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Periwinkle18
02-19-2008, 05:10 PM
Another story from the Islamic magazine I read.

Faith And The Hill

Little faith takes us a long way.

There is an athletic ritual call Saee in Umrah (in masjid Al-Haraam,Makkah). The meaning of the words Saee in Arabic and Urdu is ‘effort, endeavour’. It’s a 3.15 run between two hills, now paved with marble. So one actually paces up and down an air-conditioned gallery 7 times back nd forth between the two hills of Safa and Marwa. It is rto commemorate Hajerah’s (AS) run between the two hill in search of water and food for Ismail (AS).

It’s a tough walk after all the orher umrah rituals. While I was doinf ir rhe second time in three days, I gave up after the second roun, My right foot is bent inwards due to chronic back injury and strain, I almost thought if the wheel chair rides that are available. ( The ritual is a must, of course. And one can’t quit in the middelw and go home. Fortunately, we can rest as long as we wanr anywhere on the route and on the two hills). I sat down at safa, the first hill, and cried. You can cry without shame in that place. People don’t really notice, and they think you’re crying for the love of Allah. You know, I cried becuz I felt very siabled. Then I realised that Hajerah (AS) didn’t run here in Nike runners,or in an air-conditioned gallery.

That’s when the lesson of rhat rityal became clear to me: MAKE AN EFFORT. The story goes on that Hjerah’s (AS) effort was rewarded by the miracle of the issuance of the water from between the hill now know as the water of Zamzam. So, after half an hour of crying and massaging my feet vack, I got up and walked. Then I remembered somethinf I read in “7 Habits” : just after an athelete had reached the limit of pain She/He is rewarded with a tremendous release of enrgy that compensates for that muscle ache. I fave it a try, I limped. It’s ugly to have to limp, whan you’re so young- and it’s hard, when the pain is just jolting through the body. ( I guess no can know a backache and a headache, until they have one).

Then, I notice a 70-year-old Pakistani man pushing his wife in a wheel chair. And I visualized these mountains, thousands of years ago ,naked, hot and sorched. And I imagined. I was running between them barefoot, looking for water. I passed up the temptationof many sprays and coolers of Zamzam that line the corridor.

The effect that this visualization had on me was sunning, Suddenly, my pain was nuch, much easier. My feet were actually thankful ( the entire umrah is done barefoot). I also felr that making an effort is somethinf that comes with,well, effort. I realized that I have so many gifts as a person- hardly anything has been an effort for ME- though it may have awed others. It was finally time to test my character.

There are seven rounds to be made between the two hills. I had unbearable pain by the fourth round, to the extentthat my mind was blacking out. But I held on to Stephen Covey’s wisdom and my life’s wisdom, if any, and the visualiation of Hajerah (AS). Perhaps the blacking out helped, as I imagined a huge rock in place of the Kaabah, and the real scene diappeared. To my memory, it srill seems that I ran on bare, sun-hot rocks.

My foot was slightly bent inwards, and whenever I walked fast, there was a feeling of a tight string abt to break from my back to my toe. This has prevented me from extensive walking for the past few years, By the fifth round, while I was stuggling to straighten my long bent foot by placing it firmly and evenly on the ground, something happened.

My mind was really blackng out to the extent that I felt I had completely lost it. For a split second the pain was gone. And suddenly there was a click- click sound. Some long –displaced bone just fell in place. My foot was okay.

Do you remember the forrest Gumps’ moment-of-release from his leg braces? It just happened! My foot just fell in place! What I read in “7 Habits” about an actual atheletic phenomenon really happened. There was a suddenly a tremendous rush of enery, and whatever was blocking energy (Blood and Oxygen to be exact and more scientific) just let go of its ugly grip.

It was one of the deepest emotional moments of my life. It happened, and I had no one to tel it to. I walked on. Now, whenever I have an “uphill” task ahead of me, I will remember the little lesson for Saee and of having a little but helpful amount of faith.

A little faith in a better tomorrow makes the present a lot easier, for us and for our loved ones.
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