Start With The Self.

"Never Judge the Morality of a man until you have
seen him behave whilst in Anger."

Umar Al Farooq رضي الله عنه.


Something to ponder.

How often do we react unjustly when we are in anger, we abuse insult and degrade others in this state. When we are told Brother fear Allah and hold your tongue. We say we dont care my pride has been attacked and I will take my revenge. When we are told Brother say a word of Peace for it is the Way of our Prophet we say we dont care. I will get my vengeance. We slander others in our anger we abuse others often our nearest and dearest. I remember a Shaykh talking about a fight taking place out of all places the Masjid during of all times Ramadhan. Anger is indeed a destructive force and state of madness were we utter the most horrendous abuse.

May Allah give us tawfiq to react with others in accordance with the beautiful Ikhlaq of our Beloved Prophet In particular a hypocrite like me may Allah give me the tawfiq to practice and act in accordance with what I write ameen.

Hasan Ibn Abi Sinan رضي الله عنه. Passed by an apartment and asked when it was built.
He deliberated for a moment and he realised he had asked about something that did not concern him. He disciplined himself by fasting for a whole year.

Just a Thought.

How often do we concern ourselves with things that are none of our business.
We gossip about others, we interfere in the personal affairs of our relatives friends and colleagues. we spend mornings reading newspapers with gossip about who is having an affair with whom. We spend countless hours arguing over
which athlete is the greatest. I remeber a Shaykh talking about how one day he arrived for his regular dars on a friday. To find only a small number of students present. Surprised as to how the numbers had dwindled so much in the course of a week, he was told Shaykh their is a soccer match on tonight. Subhanala is this not the case with most of us.

If we are sitting with our friends engaged in useless talk we end up delaying our prayers or missing them completely. If we are watching something on the television we do the same. We regard these useless and trivial pursuits as being worthy of our time and effort. Yet the Salah we see it as chore. We peck our heads quickly up and down on the floor and then we are of.Yet we feel proud of ourselves and call our selves practicing muslim.Subhanala we cannot perform our salahs with respect. Indeed we are heedless and deluded. On the day of Judgement we are not going to be questioned as to what was the greatest soccer match ever or what was the greatest movie ever. We will have to answer to the fact why we spend these hours in uselessness and completely devoid of Zikr And fikr.Our forefathers would punish themselves if they fell into such heedlessness and look at our state.


May Allah give us the tawfiq to take full advantage of the blessed use of time ameen.

"Lo! Allah changeth not the condition of a folk until they (first) change that which is in their hearts"
Surah 13, Ar-Rad, The Thunder, Verse 11

If anything I have written you have found beneficial then all praise is for Allah. For indeed the mistakes are all mine.


Something to ponder.

I remember a Shaykh once saying that you will receive whatever you intend. If your intention in seeking knowledge is to be entertained, listening to and reading stories for your mental stimulation and to keep your mind occupied then that is all you will gain.

If however it so that you can boast about your knowledge and showoff in front of others then that is all you will gain.

The wise one is he who seeks knowledge for the sake of ALLah, not only to help improve himself but to relay it to others.

May Allah give us all Tawfiq to seek knowledge purely for his sake and act according to it, especially a sinner and hypocrite like me ameen.

As Salaam Alaykum.

Once people saw Ali رضي الله عنه weeping and on being asked what made him cry, he said, " I have not received a guest for the last seven days and I am afraid lest Allah Ta'ala should have willed to humiliate me ( taking offence at some act of mine which might have been displeasing to him)."


Just A Thought:

Are we not taught that a guest is a gift from Allah, and that their are huge rewards and blessings in treating a guest kindly. It used to be a tradition amongst our forefathers, that each person would be hoping that a guest arriving in a village would stay at their house. They would rear chickens specifically for the purpose of preparing a feast for the guest. Subhanallah despite their own poverty they used to keep resources in stock for the unexpected arrival of a guest.

