The Story of a Girl and Man in Orange

Bismillaah

As Salaamu 'alaykum and peace to all,

The Story of a Girl and Man in Orange - A Motivational Story about Being Distracted in Life

I went to a friend’s home for an evening tea that day and she made me one of the best homemade chocolate cakes I have ever tasted ma shaAllah. Naturally, I asked if it was possible to get the recipe of her ‘sinfully’ deliciously moist-melt-in-the-mouth chocolate cake.

Beaming with pride, she gave away her ‘secret recipe’ and explained the few tips to make the cake close to perfect, alhamdulillaah.

‘Make sure you observe closely the texture of the chocolate when melting it especially in the last few minutes. You need to also make sure the timer and the heat used are right. Try not to get distracted during the critical moments. Once you see the chocolate texture turned silky you have to quickly get it off the stove!’ she cautioned me.

I noted her words on my notepad.

Back home, as I transferred the recipe into my precious almost-torn-into-pieces recipe book, I highlighted all her tips. This is when I realized something significant.

Well, at least to me that is….

It was the word distractions she kept on using.

Obviously, to get the excellent taste I wanted, I need to watch closely all the mentioned tips. Failure to do so, ah well, we all know the consequences, right?

So, I asked myself, if it is so important to be on the alert and not get distracted when baking cakes, how more important it is not to get distracted in my own life? Am I distracted or am I doing just fine? What is the perfect taste of ‘chocolate cake’ my life should be?

I remembered the verse from the Holy Quran telling us how to get the ‘taste’ of chocolate cake He intended,

I have created the jinn and humankind only for My worship (Chapter 51: 56)

Allaah has said that He created me and you only to worship Him. The word only stung me like a bee…

Only…

This means that worshipping Him is THE 'tips' and ingredients needed for us to get the chocolate cake perfection in our lives, right?

Now, from readings, I know the scholars said worshipping Him doesn’t mean we have to pray or fast all the time. Worshipping Him means that whatever we do or say, every action that we make, we should be doing them to earn His Pleasure. It means that if I study, I study to earn His Pleasure; if I eat, I eat to earn His Pleasure; if I dress it is for His Pleasure, if I communicate with someone it is to earn His Pleasure, if I love someone, write, sleep,paint, visit, read, play, cook, bathe, hug, work, talk, give gifts, fulfilling invites, etc- all are to earn His Pleasure and His Love.

Am I doing that in my life?

Astaghfirullaah, astaghfirullaah, astaghfirullaah… Forgive me my Lord, forgive me…

I feel so embarrassed reflecting on what I promised Allaah everyday in my prayers when I said,

Say: 'Surely my prayer, my sacrifice, my living and my dying are for Allah, the Lord of all the worlds (Chapter 6 :162)

Sound familiar?

Don’t we all say this to Him everyday in our prayers? Sure we do, right?

The questions I have for myself are- Do I really mean what I say to Allaah, my Lord? Is this really what I am doing right now? Do I deliver my promises to Him or I got so distracted from them? Are my prayers and sacrifices done for Him and only Him? Is my life for Him? Are the things that I do everyday for Him? Or are they for someone else? Or something else? Maybe even for myself? Are they to earn His love or love of the people around me? Are they for His pleasure or the pleasure of those surrounding me? Do I really live for Him? Do I?

I know these are really hard questions I pounded unto myself but I know we ask hard questions everyday. Maybe not the right ones, but, they are questions nevertheless.

I remembered watching a tale about a group of housewives who are seemingly always tend to be desperate- desperate for love, time, attention, affection, wealth, life pleasures, friendship, family, rest and many more. At the end of one of the episodes, the background voice mentioned something that made me think. She said that we asked hard questions all the time, and most of the time we actually know the answers but were too afraid to admit them…and boy, I think she was right…

Deep in my heart, I know the answers to those questions I posted above, but, like she said, I am just too afraid to admit.

I continue asking- if I am here to worship Him, why do I get distracted so easily most of the time? Why can’t I be focused in doing my best in worshiping Him?

Another verse from His Holy Book popped into my head,

[It is He] who created death and life to test which of you is best in conduct; and He is the Mighty, the Forgiving (Chapter 67: 2)

Ok, now it became clearer. We knew this all along, don’t we? Life is a test from Allaah to see which of us are best in our conduct.

There is an anonymous saying,

The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking places

Interesting, right?

I wonder, how many of those parking places have I ‘parked’ my car at? And how long did I park every single time? What were those parking places about that made me want to put a brake on my journey? Did I get what I want by parking there? Or did I become more miserable after that? Was I at peace there? Are those places really interesting, entertaining and make me achieve the happiness and success in this life and hereafter I sought after? Was I earning Allaah’s Pleasure and Love at those parking places? Am I parking now? Or am I moving towards Him?

Astaghfirullaah….

Let me share with you this video clip.

I must caution you that there is music and some dance moves. But, if we are able to look into the storyline, I believe there is an important lesson to learn here, inshaAllaah. Let us all focus our attention closely to the guy in orange suit, his facial expressions and body language. At the same time, don’t forget to watch the girl in pink too!

Ouch! That must have hurt, right? I sure didn’t see that coming. I know it is wrong to laugh at another’s mishap but you must agree that this clip is hilarious!

Besides tickling my funny bones, this clip has made me realized something. I felt like I was the poor girl in pink who was walking on a straight path (the straight lane), then came the ‘distractions’ (wealth, entertainment, satan etc) along side my life and they decided to poke their nose into my journey.

So, what happened? They whistled, right?

Phweeettt! And I look.

Then, their game started. And the rest, well, you saw it… I went BAM!, hit the pole and fall flat on the ground- big time.

And what did the guys in orange did? They said, YES! And did a high-five, laughing joyfully at my worse-than-humpty-dumpty-fall.

Mission accomplished! You saw what are they riding on? A garbage truck!

What a telling clip…

Astaghfirullaah, as I watched thru the video, I pray to Allaah to guide me in all my actions, to never leave me even for a blink, to make my lips wet in mentioning His Names, to make every heart beat I have beating for Him, and I pray to Him to save me from the distractions in this world, to make me earn His Love, His Pleasure in all my actions, to give me His Blessings and His Mercy in this world and hereafter and to forgive me for looking everytime I heard a phweeettt in my journey…

What about you my brothers, sisters and friends? Do you feel the same way I do? Do you sometimes feel that you are that lady-in-pink in the clip? Or worse, are we the man in orange? Nauzubillaah... Do we want to continue being fooled by ‘them’? Do we want ‘them’ to have the last laugh? Do we want to collide with the pole that way? A pole that has been there all the time but we missed it because we were busy looking at the wrong things?

I must always remind myself of this anonymous quote I once read,

Opportunity may knock only once, but temptation leans on the doorbell

So, if Mr. Temptation with a capital T leans on our door and goes ding dong, ding dong, ding dong non-stop…, do we still want to open it?

And if we hear another Phweeettt! Are we going to look? Or are we going to restraint?

I am so determined that every time i am tempted to look or open the door, i will want to remember these 3 things -the pole, the girl in pink and huumpty dumpy, inshaAllaah. :))

Copyright © Sis Zabrina 2008

Sis Zabrina
Now blogging at http://www.wisdomthruwords.blogspot.com

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