I really wanted to share a story about this woman.
A beautiful woman who I hope we can take a beautiful lesson from inshaAllah ta'ala, and through it realise how Immensely Merciful and Loving Allah is to His creation.
She was a woman who in year 5 decided she didn't like school and basically dropped out lol, she was illiterate. She preferred cooking and cleaning and housework. She loved it. And her favourite was sewing, she loooooved to sew.
She got married to Mohammed Abdallah Mohammed Sa'd, she had 3 beautiful girls and a boy, these girls had a beautiful interaction with each other, subhanAllah I would liken their relationship to family friends- siblings- but unlike siblings of today (at least) they were very respectful to each other.
Her son would tell her that he wanted a fseekh sandwhich for school lollolol- for anyone who doesnt know what fseekh is its super salty (yummy) fish, and when his teacher found out she called his mum in, and she said forgive him, he really wanted fseekh lol. And on other days she'd cross the road in the morning to give him a cup of milk and she'd tell the teacher that he didn't have his cup of milk in the morning lol.
She never really bothered learning how to read and write, she once told her grandaughter- very happily- that she used to be able to sign her name- her heart was in her household, cooking, cleaning and sewing.
She would sew all her clothes and clothes for other people.In fact, when she got married she cut her own wedding dress to sew dresses for her eldest daughter. Her husband used to tell her to stop sewing, that she doesn't need the money and that he provides for her, but she couldn't really help it and continued to sew anyway for poor people and give it to them.
She was always considerate of her neighbours and they loved her. She lived in a house full of foreigners- Greeks- and when Gamal Abdul Nasser decided to exile all foreigners from Egypt they left in tears and after long years had passed some would come back to visit her. Even when the new neighbours came, they would drop by to see her. She would get the young kids to go get her fish from the fish market and they'd come back and shed stand just outside her house and cook them fish and yell for them to come get it when it was ready.
Years went passed and her husband had passed away.
Her grandchildren used to joke with her that they're going to find her a new husband and she'd laugh and say "la" and raise her index finger in protest.
One by one she heard news of her siblings passing away, her sisters Badi'ah, Aminah, Halima, Khadijah and her three brothers, Mahmoud, Abdul Latif and Ahmad... She being the youngest of all.
She loved her grandson reciting surat al Fajr, she didn't understand fusha, but she loved to hear the Quran recited. She would tell him again Mahmoud, recite it again for me, again and again; and he would and she particularly loved the words of the verse "Dakkan Dakka". Many times when she would just sit and stare ahead, her granddaughter would ask her, what are you thinking about Teta? And she would say "Rabona" and she'd gesture her hand in a way to imply, who else?
Her grandaughters would ask her to recite the three quls and fatiha and she would, not the whole Quran but just those and by Allah although she was weakened she would recite them slowly and surely all verses in place- and when she would it was as though she was reciting a treasure in her heart that she loved to hear herself and was pleased to share.
She used to go to Jame' al Mawasa in Alexandria her city of 83 years (only leaving it once to do Umrah) and pray Jumu'ah there every Friday.
Alas time crept away and she was unable to go because walking was hard- so she used to catch a taxi there, time continued along, not stopping for one to take their breath and soon again she was unable to go at all because mobility was too hard, with that came the inability to cook and sooner yet the inability to sew.
She would sit long hours on her chair next to the door, talking became a bit harder and her words issued forth only when she could. Her youngest daughter caring for her at this point incessantly and with all her heart. She would go to work, come back cook for her, clean for her, bathe her, clothe her, feed her, lay her to sleep help her up in the morning. People would come visit her and check up on her, from the local ironing man downstairs to family from the villages.
Sometimes she'd lay in bed and say La ya Aminah, La ya Badi'ah, I want to stay with my girls for a bit longer. SubhanAllah.