What is our situation if a visitor arrives at our house sits for more then a few hours, we start giving hints that we want them to leave and sometimes if we are watching our favourite show or a sporting event on television we will pretend we are not home and wont open the door. Subhanallah our forefathers used too consider it an honor if a guest would partake in their food, they would go without food themselves but feed the guest. Yet if someone knocks on our door while we are having our dinner we wont answer the door We believe that our words our actions are going to change the world, yet we can't even treat our guests in accordance with the Sunnah of our beloved Prophet .

May Allah protect our hearts from stinginess and miserliness may he give us the tawfiq to act with generosity towards others ameen.

Bismillah Irahman Irahim.


Table Talk;

A Scholar of Hadith would hold a Dars at a local Masjid every morning, on his way to the Masjid, he would pass by several tea houses.

He would sometimes stop by at the tea houses, and urge the men to come and learn the words of rasullulah . The men would promise to attend, but they never did.

After a few months he noticed the locals, who used to frequent his lectures (on the Virtues, of prayers , Fasting, and the importance of self reformation etc.) had stopped attending. The numbers had completely dwindled. The Scholar was quite baffled , but he said to himself "Allah guides whom he pleases", I will carry on even if I only have one student left.

Then one day he observed, that most of those local people were all spending their mornings, at a local tea house he saw a handsome young man, who was the center of attention, he was mesmerizing the locals with his discourses. The Scholar walked by without saying anything.

Over the next few weeks he observed the same scenario, the young man, would be holding court in the tea house, mesmerizing the locals. He also noticed that only a handful of people were frequenting the mosque, to attend the dars. The majority of them were now at the tea house.

So the Scholar asked one of his remaining students who this young man was, the student said: " Hazrat he is a graduate in political science in fact he has a Phd in it, he holds discourses, on the political conflicts, and intrigues happening around the world."

The next morning the Scholar stopped at the Tea house and listened intently, to the young mans words, indeed he was a powerful speaker. After awhile the scholar could not maintain his science anymore.

He said; " Young man I see you sitting here everyday, delivering discourses but what has your table talk achieved? you mesmerize the locals with your speech, what political changes have you achieved?

The young man was lost for words and remained quiet.

The Scholar responded: " Oh Heedless one you are astray and you have driven others astray the Muslim is not a man of useless Table talk he is rather a man of action, he does not waste hours talking politics, he reforms himself first and then he takes steps to improve the environment, around him. You sit here giving long and passionate speeches, yet not a single action you take. Oh young man such a handsome face as yours, should it not be prostrating in submission to Allah. I wonder at how your beatiful voice gives long speeches,but it has no inclination to recite the Quran. What answer will you give oh heedless one on the day of qiyammah, when the fires of Jahannam will
be stoked.Oh young man are the Political leaders of the world paying any attention to your useless rhetoric."

The Scholars words had such an impact, that the young man burst into tears.The following day he along with the other men started attending the mosque to learn religious knowledge.

here are some words from Qari muhammad Hanif رضي الله عنه

"A Young man is seriously ill and lying on his deathbed, his parents are crying
Our son we raised you with care and love, we spend all our wealth on your education and helped you obtain your Phd, now we elderly and infirm you are about to depart this world." He said "my beloved parents if only you had placed me in the masjid." Today I am on my deathbed what use is this Phd, my soul is about to leave this body yet try as I might, my tongue refuses to utter the words of Shahada."

Story Written by Julaybib.


Something to Ponder:

We spend hours in useless table talk, debating politics, and the plight of muslims. But when we are asked to write a letter to a newspaper etc. In defence of Islam we do nothing we have become a useless nation of table talkers. We do virtually nothing to help our brothers and sisters around the world, who are suffering. They say actions speak louder then words. Our actions bear witness to our hypocrisy.

We spend hours talking Politics as if the Political leaders are hanging on to our every word. Yet we don't have time to reform our own characters , we give very little heed to self reformation. We do not pay any heed to the Beautiful character of our beloved Prophet or try to inculcate those characteristics within us.

