Juma – Where do you think you are going?
Jesus is on a journey with his disciples. When they get to a resting point, he gives money to one of his disciples for food. The disciple goes off and seeks and finds a market. While there, he realizes he can buy only three loaves of bread with the money he was given. While he is walking back to the group, he eats one of the loaves.
When he returns, Jesus asks the disciple what happened to the third loaf? The disciple is shocked. He swears that he does not know what Jesus is talking about. Jesus says okay, and the group keeps moving.
The group comes to another resting point. They must eat again and they find a deer and kill it. After they are done eating, only the bones are left of the deer. Jesus brings the deer back to life. He then turns to the same disciple again and asks: where is the 3rd loaf? The disciple swears that he does not know. Jesus says fine. And the group keeps moving.
After some time, the group comes across a river bank. Jesus flattens the bank and his disciples cross. Jesus then turns to that disciple who ate the loaf, and asks him again: Where is the third loaf? The disciple again says does not know.
After they cross, Jesus stops and tells the rest of his disciples that he and the disciple that went to the market will stay behind, and for the rest to keep moving, and that he would catch up with them. Jesus starts to pile wood into three separate piles. Jesus tells the disciple that the first pile is for himself. The second pile is for the disciple, and the third pile is for the one who ate the third loaf.
Before Jesus could even finish his sentence, the disciple speaks up and admits that he did indeed, he the third loaf. Jesus is not surprised. He tells the disciple that in fact, he can have all three piles of gold, but that he can’t come with him anymore. It’s a bitter sweet moment for the disciple. On the one hand, he has tripled his wealth, but on the other, he has lost the company of Jesus.
With Jesus gone, the man marvels at his new found wealth. But then as he does, three armed men appear. They see the three piles of gold and they kill the former disciple.
The three armed men marvel over their new found wealth. One volunteers to get food to celebrate. The other two agree to stay behind and guard the wealth. While the first man is out hunting for food, he thinks about his wealth and a thought comes into his mind. What if he could have all the wealth? He could poison the food and easily collect the wealth, and so he does. The other two men guarding the gold have their own thoughts. They decide to split the total wealth in half, by agreeing to kill the first armed man. When the first armed man returns, the two other armed men kill him. Then they eat the food because they are so hungry. These two men die as well, because as you know, the food is poisoned.
On his journey back with him disciples, Jesus comes across three piles of gold and four dead men. He turns to his disciples and says: This is the dunya.
The human being will sell out for the dollar bill. When Allah knows all and sees all, the human being will still sell out and so the verse: Fa aina tad haboon is Allah asking you: Where do you think you are going? The life of this dunya is but illusions and ornaments. Allah says know your end is to Allah. Don’t sacrifice the dunya for the akhira. Chase both together. It’s not an OR but an AND.
Fa aina tad haboon – Where are you going? Allah does not say don’t chase the dunya but do so remembering you will come back to me. Just like a mom knows that her child cannot live without her, the same case is with Allah. Yet we sell our souls chasing the dollar.
Don’t forget fa aina tad haboon. Where do you think you are going?
Allah already has a plan. He will take care of matters. But he will ask you about following the Qur’an, the rule book. Yet you chose to do what you wanted to do. Or your ego came in the way and you didn’t ask for forgiveness.
I ask Allah to achieve what we want in this dunya but with our iman intact. Not at the expense of selling our iman.
Fa aina tad haboon. Where do you think you are going?