Thursday, March 22, 2012

The Story of a Poor Woman, Old Cow & Gaza

The location where this true story occurred is in a district of Yemen in January-2009.

The story of the sufferings and pains suffered by the people of Gaza spread throughout the world. Everybody was fuming in anger, hatred, and rage. Even more people felt sad and were touched when innocent & cute little children became victims of the crazy spurts of bullets and bombs. Blood was wetting the ground freely.

This terrible tragedy also came to the knowledge of a poor old lady who lived in one of the villages in Yemen. Just like everybody else, she also felt sad and sorrowful, and she could not help but shed tears.

One day, she was determined to help the best she could. Incidentally, the only ‘asset’ she had was an old, sickly, thin & weak cow.

Equipped with a high spirit and the feeling of extreme sympathy, she intended to give away her cow to the people of Gaza. So she left her house on foot, en route to one of the masjids in Yemen while holding her only beloved cow.
 


Coincidentally, it was Friday and the jama’ah (assemblage) had already swarmed the compound of the masjid to perform the Friday Prayer. The people started to direct their attention and observe the old and poor lady standing outside the masjid with her cow. Some of them nodded, others shook their heads and not a few of them smiled cynically. Quite the opposite, they were astounded seeing the poor lady standing faithfully beside her cow.

Time passed by and although the jama’ah of the masjid was engrossed listening to the khutbah delivered by the Imam, they from time to time looked curiously at the two creatures of God. The old lady and her cow were still there without even a little sign of embarrassment or reluctance.

After the Imam got down from the mimbar (pulpit), the Friday prayer was then performed. Bearing the intense sun-burn and the beads of sweat down her face, the old lady and the cow were still there.

As soon as all the jama’ah completed the salat and du’a, the old lady suddenly hurried and dragged her cow towards the front door of the masjid and waited patiently, unperturbed by the jama’ah walking out of the masjid. Many of them stayed and were curious to what the old woman would do next.

When the Imam of the masjid came out, the old lady bounced up and said: "O Imam, I have heard of the sad story of the people of Gaza. I am a poor person, but I sympathize and want to help them. Please accept the one and only cow I have, and send to the people of to Gaza."

Caught by surprise, the Imam was stunned for a moment by the request of the old lady. And predictably, he was reluctant to accept it. Yeah, how to bring the old cow to Gaza, the Imam pondered. All around, the jama’ah started to murmur. There were those who said that it was an impossible thing to do especially since the cow was already old. It surely had no value.

"Please… take this cow to Gaza. This is all I have. I really want to help them," the unknown woman repeated. The Imam was still reluctant. Every jama’ah talked and whispered to each other. Their sights were fixed on the old lady and her old cow.

The eyes of the old lady began to glaze and well up with tears, but she was still unyielding and kept on staring at the Imam. For a few moments, the atmosphere was filled with silence.

Suddenly, someone from the jama’ah voiced out an idea: "Nevermind, let me buy this cow for a price of 10,000 riyals and then bring that money to be donated to the people Gaza."

The Imam appeared to be in agreement. The sad old lady wiped her tears that had flowed. She remained speechless, but seemed to agree with the suggestion of the jama’ah.

And then, a young man got up and offered an even more remarkable suggestion: "What if we all offer the highest bid while contributing that money to buy the cow and the money will then be delivered to Gaza?"

The woman was surprised, as well as the Imam. It appeared that the idea of the young man was accepted by the crowd. And then in a few minutes, the bids for the old cow started to roll. The throng of of the jama’ah hurried to contribute their money for collection.

There were those who bid from 10,000 to and then 30,000 riyals. And so it continued for some time. The atmosphere in the compound of the masjid became noisy with the hustle of the incessant bidding.

Finally, the old, thin, and feeble cow owned by the old and poor lady was bought for an astounding sum of 500,000 riyals (approx. 148,000 USD)!

All efforts were an accumulation of the pure intention of the poor woman and the bids of the jama’ah. Sweeter yet was that after the money was surrendered to the Imam, everyone had unanimously agreed on a decision, voiced out by one of the jama’ahs:

"We have bid on your cow and managed to collect a sum of 500,000 riyals for it…

"And we have agreed that the money that has been collected will be given to the Imam to be sent to the people of Gaza. However, the cow is to be returned to you." When he said this, the poor old lady shed some more tears. Tears of joy.

As expected, Allah had destined everything; the intention of the poor woman to help alleviate the burden of the people of Palestine prevailed and was made easy by Allah to the extent that a huge sum of money had been collected while at the same time she could retain the one and only ‘asset’ she possessed. SubhanAllah!

Therefore, the lesson is that every pure and good intention is always under consideration for its reward by Allah Azawjal. Especially, if the intentions arises from from a small heart of a poor human being who wants to help a Muslim community. A community for instance that is suffering due to the oppression by the ruthless regime of Israel.

NOTE: If you all sympathize, please be willing to extend your contribution for the sake of Allah to the people who are oppressed in Palestine and other Muslim countries through the nearest Humanitarian Fund in your locality.

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