We all act like we have a Phd in Politics, what use will this imaginary Phd, achieve when we are about to depart this world.

Someone came to the Mother of Khwaja Fariduddin Masud رضي الله عنه and said," to her your son is a great saint of Allah, every none muslim, who comes into his company
embraces Islam, hundreds of thousands of people have been guided to the straight path, due to him. How fortunate you are to be the Mother of such a great saint and Wali of Allah."

She smiled and said "Rather how fortunate he is to have a mother who is a lover of Allah. Let me tell you how farid has reached the position he has, When he was a newborn before I would suckle him I would do wudu and then as he suckled I would recite the words of the Quran. As he grew older, I would do the chores around the house, he would follow me around and my tongue would be absorbed in zikr and durood, the remembrance of Allah and his messenger.

Whilst others engaged in telling lies, I have never uttered a word of untruth, others spend their time slandering and backbiting others I have never uttered about anyone unless it was to point out a good quality of theirs. I would spend my nights, and days in the Ibadah of Allah. and never have these eyes of mine look or gazed at those things that Allah has forbidden. Before doing any action or uttering any word, I would first reflect whether I would be able to account for it on the day of qiyamah. If I did not have the taqwa in my heart if I had not been an abidaa, zakira, and zahida for all my life then how would Fariduddin have achieved such heights. Rather you should congratulate him for having a mother like me.

The questioner said " I was told that Paradise lays at the feet of the mother only now do I fully realise, the significance of what that means."


Something to reflect:

When we ourselves are heedless what will the condition of our children be.
I do not have children myself so I don't really think it is appropiate to mention anything further but I think the above story should suffice.



May Allah guide us to all that is good and allow us to be good role models for the younger generation ameen.

I used to have a huge fruit tree in front of my house when I was a little. It is huge that it can shade 2 cars (or perhaps my perception was skewed because I was a kid). One day I say a very small tree amongst the branch of the the big tree. It has long root attached to the trunk. I felt so scared looking at that small tree. Every day the small tree grew bigger and greener while the big tree grew older and ill. I knew that the cause of the ill was because of that small tree and my father tried to get rid of that small tree but the root of the "small" tree was so attached to the trunk. So he let the big old tree to die before cut it down because it was easier to chop it down when it grew ill and flaky.

When I studied in school, I learned that the "small" tree was a parasitic tree that consume all the nutrients from the big tree from its root and the seed of that tree was brought by bird through its droppings.

Something to reflect: don't expect that small matter in life couldn't grow big on you. small things could make big thing possible. The effect is enormous, like the death of a big tree, even the cause is small, like the bird's dropping.

In a small Bazaar in a remote town one day appeared a man, dressed in the finest of clothes, he went around all the Shops and greeted everybody he came across, and recited poetry to both shopkeepers, and their customers. The people where mesmerized by his eloquence and Charm, seeing his fine clothes they thought he must be a poet of repute, and great wealth.

This scenario continued for many months. Every Friday he would appear in the Bazaar after Jumah prayers, the locals developed a great deal of affection for him, He would frequent a restaurant called ' Ashkabad' (abode of love) and he became known as "The poet of Ashkabad". People would turn up in droves, to hear the recitals of "the Great Poet", they would each compete , to pay for the Meals of the poet.

It just so happened that the Restaurant owner was one day returning from a journey he stopped at a small village, he saw a local man in a field dressed in rags collecting dried pieces of cow dung and putting them into a basket. He looked remarkably familiar after gazing at him for a few minutes the restaurant
owner, was shocked and surprised when he realized that the dung collector was none other then 'The poet Ashkabad'.

Being mystified at the scene he was witnessing, the restaurant owner decided to follow him to ascertain the reality of the situation. After a journey of about a mile they finally arrived at a small mud hut. The restaurant owner who had been keeping his distance watched as 'the poet' placed his basket of dried cow dung, and entered the mud hut.

