Rania Awaad – From Cleaning To Inspiring The School Custodian In Syria
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AI: Transcript ©
But it actually happened directly to one of
my teachers. 2 of my teachers, actually. It's
a pair of teachers.
And it's the most
amazing story. This took place in Syria,
before the war, before everything's gone along. And
they said that, these two teachers are,
like, they actually are like, they're dean teachers,
and they're actually teachers in a school. Yeah?
And so they were they would, often stay
after school and do lesson planning for their
students the next day. Right? So so so
so and so because they stayed after school
a little later to work on their lesson
planning,
always the the lady who was coming to
clean the school would often see them. Right?
She'd be able, like, mopping and cleaning and
sweeping and mopping and so on.
And so when she'd come into the room
where they are working, she would just say,
oh, don't worry. Don't get up. Don't get
up. Just, lift your leg like this. Lift
your foot up like this. You know? I'll
just wipe underneath it. You know? So they
always thought, oh, she's so cute. She's so
nice. She, Monica. You know? Then she wiped
there. She would go on her way. That's
all they knew. They didn't know anything else
about her and that she would just, you
know, do the cleaning.
And then one day, they said after some
time, Yani, one day, she came to them
and she had a little, invitation.
And she said, I really would like to
invite you to my wedding.
They thought, oh, how nice. How sweet.
Like, that's so kind. Right? So they said,
of course. Of course. So they thought, oh,
they're kinda doing something nice, Danny, to accept
the favor, accept this, wedding invitation.
So they said, okay. Okay. Of course. Of
course. We'll come. Yeah. Please please come. Okay.
Okay. We'll come.
So she takes the so when the day
comes for the wedding, they take the wedding
invitation, and they're following the directions of how
to get there. And they noticed that the
address is in a very fancy place in
Syria. Like, as in to say, like, you
know, where you have, like, these big mansions,
you know, like, big places. Right? Oh, this
is before the war. And,
and so they thought they said to themselves
they're talking amongst themselves, the 2 teachers, and
they said, oh, I wonder if she works
at this person's,
house. Maybe she cleans their house. And when
she came to get married,
they said, oh, use our house for, like,
the nice wedding reception area. You know, I
don't know. They're coming coming up with scenarios.
And, they said that they showed up to
the
the invitation dressed like this like this, like
in a coat, like the one I'm wearing,
like this, like a coat. This is their
typical uniform, if you will. Not uniform, but,
like, you know, like religious people, they wear,
like, abaya. They wear, like, their you know?
So they didn't wear anything necessarily fancy. And
so they they showed up kind of regular
regular looking.
Okay? So they knocked on the door of
this, mansion area
house, and, you know,
they have their little invitation.
And the person who opened the door
looked like somebody who was working in that
house. And so, you know,
such a funny story. Open the door, and
she she she they said like this literally
like this happened. They they she looked them
up and down, Like
because they were dressed so frumpy.
Okay?
And then they're this fancy, like, a mansion
place. And she said, who are you?
And they're like,
we're so and so and so and so.
We're the teacher we're teachers at, the school
where,
you know, the the the bride,
works.
And she was like she's still looking at
them, like, really, like, suspicious of them. Like,
you're you're dressed frumpy, and you're, like, you're
out of place. Like, what's going on? And
they and she said, how do you know
her? And they said, we're we're the teachers,
and she's the janitor. Like, she she works.
And that lady who opened the door that
was talking, she laughed and laughed. She says,
janitor.
And she got really offended.
And then they heard the voice of the
actual bride,
janitor. Right? They heard her her voice coming
from on top, you know, like, where the
stairs are, and they could hear her. And
she's coming rushing down the stairs to meet
them. Oh, I can't believe you made it.
I can't believe you came. Thank you so
much for coming. Thank you so much for
coming. Right? And so she she excuses the
other lady out of the way, and she
hugs them. And she's like, thank you. Thank
you for coming. And they're so confused. Like,
they don't
understand
what's going on. And so they they enter
in, and they're kind of, like, just, like,
what's the story here? And then she says
to them,
well,
it is my wedding,
and this is my house.
And they're like,
what is going on?
What on earth? As in, like, the house
you clean. And then she was like, nope.
This is my house.
And so, Paolo, what happened was she
this truly is her house, and this truly
is
the family she was born into, if you
will.
When she became more religious and she started,
like, to study and to sit with her
teachers and so on, one of her teachers
said to her, you have too much.
Kibbit.
Right? And maybe you don't even realize it
because it's just your upbringing, the way you
were raised. And she said, well, how do
I fix this? What do I do? And
they said to her, well, sometimes to break
your ego, you have to carry the
big water jug down the street. So what's
the equivalent of that? She said, well, what
am I supposed to do? They said, what
are the what is something that you can't
imagine yourself doing?
She said, I cannot imagine myself cleaning someone
else's mess.
So she literally applied for a job to
be the janitor in that school
and completely disguised who she was.
They were blown away.
So it's a real story. This is a
real story, like, in the modern time, not
like oldie time stories.
It's a real story.
The people who are still alive today.
And I think to myself,
it is possible. It is possible,
to realize that you might have something. We
call these the diseases of the heart. Right?
Umrad al Khulu. Umrad al Khulbiyani.
And you can literally
pinpoint
when you start to study these, pinpoint which
of them are most you are most affected
by.
And each one of them has an antidote,
Annie, a solution, a treatment. Each one of
them has a treatment. And sometimes you have
to do opposite of, like in her case,
right, to break it.
I share this with you because it seems,
like, really fantastical, and it is.
But it's possible.
And it's also important to remember and to
remind this is I mean, I you know,
she's not coming up with this,
out of the blue, and her spiritual teachers
didn't come up with this,
you know, kind of like, what are they
doing, this kind of extremist. No. They're literally
following the examples. Love
people like
and the many, many sahaba too. I mean,
he's not certainly not the only one. But
it's important to remember these kind of,
greats
because if you aspire to be great, sometimes
you have to take great measures.
There's this beautiful example of Sayyid Na'omir, and
it's the time where he is khalifa. So
he's the one literally in charge. And they
see him,
walking down the street carrying a big barrel
of water on his back. So they come
up to him. They run up to him
and say, yeah. I'm Mira. I'm gonna you
give give us that. Like, you you shouldn't
be the one carrying it. Like, there's other
people who can do that. Why are you
doing this? Right? Out of, like, out of
honor honoring him. And he says,
he said he he admitted and said, be
right before this, a group of people, like
a delegation, came to Medina
to meet me.
And they were praising me and saying good
things about me, and I felt a little
bit enter my heart. So he took the
big thing to kinda break his ego
and make sure that there wasn't anything any
of that. We start believe we start believing
the praise people give us. You keep hearing
praise, you start believing it about yourself. Right?
So he immediately, Frank, wanted to make sure
that he was not he was doing what
the, you know, a a laborer is doing.
And here is the Khalifa, right, of of