The Love of Mosques

A man tells his story that he and his uncle offered jumma prayer in makkah haram shareef and then moved ahead to return home. After getting out of the city, there comes a desolate and uninhabited mosque at some distance from the road. This mosque often comes in my sight while passing through the highway while going to or returning from Makkah.

But today what drew my attention was a blue Ford car, parking along the tattered wall of that mosque.  For a few moments, I kept thinking, what is the use of this brand-new car outside this desolate and uninhabited masjid? and the very next moment I decided to discover the reason, so I slowed down my car and turned toward the road leading to the masjid.

My uncle, who usually keeps dozing back to home, was also amazed and was looking at me with questioning eyes “ what happened ? why are you going there? “.

Anyhow we parked it at some distance from the masjid, locked it and then walked to the masjid.  As we got a little closer to mosque we heard a beautiful and agonizing voice of recitation of surah Al Rahmaan . Initially I thought of staying outside the mosque and listen to this recitation ,but then my curiosity took me inside masjid to discover what was going on inside that mosque which wasn’t even visited by birds.

When we entered mosque , we saw a young man sitting over there, holding a cute little holy Quran in his hands and reciting surah Al Rahmaan with his full concentration. And there is no one else in mthe masjid. Infact we searched completely, there was no one in mosque else this man and us.
I said “ Asslam o alikum “to him , he looked up. Astonishment was quite evident in his eye,  he wasn’t expecting anyone here in masjid.

He replied “ wa alikum salam wa rehmatullah”.
I said “ Have you offered Asar prayer ? We haven’t offered yet, so we want to pray Asar”.

Without waiting for his answer, I started calling adhan whilst facing Qibla. As soon as I started calling adhan, the young man starting smiling while was facing Qibla. I don’t know what was the issue, but his smile seemed strange to me. I mean, I didn’t find any reason for him to smile.

Then suddenly he murmured a sentence which confused or somewhat scared me more. He said “ Glad tidings! today it would be a prayer with the congregation !” . My uncle too stared at me confusingly, but ignoring it I started saying Aquaman.

While my mind was stuck in the same point , “Glad tidings ! Today it would be a prayer with the congregation”. Same question was constantly hitting my mind, that who was he talking to . There wasn’t any single living being in the masjid and whole mosque was dead empty. Is he insane or out of senses ?

After completing prayer I turned to that young man , who was still busy doing tasbeeh. I asked him about how he was and his health etc. he replied me with “بخیر و للہ الحمد “ . I  said “ May ALLAH bless you with HIS mercy , you drew my attention all the time when I was praying Asar ” . Young man was surprised to hear it , he inquired “ why ? “.

I told him “ when I was saying iqaamah , you said Glad tidings, today it would be a prayer with congregation ! “.

Young man smiled and replied “ so what was so amazing in it ? “.
I said “ No, there wasn’t as such , but who were you talking to ? “.

Young man again smiled listing to my curiosity , but kept quiet and did reply. And started looking down in a deep thought as If he was deciding whether to answer my question or not. I continued “ I don’t think you are mad, you look good enough , MA SHA ALLAH you prayed with us properly, then why were you talking in air ? “

This time he looked up towards me, and replied “ I was talking to the mosque”. His reply shocked me, now I was thinking that he is insane for sure. I asked him again , to conform , probably I had heard wrong  “ What you said ? You were talking to this mosque ! So did you got any answer from this mosque ? ”

He replied me while maintaining same smile on his face “ I fear you would consider me mad or insane”. I replied “ its obvious brother ! these are mere stones and stones neither hear nor they reply.” He replied “ yes, you are right, these are just stones”. I said “ When you these are dead stones and walls, why were you talking to them ? “.

The young man again lowered his gaze to ground, as if thinking , should he reply to me or not. And then this time he replied without raising his gaze,” I love mosques , I am man who loves masjid , when ever I see an old, barren and uninhabited mosque , I think about them, I feel about them. I think about those days when people came to offer prayer in that masjid.

Then I question my self , how much this mosque longs for its prayers , how much it longs for someone who comes and offer salaah, some one who could recite Quran in it. Some one who can revive ALLAHs name in it.” He continued “ I feel the pain of loneliness of the mosque, it calls for some one who can do tasbeeh and dikhr in it , someone who can shake its wall by reciting few verses of Quran”.

“ I can imagine how alone and inferior this mosque feels itself from other masjid , how much it desires and wishes for some one who can pray a few rakaah in it, who can do a few sujood in it. Some astray traveler , some one passing by who can raise adhaan just once.”
“And then I reply to the mosque myself that , BY GOD I will fulfill your wish , I’ll relief your pain and vanish your loneliness , I’ll bring back the feeling of good days for you, BY GOD I’ll revive back the environment of your old good days.”

“Then after entering in such a masjid ,I offer two rakaah prayer, and recite a chapter of Quran . My brother you might wonder about what I told to you. I swear I love mosques, I love masjid , I am in love with them.”

Tears were running through my eyes, now it was my turn to lower my gaze to earth. So that young man does not see me weeping. His words ! his feelings! his strange habit! his way of talking! the immense feelings he had for mosques! Such a strange man he was, how had his heart stuck in mosques.
I had just no words to speak. I just said “ May ALLAH reward you ! do pray for me “ and got up to leave the place.

But there was still a mystery left. His voice coming from my back stopped my advancing feet. “ Do you know what I pray after offering two rakaah when I get into such a mosque ? “ . I turned my head to look at him,to let him complete his talk.

“ I pray, Oh my Lord! My ALLAH! if you think I have lessened the desolation and darkness of this mosque by your Adhikari, your name, reciting the Quran and offering prayer, Do lessen desolation and darkness of my father, as YOU are the most merciful”.

I felt goose bumps in my body, a chill piercing through my spine, I just lost control over myself and burst into tears and cried.
Such a strange man was he, and such an immense love he had with his parents! What did he get and how we are bringing up our children? How forgetful we are of our duties towards our parents whether they are alive or not. May ALLAH bless us all and be merciful to us all. Amen.

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