The restaurant owner was still baffled as to what he had witnessed, so being unable to resist any longer he went and knocked on the door of the mud hut.
When 'The Poet' opened the door and saw the restaurant owner standing before him, he burst into tears he said " woe to me for my secret has been exposed." As the restaurant owner entered the mud hut he noticed , the room was pretty bare. In one corner of the room was a stand upon which the clothes
'The Poet' had been wearing every friday where displayed. in the other corner was a simple stove. in the center of the room was a small bed and above it was a shelf with a number of books on poetry.

The restaurant owner asked; Please explain what is the secret of all this?
'The Poet' explained; "Sire the truth is that I am a poor man who earns his bread by collecting and selling dried cow dung as fuel for the local villagers to use in their stoves. Several months ago one of the local villagers died and left his finest suit of clothes for me in his will and knowing my admiration for poetry he left some books on poetry as well. So one day I decided to dress up in those fine clothes and go to the bazaar, I started reciting poetry to the people in the bazaar some of it I had written myself, and some of it I had read in books.

Feeling very proud at the admiration I was getting from the people in the bazaar, I started frequenting the bazaar every week and playing out my role as the great poet. I became intoxicated by the veneration and respect I was getting from the locals, Sire I am a man who lives in a wretched state, when the people started praising me and showing affection towards me my ego was boosted, and I became completely deluded by self admiration and my vanity. Only now do I realize what a wretched fool I have been."

The restaurant owner said "If only you had been honest we would have showered you with gifts, and helped relieve you of your poverty. Instead what you have done is not only deceive others but most importantly deceive yourself."

The Man replied; "sir indeed you are right I am indeed a fool, a cow dung seller pretending to be the great poet of Ashkabad."


Story Written By Julaybib

An admonishment to myself.

The disease of vanity can ruin a lifetimes worth of good actions, we seem to have a great desire within ourselves, to win the approval and admiration of others. Yesterday as I was browsing through Sunniforum, I looked at the number of visitors to this thread, I felt proud that so many people were visiting this thread and reading the stories I had written, hence I was inspired to write the above the story as an admonishment for myself and reminder for others. It dawned on me that I was like a cow dung collector in the guise of a Poet.

Is it not the case that this disease seems to seep into our every action, even if we began a task with pure intentions. The desire for praise and admiration from others leaves our actions completely devoid of Ikhlas (sincerity). If we give money to charity we feel a desire to boast about it, If we do extra Ibaadah we feel inclined to boast about it, even those among us who do the wonderful task of cleaning the Masjids and their wash areas feel the need to boast about it. Here is some stuff I have heard or read on this topic.


Shaykh Hamza Yusuf says in one of his lectures;
"There was once a man famous for his worship, one day as he was sitting in the masjid he overhead a man praising him for his Nafl Salah, overtaken by pride he quickly said "Dont forget to mention my Nafl Fasts."

Another time a man was on his own engaged in Nafl Salah in the Masajid he heard the door open and someone enter, realising someone was watching him
he lengthened his salah spending ages in Ruku and Sujood. when he finished his prayers he looked around and saw that it was a dog who had wondered into the Masjid. He then realised that he had not offered his Salah for the sake of Allah but for the approval of a stray dog."

I remember reading the story of a man who had spent years praying in the first row of the masjid, one day he arrived late and had to join the back row. He felt embarrased that everybody would see him sitting in the back row. The thought then occurred to him that all his previous prayers were void. He had sat in the front row all these years not for the sake of Allah but for winning the admiration of others.

Often we become very proud of a special ability or skill that Allah has endowed us with, This is what I heard from a lecture of Shaykh Riyadh Ul Haq I paraphrase not remembering the exact words.

" On the day of Qiyamah so many people will be sent to hell, they may have spent their entire lives in righteous acts of worship but they will have been completely devoid of sincerity. Their actions will be declared null and void, they will be told you did what you did to win the admiration of others. , You received your reward of your actions in the duniya you wanted fame and respect and admiration of others and you obtained it, today their is no reward for you.

