He was drenched in sweat, walking briskly towards his destination. The intensity of the Sun was scorching his skin, and the humidity was such that even his shoes were soaked. The mosque wasn’t far, but the short distance felt like an eternity. He kept walking, cursing the heat. During this, he hurled countless insults at the sun. Despite all of this, nothing changed. There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky, nor was there any shelter from the Sun. A thought crept into his mind that when he entered the mosque, there would be no electricity due to load shedding. In the heat and humidity, who knows how long the imam’s sermon would last, or how long the prayer would be. He hadn’t attended Friday prayers for several weeks, and today he had finally gathered the courage to leave his house. Suddenly, the thought came to him to skip Friday prayers and not go to the mosque. Nothing had happened before, so nothing would happen now either. Finally, he decided to turn back and went home. Once there, he threw himself on his comfortable bed and started watching TV.
The next day, he woke up and had to go to work. The heat was even more intense than the day before. His office was 10 kilometers from home, and he had to take the bus. Reluctantly, he got ready and reached the bus stop. There was a crowd of people, and there was no shaded place nearby. So, he stood in a corner, baking under the sun. Fifteen minutes later, the bus arrived, packed with passengers. He somehow managed to squeeze one foot in and hung on by the door. By the time he reached the office, his arms were numb, and he was drenched in sweat. Here too, he thought of going back home, but then he remembered that if he took the day off, he would have to deal with his boss’s anger. He had already taken leave earlier due to illness, and more absences could jeopardize his job. When he entered the office, the electricity was out. What could he do? He sat at his desk and began to work.
Just as he was starting, an email popped up on his computer, containing the following hadith: The Prophet (ﷺ) said: He who leaves the Friday prayer (continuously) for three Friday on account of slackness, Allah will print a stamp of negligence on his heart.
Reading this, fear ran through him, and the hair on his body stood on end. He felt as if God had expelled him from His worship. It seemed as though someone was telling him, “You bore the scorching heat out of fear of your boss, but you had no regard for God. That boss, who only gives you a meager salary and works you like a mule, you fear him. But the Merciful God, who has given you everything from childhood to adulthood without asking for anything in return, you have no shame or regard for Him.”
Tears welled up in his eyes, and instead of going for lunch, he got up and went to the nearby mosque to offer the afternoon prayer. The sun was still blazing, and the heat was even more intense than before. But now, he had accepted the yoke of God’s servitude, and the hallmark of a servant is obedience, not complaint.
Translated by Taqi Ahmed