Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.
“Click, click..”
With his left eye covered tightly by its eyelid, Areef
viewed the world with only his right. Streams of light gushed through multiple lenses; one, inside the silver
cuboid-shaped thing he was holding, another resting on his nose, and finally
through the lens which was bathed by aqueous humor; stimulating the tiny receptors
on his retina.
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“Click, click..”
His finger kept on pushing the button, located on the
superior part of the camera, with overflowing enthusiasm. Areef couldn’t help
smiling from ear to ear as he browsed through the pictures he captured that very morning. “How wonderful!” The colours,
the shades, the people in those pictures just filled his heart with glee.
As he walked on, Areef caught the sight of little children
running around, playing together, with their parents sitting on the bench;
laughing. The small branches of those white trees with black markings moved
back and forth as the wind passed by, as if greeting the young man with the
silver camera. Green buds shyly peeking out from the ends of the defrosting
twigs. Yup, spring is here. :]
“Click, click..” faster than a lightning bolt, Areef snapped
more than 15 pictures in a blink of an eye. He squatted, stood on his toes, hid
behind a tree, hopped on one foot; just to get the best pictures of
their innocent smile. After the memory card couldn’t take in any more pictures,
the camera geek stood silently; just scanning through the images displayed on
his trusty gadget.
All of a sudden, something knocked into him. With a loud
thump, the little boy who was running around with his sister fell down, and started to cry.
Though cute little children make him happy and he loves them a lot, he is very
awkward when it comes to interacting with them. Areef panicked as the little
boy teared up right in front of him.
“Dik, dik…janganlah nangis kat kaki abang dik..janganla
nangis~ Dik tak sakit pon dik…sikit je tu..eh, suka hati aku je..”
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After hurriedly putting his beloved camera into his backpack, Areef squatted down and held the child’s wounded hands, trying to help him up. Even Areef himself almost break into tears when the little boy ignored him, just not knowing what to do. Maybe this is an exaggeration, but he really didn’t know what else to do.
The boy’s parents rushed towards them. His mother looked at his lacerated hands and wiped the dirt with her handkerchief. She lifted the boy up, embraced him tightly and paced towards a nearby bench. The boy’s father smiled at Areef, who was still squatting, said thanks and followed his wife back to the bench.
From far, Areef could see that the boy didn’t stop crying. “Maybe
he needs plaster..” thought Areef and quickly rummaged through his pockets. His
fingers could feel an unfamiliar thing with a plastic wrapper covering it. “Hm?
Konfet?” as he stared at it for some time, he recalled an interesting event
which happened to him a few days ago. Clutching the konfet tightly in his hand,
the face of an old makcik appeared in his mind.
Like any other mornings, Areef went on a bus and sat on
an available seat. After a few stops, an old makcik struggled to bring herself
into the bus and took a seat beside him. When the bus arrived at Ulitsa
Shalyapina, Areef stood up and made his way towards the frost covered door.
Suddenly the makcik stretched out her right arm towards
him. Areef looked at her wrinkly hand and saw a konfet, wrapped in a
purple-coloured wrapper. He shifted his glance and looked at the makcik’s face.
The old makcik with grey hair nodded and smiled at him. The young man thanked
her, took the candy and hopped off from the bus with a smile on his face.
Grinning, Areef took his steps towards the little boy.
Extending his right arm, he gave the konfet to the weeping boy.. Like a miracle,
the boy stopped crying and started playing with the round purple thing. Maybe
amused by the shiny wrapper, the little boy’s eyes shone; his lips involuntarily expressed an enchanting smile. Patting the little guy on the head, Areef took
out his trusty camera, inserted a new memory card; and captured a picture of
the rosy-cheeked boy, showing the purple-coloured candy to his mother.
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Sauntering along, Areef started to reminisce the times when
his parents tried to make him laugh when he was crying. The times when he tried to make his parents smile. The times when he was laughing with his friends, the times when he was crying with his friends...Oh how he wishes he could capture those faces, which shone as bright as a summer sun when they smile... :]
Several ayahs suddenly appeared in his mind as two beautiful birds soared right above him;
"[Some] faces, that Day, will be bright -Laughing, rejoicing at good news."
-Abasa:38-39
"And [other] faces, that Day, will have upon them dust. Blackness will cover them."
-Abasa:40-41
In this dunya, we do lots of things to keep the smiles on the faces of the people closest to us; to make them happy. When we see that they are sad, we give them chocolates, we make some jokes, we even make weird faces - everything we can think of, just to make them smile.
But if we think of akhirah, can we make them smile, make them happy by baking them a chocolate cake? Cracking up a lame joke? Absolutely NOT.
"On the Day a man will flee from his brother And his
mother and his father And his wife and his children, For every man, that Day,
will be a matter adequate for him."
-Abasa: 34-37
Areef could recall someone he looked up to, saying something along these lines:
"What is the use of saving them in this world, this dunya; when in akhirah, they burn in hellfire?"
What is the use of sparing them of the misery in the dunya, making their faces glow with joy; but when in akhirah, they would blackened by the dust upon their faces? Naudzubillah. T_T
The care and love we portray to the people closest to us, are not limited just in helping them to go through the tough moments associated with problems of the dunya; but most certainly, problems of the akhirah. How can we say that we care, we love them; if we just leave them struggling, blinded by the jahiliyyah brought by the ghazwul fikr which have invaded their and our hearts and mind for so long?
Just comforting them in times of sadness is only enough for happiness in dunya, but for us to see them and ourselves smiling and laughing in akhirah;
"And then being among those who believed
and advised one another to patience and advised one another to
compassion. Those are the companions of the
right."
-Al-Balad: 17-18
"And let there be [arising] from you a
nation inviting to [all that is] good, enjoining what is right and forbidding
what is wrong, and those will be the successful."
-Ali Imran: 104
As his footsteps took him to the end of the small pathway, the young man with the silver camera imagined the time; when he will capture the smiling faces of his parents, ikhwah, and akhawat with a better camera; the smiles which would last forever-in jannah. InsyaAllah. :]
Allahualam.
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