Don't Let Your Guard Down, Don't be Complacent!

In the caving activity, armed with only a headlight, we were tasked navigate into a pitch-black, narrow cave, full of sharp stalagmites and stalactites, with water up to our hips (and for some, water up to their necks) – very hazardous.

The amazing thing was that no one in our groups got hurt throughout the entire caving activity, alhamduilillah.

An amazing lesson we also learnt, however, was what happened AFTER the caving activity: someone had an injury OUTSIDE the cave while on solid, flat ground. Apparently, he was waving at his friend while walking, and tripped over a tree root, fell and slightly injured his knee. 

Let's analyze the situation..
When we navigated through the cave, we were conscious of the fact that we were going to enter a danger zone, so we put super extra care to ensure our safety – we studied our environment carefully, attentively observed where our feet and hands went, we communicated with the people in front and behind us – safe.

Interestingly, this is exactly how the companion Ubayy ibn Ka’ab described “taqwa” – consciousness of God / fear of God's punishment.
Ubayy said to Umar ibn Al-Khattab, "Have you ever walked on a path that has thorns on it''
`Umar said, "Yes.''
Ubayy said, "What did you do then''
He said, "I rolled up my sleeves and struggled (carefully, to avoid the thorns).''
Ubayy said, "That is Taqwa.''

So we navigated the cave with taqwa. But the minute we exited the cave, as we walked through wide, flat and familiar ground, we felt ‘safe’, so we became lax and complacent, we let our guard down, and *wham*!

Lessons learnt:
اتَّقِ اللَّهَ حَيْثُمَا كُنْتَ
“Have taqwa (consciousness) of Allah wherever you may be”
(Hadith Narrated by at-Tirmidzi, graded hasan)

Many of us, when we are going to enter ‘dangerous’ environments or places – ones that you KNOW are full of haram and prohibited things – whether its in gatherings of idle talk, ‘parties’, ‘red light’ city areas, dodgy stuff on television, dodgy websites, shopping malls, political-slander articles, etc – we become conscious of our actions, we are more careful in resisting temptations, and fending off the bad stuff.

But when we enter ‘safer’ territory – say, with ‘good company’ of friends or other ‘practicing’ people – we tend to let our guard down, and shaytan takes us for a ride to fall into all sorts of haram. Some very common examples :

Talking about absolutely useless and non-beneficial things for the sake of ‘strengthening brotherhood’,
backbiting other individuals in the name of “safeguarding the Deen from corrupt individuals” or “saving other people from their harm”,
interaction with non-mahrams of the opposite gender “just talking about religion”, private discussions and ‘overly friendly’ (to the point of flirting) with non-mahrams under the guise of “doing da’wah together”,
gossiping with others about a person with the intention that “we actually want to help him and want to find a solution together”,
not having khusyoo’ in prayer because of thinking about your good deeds (e.g. planning your da’wah activity, how to please your mother, what good advice to share on facebook);
When staying at home with the family, there's a tendency to do more useless things and waste time because we think we are 'spending time with the family'..

– the list goes on.

These are areas where we are most vulnerable – especially Muslims who are sincere on being better individuals, but sometimes fall into error. We need to keep our guard up to ensure we don’t get tricked and fall into sin,  yet still be convinced we are doing the right thing. Remember the story of Barsisah.

Remember the advice of the Prophet - have taqwa WHEREVER you may be. Always take a step back, keep your ikhlas (sincerity) in check, be honest with yourself, be honest with Allah and ask Him to guide you, then tread carefully and don't be complacent –

.. and help others if you are seeing them slipping away. Nobody is free from error, myself included.

This is a reminder to myself and to you - Let us help each other towards taqwa and righteousness – in the same way the person(s) behind and in front of us warns us of impending hazards ahead =)





(Your Own Life Observation [YOLO] AK Youth Camp 2013)
#yolo #akyc2013 #akyc