Maryam Amir – When your eyes well tears

Reflection,

Mariam, before Is yours

a lotto. Salama, if we can, please have the ayah put onto the stage

inshallah. So this verse is speaking about people, young

people, who came to the Prophet sallallahu, alayhi wasallam and

they wanted to go with Prophet. Saw them on a military expedition,

and Allah is saying about them, nor is there any blame on those

who came to you, oh prophet. So I saw him for mounts. Then when you

said, I can find no mounts for you. We can go to the next part of

the translation. They left with their eyes overflowing with tears

out of grief that they had nothing to contribute. These are young

people who wanted to go with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam

on an expedition. And the reason why they were unable to is simply

because they didn't have the means to do so. And what when we right

now, so many of us are looking at avasa, we're looking at Sudan.

We're looking at all these places in this ummah and the vulnerable

communities in any part of the world, and our hearts burn and we

wish that we could be there. We wish that we could do something.

We turn with our eyes filled with tears, just wishing that we could

do something to change. I want us to be aware that even if it feels

like nothing changes with all of our tears, that Allah is recording

them, that Allah is aware that they are overflowing with, with

with with immense sadness, desperation, wishing, longing to

be able to do more than cry and Make dua and boycott and protest

and everything else but, but the tears matter. The tears matter to

Allah so much so that he chose to record this moment in the Quran.

Allah could have simply said, Some people came. Well, the Quran could

have mentioned about how people came and they were not able to

join, and they were sad about it, but he recorded the the tears

subhanho wa taala. And when I reflect on this verse, it reminds

me of something that, someone that I know mentioned she told me that

one time she told me this because we were talking privately about

the the very personal witnessing of Allah's

recompense his generosity, and moments where you need his

generosity and you don't know where to expect it from. So if you

if, if you have heard that Allah will always, he will always reward

you, not just once or twice, but 10 times or more than the amount

that you give, and that is also with your desire to do so, even if

you're unable to do so, you have the intention and you wish you

could do it so much so that if you could have taken every single

means, and you did even try to take every single means, but you

were unable to, Allah reward you as if you did so. And so she

shared with me this moment where she was in a fundraiser for a

community that had just been severely affected by natural

disaster, and she was was hearing this call to fund, to fund, they

were trying to raise a million dollars, and she said she was

suddenly overwhelmed and overcome with this immense sadness that she

didn't have a million dollars to be able to give. So she turned to

the wall, and her eyes filled with tears, and she began to weep, and

she said, Oh Allah, if I had a million dollars, Oh Allah, I would

have given a million dollars. And she just started making this, Oh

Allah, accept it as if I gave it, because I wish that I could have

given it. Okay, she told me, 10 years later, 10 years later, Allah

facilitated for her to come across a large amount of wealth that she

had never in her life imagined that she would have been able to

come across and Subhan Allah, she was able to give over many, many,

many years, not a million, but, but, but, but 10s of 1000s of

dollars, a wealth she would have never imagined. And she told me

that she attributes that generosity back to that moment of

sincerity and her intention that at the time, she was a young

student who barely, you know, had a like a

job, that a part time job, as she was going to school, she didn't

have that much money she wanted to give everything she had. And yeah,

Allah, Spano, at Allah, he recorded this, this, this, these

tears of hers, and perhaps because of that moment, gave her more that

she was able to give at a different time in her life. Now

she obeyed Allah. May Allah raise his ranks and bless him, he

mentioned this idea of tears that, you know, he like sometimes we are

taught in a culture, especially American culture, that it's not

mainly for men to cry, that you know, that that that tears can

sometimes also be very difficult to cry. Some, some people don't

easily cry. And so I want us to also be very clear that while.

Verse is recording their tears. It's not a requirement for anyone

to cry. And this is something I talk about all the time, because I

never want one of us to walk out of Ramadan feeling like we didn't

cry enough this Ramadan, and then therefore we are not righteous

enough, or Allah is not that pleased with us, or we are not

that committed to Him because we didn't cry enough, and Allah does

not require our tears. He asks about our actions. He asks us to

focus on our actions. He tells us that the way that we come closer

to him, closest to him, is through the obligation, and then through

after the obligation we do the the extra nowhere in this this space

is and also weep as much as you can however, however, acknowledge

that your emotional commitment is also a form of worship, your

emotional interaction, your emotional

vulnerability in front of Allah, is a form of worship, and

sometimes that emotional connection can also be a means of

it being recorded as if you are talented amongst the people. And

I'm going to close with another story of a different sister who

shared with me a very similar circumstance, where she when we

were studying in Egypt for any of for the Shiu here, may Allah bless

them and raise their ranks. And for anyone who has ever studied

there, mashallah, Egypt is filled with the coolest, funnest people,

mashaAllah, tabarakallah, but there is very real injustice and

poverty that the people are experiencing. It's such oppression

and injustice towards them. And because of this, there are a lot

of you know women and children. Who are you know women with their

children on the streets asking for money. And so someone I knew when

we were studying in Egypt, every time she would pass a certain

street on the way to go to school, all the women who were gathered

there with their children would come. They would walk to her,

follow her, ask for money from her, and all the way until she

would walk even all the way up to our apartment. We had people that

would follow us. And subhanAllah, she did not have the money to

give, and it would burn her heart that she couldn't because she

could not afford to constantly give. And if she would give, then

it would bring an even bigger crowd to give, and she could not

give to everyone. And so instead, what she started to do is ask. She

started to ask the names of these mothers, the names of these

children. How old are you? Just getting to know them. And she told

me that after some time, they would never ask. And they started

asking her, how can we make dua for you? What dua Do you want us

to make for you? And so they would start making dua for anything that

she was asking for. They would make dua for it. And she told me

that every single dua that these women made became accepted, every

single dua. And there's a statement of Ibn claim that you

may be asleep, but the doors of heaven are being knocked upon by

10s of supplications of a person who was poor, who you,

who you, who you helped with wealth, a person who was sad that

you made happy, a person who was going through hardship, that you

gave them ease. You may feel like you're not doing enough in Ramadan

or in general. But is there a child whose diaper you're changing

and you're providing relief for them? Is there a sibling who you

are on the phone with when they are going through emotional

difficulty? Are you donating whatever you can to help people in

very difficult circumstances? What are you doing that you think is

not a big deal and yet Allah records it as a big deal. And

Allah only knows the people that are praying for you in the night,

when you are asleep, you're doing nothing but sleeping, which can be

an act of worship with the intention. And there are people

praying for you, for your daughter to be answered and for you to be

admitted into the highest paradise. And may Allah make all

of us Adams. That either in that software to commit to waiting.

Yeah.