It started out when she smiled at me, so thankfully.\u00a0 It made me feel bad.\u00a0 Why was I so begrudging of this empty spot next to me?\u00a0 Why was I being so greedy with something that didn\u2019t belong to me.\u00a0 Why couldn\u2019t I just smile, graciously, when she asked me if there was any space next to me for her and her friend to pray in.\u00a0 Instead, I shook my head vigorously and mouthed, \u201cNo,\u201d and made the sign for \u2018one person\u2019 with my hand.\u00a0 Only one of you can come.\u00a0 And that, without a smile.<\/p>\n
I was standing in the Haram, in the Holy Mosque, in Makkah.\u00a0 I was there for my first Hajj, and my days were filled with love and worship.\u00a0 And yet, I had learned to fight for my spot when it was time for prayer.\u00a0 And that first day in Makkah, on the third floor, three rows back from the balcony overlooking the Ka\u2019ba and the crowds, I was in bliss.\u00a0 But when I stood up to pray, I could only begrudgingly scoot over and make room for a sister. What scrooges we humans are.<\/p>\n
A couple of days later, the crowds had swelled in Makkah, as more and more hujjaj arrived from Madina and from all over the world.\u00a0 I was continually being reminded by my sheikh to be patient, to flow with the crowd, to remember that I would be tested to my breaking point, and yet I must stand patient.\u00a0 And so I learned not to fight the crowds when one million of us were walking in every direction trying to get in for prayer.\u00a0 And I learned to let the crowd move me when prayers were over and we needed to head back to our hotel for sleep or food.\u00a0 And I learned to appreciate that most people around me were moving with the flow; weren\u2019t fighting it.<\/p>\n
And then we tried to make it in for Maghrib prayer a couple of nights before Arafat.\u00a0 We were determined that within these 45 minutes, we\u2019d make it in and not be praying outside our hotel lobby or in the streets in front of the Haram.\u00a0 We struggled and walked and slipped through, but the only place that we could make it into was the basement of the Haram.<\/p>\n
It was just minutes before Iqama as we looked around for a spot.\u00a0 There were no spots.\u00a0 But if people just moved around a little, scooted their bodies over, I\u2019d definitely make it in.\u00a0 So I headed for a relatively spacious line and asked a few women, in sign language, if I could pray next to them.\u00a0 \u2018No,\u2019 they vigorously shook their heads.\u00a0 I signed, \u2018Just move over a few inches and I\u2019ll be ok. \u2018\u00a0 Again, \u2018No.\u00a0 No room.\u2019<\/p>\n
I wasn\u2019t going to fight about it, so again, I started scanning the crowds for another possible line.\u00a0 But right then, a big, matronly woman from Mali, sitting right next to these women who had refused to move over for me, spoke to me.\u00a0 She waved her hands, \u2018Come over here, there\u2019s space.\u2019\u00a0 And she scooted her self over and helped force me into that space.\u00a0 She then took my shoe bag from me and put it in front of her.\u00a0 I was unbelievably grateful to her.\u00a0 I was so thankful.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t stop smiling.\u00a0 It felt so good to have this stranger save me from my wandering over outstretched legs and crowded spaces.\u00a0 And she had done it so graciously, with a smile, without me even asking her.<\/p>\n
May Allah reward her.\u00a0 She made my Hajj.\u00a0 Not because she moved over for me when no one else would, not only because she did it without me asking her, not only because she did it so nicely, but because she taught me a lesson in kindness and generosity.\u00a0 These are the traits that Allah SWT wants us to have when He teaches us His names of Al Mannan and Al Kareem.\u00a0 You do good things.\u00a0 You do them generously, with a smile, with an open heart.\u00a0 You don\u2019t begrudge your daughter your time when she asks you for the umpteenth time to get her more milk.\u00a0 You don\u2019t begrudge your sister when you drive her out of your way because she doesn\u2019t have her car.\u00a0 You don\u2019t hold your friend up for a favor because you baby-sat her daughter.\u00a0 And you don\u2019t think you are generous because you moved over five inches for your sister to stand next to you, shoulder to shoulder, in prayer.<\/p>\n
You remember His bounty on you for giving you that space, for giving you the ability to give it.\u00a0 O Allah, You are the Most Generous, the Most Kind.\u00a0 Give her more than I can ever give her and reward her for teaching me to be kind and generous with what I have.<\/p>\n
Fatima Abdallah<\/p>\n
Fatima lives in Northern Virginia with her husband and two daughters.\u00a0 She is currently a full-time mother and part-time youth worker with MAS Youth.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It started out when she smiled at me, so thankfully.\u00a0 It made me feel bad.\u00a0 Why was I so begrudging of this empty spot next to me?\u00a0 Why was I being so greedy with something that didn\u2019t belong to me.\u00a0 Why couldn\u2019t I just smile, graciously, when she asked me if there was any space […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1572,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-motherhood"],"yoast_head":"\n