any day where there had been an excess of giddiness and laughter, I’d end up crying by the evening. I really don’t know what about. A few years from there, and my teachers at madrassa warned me that excessive laughter hardens the heart. (Many years later I appreciated their words.) A couple of years on, and in fiqh you learn that one of the recommended times to do wudhu is after loud laugher.

Subhan Allah.

Our teacher Shaykh I reminds us time and again, this deen requires serious people. People like the 17 year old companion Harithah (may Allah be pleased with him & he with Allah), who at that beautifully tender age was able to truthfully proclaim: “I have divorced my soul from the dunya”.

Shaykh Abdul Qadir al-Jilani mentions in his autobiography, that when he would go out into the fields to play (as a 5 year old), he would hear a voice calling out to him: “you were not created for this!” – and being unable to comprehend this, he would run to seek comfort in his blessed mother Umm al-Khayr. A similar story one hears about Imam Nawawi, though I think he decided for himself that he wasn’t made for games and insisted on reading Qur’an instead! (Hero.) There are a few other examples in my head, but I can’t reference them so we will leave them be for now. But you see, there’s a theme going on here. These giants of the religion, that are so central to our tradition all these years later, were serious children, never mind serious adults.

 These are the people of success.

Need to pull up my socks.