An Ode To a Friend

Assalamu ‘Alaikum,

An Ode To A Friend

Every so often comes a man who many fail to judge the strength of his conviction. He’s no perfection, he’s full of weaknesses and sometimes display incomplete knowledge on matters of Islam but the honest amongst us will see a glittering beacon of fearlessness in his pursuit of justice and fairness.
Wrapped in suffocating blankets of hubbuddunia we fail to see this man has given up on life as we see it a long time ago. We rationalize and we pen polemics of his cause and objectives but this man is way ahead of us in the commitment of his cause. And the sad part is his cause is our cause. Those who pay scant attention to him now are also the ones who will benefit immeasurably from his cause. He will be no millionaire when his objective is achieved ; perhaps just a wry smile that belies the thought that I did what I had to do. He has no government to do his becking nor an army of party faithful to move his ambitions, only a burning disgust of what is not right in the world around us today. We share his disgust but the lesser men that we are we swallow the pain he is not able to. An irritant to our conscience we deride and find suitable excuses to cast his shadow to the backs of our mind.

Dear friend, count me not amongst those who have abandon you. I remember a balmy political afternoon what seemed a lifetime ago you said to me and a mutual friend, half in jest, ‘’Turn up the radio Zahid, they are listening to us”. Indeed they have listened to you, as so has every conscience have listened to you. We hear you with hope in our hearts, they hear you with fear in their belly. I lost touch with you my friend, I see you developed quite a pouch and richness in hair is not one of your proud attributes. But other than that I see no mellowing of your conviction for justice, only the steely determination of a man on fire. They worry about the Courts of Man, but I see you, dear friend, waiting patiently in the Courts of Allah. Count me not amongst those who have abandon you. You are in my prayer always.

Wassalam,
Zahid.