A Wonderful Initial Effect of Fadha'il Ta'lim

You could tell the dwellers of a house by looking at its main door. If there is a cross on the door, then the dwellers of the house are Christians. If you see the endless knot or the wheel symbol on the door, then the dwellers of the house are Buddhis. If you see the Aum or Om symbol on the door, then the dwellers are most definitely Hindus. And you could tell the dwellers of a house are Muslims when you see "Basmallah" or "Assalamu'alaykum" written in Arabic at the door. However, when you enter Muslims houses nowadays, there is a great chance that you could not differentiate them with the non-Muslims houses. The mood and atmosphere in Muslim houses are the same as the non-Muslims' - the mood and atmosphere of "restaurants" (eat, eat and drink); the mood and atmosphere of "hotels" (sleep and rest); and the mood and atmosphere of "cinemas" (music and home theatre). Where is the mood and atmosphere of "madrasahs and masjids" that we are suppose to propagate in our houses...? In fact, with regard to the hopes we cherish, we are like him who hopes to reap corn after having sowed barley.

The following is based on true story:

A Muslim husband decided that he has to do something to change the mood and atmosphere of his house. Love for his wife and two small daughters prompted him to make some effort in bringing the environment of deen at home. After all what is the meaning of this life if he would be separated from his family in the aakhirah? Alhamdulillah, the pious wise men advised him to start a fadha'il ta'lim at home.

He managed to get a copy of the book, "Fadha'il Amal by Sheikul Hadith Hazrat Maulana Muhammad Zakariya Kandahlawi rahmatullah alayhi" (literally means the Book of Virtuous Deeds). The pious wise men told him that the book is to be read at a fixed place at home, and at a fixed time when everyone in the house  is unoccupied or less occupied, starting with one or two hadith (approximately 5-10 minutes), thereby it should be consistently and gradually read with patient and persistent at the fixed time and place until the day of Qiyamaah. Thus he decided to start reading the book to his family at their common living room after he came back home from masjid every night after isya'.

The first time he opened the Fadha'il Amal to read, his wife did not show any interest at all, not even a slight gesture of appeal. She was watching the loud telly, and like Cleopatra who did not wish to be disturbed, she acted as if nothing happened, focusing more on what was being watched. Their little girl, aged 2, was playing with her baby sister. After a five minutes reading with a raised voice, he closed the book and said nothing to the cold reception.

Days passed by as he kept on doing the routine. Came back home from masjid, took the book from the shelf, sat down and read it to his daughters and wife. His Cleopatra wife seemed unmoved at all by the activity around her. Patient, he taught. The pious wise men told him he must constantly remind himself what he did was to please Almighty Allah, and that the hadith read was meant for himself. In this way, if nobody listened to him then he would not feel frustration, anger or sad. And even if everyone listened to him, he would not feel self-aggrandizing and pompous. The desirable result of fadha'il ta'lim would come with patient and persistent.

True enough after about two weeks, the first sign of acceptance appeared when his wife started to bring down the volume of the telly almost to mute, albeit she still wouldn't stare away from the telly. Another days passed when his small daughter started to notice what her father was doing. When she saw her father picked up the book from the shelf, she chanted in her cute little voice, "Ta'lim...ta'lim...ta'lim..." 

Right about this time his wife then switched off the telly. He couldn't help but noticed that she was pretending to play with the girls near him,  but trying hard not to acknowledge the reading of the hadith. The positive sign made him really look forward for the routine reading every night.

One fine night, as he began the reading with basmallah, his wife suddenly put on a scarf to cover her head, sat beside him with their baby girl on her lap. He was controlling his emotion by the sight of it and tried hard to conceal his solace and at the same time struggled to finish the reading, which by this time had been lengthened to 20 minutes. The next night, he gave her a ravishing smile as he said, "I've been reading this kitaab for a long time. I think it is now your turn to read."

Thus began the effort to instill the mood and atmosphere of masjid and madrasah in his home.