One day her grandaughters adopted a cat off the street which was soon to be named mas'ud (the lucky one). He came home and he loved to sit under her feet, all day long and when came nightfall he would sleep cuddled at the bottom of her feet. He wasn't the only cat that showed such affection. A pregnant (rather oddly clean) cat used to come by and when the door would open she would jump straight into her lap and sit to rest sometimes raising her un-clawed paw to touch her cheek. No joke, straight from the door to her lap. She ended up giving birth just outside the door and when days went passed and the babies grew a little they would be placed on her lap and they too would refuse to leave.
It just seemed that all creation loved her, from humans to cats to kittens. Was she a scholar? Well she was illiterate and not a hafizah of the Quran but she had the love of Allah and the Messenger salallahualayhiwasalam in her heart and she really did patiently persevere through the trails of old age. Which were tough, she would sit on her chair all day till her daughter came back from work, shifts from 8-2pm sometimes 8-4pm, alone at home..
Alas came this week that passed, she told her girls she was going to die and she didn't want anyone to wail over her or do a shader (communal get-together in the streets in a make-shift tent for condolences where a sheikh recites Quran for those who've passed away).
(I believe it was) Wednesday that came and she felt as though she had a flu and couldn't really get up from bed. The doctors came to check up on her, many, yet all her vital signs were fine, but she felt cold, and from there it was evident what was taking place.
She had her grandchildren present and from 2am Friday 18/May/2012, it began.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, her eldest daughter had a dream that she had held her by the hand and was walking with her. Till she suddenly found her entering a gate behind which was another gate in a garden. A person was waiting for her at the second gate and shut the door behind her. It was an illuminated place. Her daughter shocked at how she just left her side so suddenly to enter this place.
She had endured the night and near the end she began to say the Shahada, over and over again, perhaps maybe 6 times in a row, with her index finger raised, and she sought refuge in Allah from the accursed satan. 6:30am she returned to Allah; the One who loved her and who made all His creation love her.
They managed to get the nurse in to report her cause of death, her burial shroud was ready and they found at a little mosque down the road a wash bed. There was ease in everything that took place that day.
They washed her body and by the time Jumu'ah had begun she was in the Masjid al Mawasa (her Masjid), this Masjid is extremely full on Friday's and add to that the families of 7 other people who had also been taken to that Masjid for their own family members passing, all these people prayed Janaza on her blessed soul.
Who could not say that was the death like the death of a wali of Allah?
How many times do we pray to Allah that He protect us from a sudden death?
From sever health problems?
How many wish to get one shahada out let alone 6 in a row?
How many are able to seek refuge in Allah from the cursed satan at that point?
How many wish to die on a Jumu'ah where their status is that of a shaheed and they are freed from the trials and punishments of the grave?
How many scholars have had the blessing of all the above? I can name many!
But was she a scholar?
No. But she cared for her neighbours, was considerate, served her household and people from her heart, sewed for them, cooked for them, spoke kind words to them, never showed enmity, was always polite. She was loved by Allah and for that reason all of Creation loved her. She said her shahada although she never spoke much unless she could.. And that is one incredible gift from Allah and it is worth the dunya and everything in it.
I'm blessed to be her grandaughter, she was my grandmother. Amnah Mahamad Abdel Latif. The queen of my heart.
A woman who I loved and is one of the only people I can honestly say made me know the meaning of love.
See how never is it a necessity to be a scholar to earn the death of a scholar?
I only spent 9 months with her in total, I have only given you snippets of what I saw then of her and what I've heard of her. So what of those who lived with her?
Please read fatiha for her soul and for all Muslims who have passed away, that Allah enlighten their graves, raise their ranks, free them from the trials of the grave and admit them into the Highest level of Jannah with the Beloved of Allah.
So that perhaps one day we may have people recite fatiha for us when we need it most.
Surat Al Fajr:
27. (It will be said to the
pious believers): "O (you) the one in (complete) rest and satisfaction!
28. "Come back to your
Lord, Well-pleased (yourself) and well-pleasing (unto Him)!
29. "Enter you, then,
among My (honoured) slaves,
30. "And enter you My
Paradise!"
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