Al-Fatihah...

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

Every soul shall taste of death, and you shall only be paid fully your reward on the resurrection day; then whoever is removed far away from the fire and is made to enter the garden he indeed has attained the object; and the life of this world is nothing but a provision of vanities.

~ The Holy Qur'an, Surah Ali Imran (Chapter 3, Family of Imran) verse 185

This is what ALLAH has promised and today after the Friday prayer, a jenazah prayer was performend at 3.30pm at the mosque for this Syrian brother who is also the manager of a halal grocery just opposite my house - Spice Gate. It was announced at the jumaah that it will be prayed at 2.45pm but postponed to 3.30pm. May ALLAH have mercy on him, forgive all his sins and place him with the righteous people in the Paradise.

I have never seen in my real life how hard strong young men wept and cried over a death. Today I witnessed it and from no feeling of grief, I can hardly hold my tears. Most of the ladies have already been crying for quite a while when watching the body being put into a private ambulance to be sent off for burial. The crowd of brothers surrounding the ambulance at the mosque entrance have red eyes and watery eye-lids. They were hugging and comforting each other. There was a young brother in his early 20s standing alone quite far from the ambulance (about 2 houses away from the mosque entrance), his eyes were looking at the ambulance while tears dropping and he has to use his palm to cover his mouth from shouting.

Such a scene proved that the disease is such a respectable and much loved man. Moreover, the fact that many people were still at the mosque waiting to pray that jenazah prayer even though it was postponed, shows how much people like to bid farewell to him. Some even said that it is a sign of a righteous person if he or she passed away on Friday.

Today, at the khutbah, the khatib reminded us that charity should be done as soon as possible because we won't know if we will live another day to consume the money that we have saved or to give it out for another charity.

May we all die in Islam and given the privilege to reside in ALLAH's Paradise. Amin.

Ya Dhaljalali wal ikram, amitna ala dinnil islam.

ALLAHU'alam.

Wassalam.