Some people are blessed with certain gifts and they become boastful about it or proud of it, For example you may have someone endowed with a special memory who is blessed by Allah in becoming an Hafiz of Quran. What he needs to remember is that if Allah had not placed him in service of the deen. Then he would probably have been using his memory in some science lab.Anything done in the service of the deen is a blessing from Allah and not as a result of anyones own actions."


Indeed how often do we feel proud that we are offering our five daily prayers. We look down on others who don't pray we fail to realize that it is Allah who has placed us on the Prayer mat. It is he who gave us this tawfeeq and he could just as easily take it away. Yet we in our hearts believe what we do is a result of our own actions not even appreciating that is a blessing from Allah.

Indeed we are like the wretched dung collector fooling others into believing that we are poets. In reality we end up deceiving only ourselves,and hence ruining our akhira. Is it not the case that when we are praised for qualities that we don't have we feel proud. Yet when we are admonished by others for the defects that we do have within ourselves, we get offended. We are totally heedless and deluded.


May Allah purify our hearts and our intentions, may he place sincerity in all our actions, may he protect us all from the false admiration and praise of others, especially a hypocrite and sinner like me ameen.

My dear brother Al Fatiha. Indeed what a wonderful example you have given, If the seeds of envy, lust , greed , pride are present in our hearts and we do nothing to contain or eliminate them they will grow, hence we will end up losing our akhira and losing the tawfiq to practice the deen.

I heard the story below somewhere, but I don't remember when, where, etc.

There was an old, poor couple live in a jungle. Even though they were poor, they always content with everything they've got. The wife also has a habit of saying ' Bismillah hirahma niraheem' ( In the name of Allah the Most Gracious the Most Merciful) in every little thing that she does.

One day, they didn't have anything left to eat and the husband had to go to city to find work and brought home food. He went to the city but couldn't find anything to do therefore couldn't find anything to eat. So he went home penniless and foodless. Even though he didn't bring anything, the wife still praise Allah and said that Insha'Ala he will bring food tomorrow.

The next day, he did go to the city and still couldn't find anything to bring home. He was sad and still when he got back, the wife praised Allah and made dua to Allah so that tomorrow her husband would bring something from the city.

The next day, the husband went to the city and same as before, he couldn't find anything to bring back and he felt ashamed to his wife. So he filled his sack that he brought all along with rocks on his way home. When he arrived home, he didn't say a word and gave the sack to his wife. His wife was so happy and praised Allah and brought the sack to the kitchen. The husband went outside because he didn't want to face his wife after he brought home rocks.

The wife said 'Bismillah hirah ma niraheem' and opened the sack and she found loaves of bread inside the sack (or gold, I don't remember which one). She called her husband in when showed him the bread inside the sack. The husband cried and told her that he never brought bread home, but instead he put rocks in the sack. Both of them praised Allah for the bounties that He has given them.

Moral: Have faith and trust in Allah for He is the Giver and He gives whom He wishes. Remember Allah and say His name in every thing that you do. InshaAla He will fill our lives with barakah.

Once in A village their was a man who made his living as a Water carrier, he would fill buckets of water from the Well and would supply them to the whole village.

One day he did not turn up for work, the villagers having waited all day fetched the water themselves. The following day he again did not turn up. The villagers grew extremely worried they all went one by one to visit him. in his isolated cottage on a mountain. They were extremely surprised to find that. Although he was laying in bed he seemed to be his usual cheerful self laughing and joking.

Over the course of the next few months, the Water carrier would work, for a few days. Then he would say he was not feeling well and not turn up for a work again for another few weeks.

The villagers growing tired at the inconvenience they where being put through in having to fetch water themselves started mocking him and labeled him the 'attention seeker'. "After all " they said ; " When we go to visit him seems as fit as an Ox , laughing and joking as normal their is nothing wrong with him he is just looking for sympathy.

They finally decided to hire another water Carrier they said;"The 'attention seeker' is not reliable he does not wish to work anymore looks like we have been paying him too much. He must have plenty of money saved up thats why he has become so unreliable and pretends to be sick all the time."

The villagers hired a new Water carrier, and life returned to normal, they had all but forgotten about the 'attention seeker' nobody went to see or visit him anymore.

Then one day they heard the Imam make an announcement from the masjid, that the their old carrier had passed away, and his Janazah was to be held. As the people turned up for the Janazah the imam said " Oh you selfish ones this mans illness had been curable, yet he was poor and could not afford medical treatment, his dignity did not allow him to ask for help, he served you for many years yet in his hour of need you abandoned him. You mocked him and labeled him an attention seeker, in the last few weeks his strength had depleted and illness had worsened . Due to the loss of his livelihood he had been surviving on a few morsels of food a day. You helped kill this man through your own selfishness. Sure he had acted normal when you went to visit him for he did not wish you to feel distressed on his account. Yet you instead misinterpreted this and said that he was normal and he was just seeking attention."


Story Written By Julaybib.


Just A thought.

I was motivated to write the above story after reading something on a different thread which deeply disturbed me. A sister had posted comments saying she was thinking of committing suicide, she seemed clearly in distress.
Someone posted a message and labeled her an attention seeker. Brothers and Sisters it is not a massive effort to offer words of kindness and comfort to someone, remember you never know who may need it, Last week I was feeling very depressed, I had a very friendly Brother, address me as "My Beloved Brother" I am sure that is perhaps the brothers way of addressing people but it had a massive impact on me.

I am not judging anyone for I can remember as a teenager labeling others who where suffering from various maladies and ailments as attention seekers. We have a habit of doing this within our families or with friends the initial sympathy wears off and after a while we start labeling the person an attention seeker.It was only after I was struck with illness myself that I realized how ignorant I had been in the past.

Here is an extract of a poem by a Sufi saint, from pakistan;

"If your enemy dies do not rejoice at his sorry state; for indeed your beloved will one day meet a similar fate"

How often do we in our youth mock our elders, due to the fact they keep forgetting things or repeating the same stories over and over again. Or for the fact that with old age they can no longer hear clearly and we have to keep shouting things at them. We forget that one day if we live long enough we will meet a similar fate.

We forget that today we maybe in good health tomorrow we may be struck with illness, today we may be wealthy tomorrow we may be inflicted with poverty. We should thank Allah for the blessings we have and not mock others for indeed one day we may ourselves end up being victims of mockery due to our misfortune.


Allah forgive me for my ignorance and may he guide us all ameen.

There was once a Young Brother from the streets of the innercity. who developed notoriety in his local neighborhood, being intoxicated by his youth and physical strength he became a tyrant.

people would cross the streets to avoid him if someone looked at him the wrong way he would attack them and god forbid, if you actually said anything to offend him. His elders would say " Young man behave with others justly and fear Allah, be kind and compassionate towards others, for a day will come that you are going to be in distress you are going to call out for help, and their will be no one to answer your calls."

He would say to himself " Fools what do they know, I am the master of my destiny the captain of my own ship the king of my own castle I don't need nobody. These old fools are talking about a different era, they should stop living in the past and how things used to be."

His notoriety brought him prestige If he went into a restaurant the owners would not charge him, if he bought something from the shop it was always on the house. He had plenty of money the fast cars, and the women.He enjoyed his notoriety and felt powerful.


The years passed by in a flash he had now reached old age. He was now old and infirm, the money had been squandered, the fast cars and the beautiful women had long disappeared along with his friends. Now he would sit on his own in despair, and cry but their was no one to hear his cries. The friends and family he had did not wish to look in his direction for he had spent his entire life acting harshly towards them.

Now he would think if only I had listened the advice of my elders in my youth, I have brought calamities upon myself through my own actions. Today I am eating the bitter fruits of my own labor, everyone has abandoned me .

"If only I had listened to the advice when I was young" he would keep repeating to himself over and over again. Alas it was now too late.

He would spend his lonely days sitting in the park, and he would advise the youngsters " Fear Allah and be just towards others, for one day you are going to be in distress and their will be no one to hear your cries of help."

They would look at him and "say fool what do you know we are the masters of our own destiny the captains of our own ship, The kings of our own castles, quit living in the past you old fool times have changed."


The old man hearing those words would weep and say "If only they knew, If only they knew!" Someone said oldman it does not behove a muslim to engage in what ifs, whatever has happened is now in the past, surrender yourself before Allah.

Story Written By Julaybib.

Something to ponder.

Is it not the case that we dismiss the gentle reminders of our elders, and mock them. We forget that they have already made these mistakes and that is why
they are advising us. We only realize this when it is already too late.The above scenario is played out in every city across the world.


May Allah give us all hidayah especially a hypocrite like myself and pray that Allah gives me the tawfiq to act in accordance with what I have been writing. ameen.

"Learn, learn, learn and once you have learnt act".
Abdullah Ibn Masood.


A simple reminder:

I went to an Islamic book shop sometime ago, they had the above quote printed on their bags. Is it not a case we study copious amounts of books listen to hundreds of hours of lectures and speeches. we seem to find it so difficult to act on what we learn.

Knowledge without action is soon forgotten, We go along to lectures and conferences read all these books and benefit nothing. We say we will put what we have learn't into action someday but that day never arrives.

" The criterion of action is that todays work should not be deferred till tomorrow"
Hazrat Umar Al Farooq.

We keep delaying things concerned with our Ibaadat, whether its nafil worship, regular recitation of Quran, some regular act of charity, or self reformation.We learn, learn, and learn but we never take action.


Yet we are overcome by the malady of procrastination, even in our worldly lives
whether it is something to do with our work, taking a course to help with our livelihood paying our bills etc. We keep delaying till tomorrow our problems accumulate yet tomorrow never arrives.

"It is easier to contain a crisis then to manage one" Imran Khan.

We wait till our physical spiritual and emotional problems increase then we are filled with despair.

May Allah give us the tawfiq to act on what we learn, and may he remove laziness from our hearts ameen.

This story is 80% joke and 20% moral. My brother told me this story when I was a kid. Here it goes:

There was a guy who lived next to Masjid but he had never been praying jamaah and every time people invited him to go and pray, he would find excuses here and there. But one day, Allah opened his heart and he decided to go and pray Subh (or Fajr) in congregation. On that day the imam read The Ant (Surah an Naml) in both rakaah. The surah was kinda long for him and after prayer, he went to the imam and asked him what surah he has recited. So the imam said it was The Ant. He said to himself that maybe the imam only recited long surah today and probably would recite shorter one tomorrow. So the next day, he came to pray Subh and again, the imam recited longer surah and again, after the prayer, he went to the imam and asked him what surah he has recited that morning. The imam went "The Spider (Surah al Ankabut)".

He went home and thought that maybe it's better if he asked the imam before prayer what surah he would recite so that if it's longer, he would skip it instead of coming to pray. The imam on the other hand, thought that maybe because he recited long surah, that person who came and asked him those two days was impatient and therefore decided to recite shorter one on the next day. So the next day came and that person, before the prayer commenced, went to the imam and asked him the same question again, "what surah are you going to recite today?" and since the imam wanted to recite shorter one, he said "The Elephant (Surah al Fil)". Upon hearing this, that person ran back home and didn't perform the Jamaah because he thought that since elephant is bigger than spider and ant, the surah must would be much much longer than the previous two days.

Moral:
1. Sometimes you can't explain things with logic.
2. Do not assume anything that you don't know. If you don't know, ask.
3. Perception is always deceiving.

Hope you enjoy the story :D