Abdullah bin 'Umar (radi Allahu anhu- may Allah be pleased with him) said: A man asked the Prophet (sallalahu alayhi wa salaam - peace and blessings be upon him) "What is the best act of Islam?" He said, "To feed others and to give greetings of Salam (peace) to those whom you know and to those whom you do not know."
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| Ekhart, IN from the Amtrak train, September 2012 |
This morning on the CAT bus from Carlisle to Harrisburg, I was reading The Fortress of the Muslim prayers and hadith. I read this one (above) a couple of times over. And then I jumped off the bus to rush around and prepare my visa application.
Before I left the bank, I asked the teller about the Post Office's photocopier. Immediately, she offered to make my copies for me. I insisted that I needed an excessive number of copies, and it would be too much to ask. Eventually, the manager got involved, and she spent a good deal of time make every last copy that I needed.
After putting the application in the mail and hour or so later, it occurred to me that I should thank the kind staff at the bank. I was directed to a Harrisburg bakery called Ciao! and ordered ten giant cookies to be stuffed into a box. The cookies were so enormous that the box couldn't close. And then I went back to the bank, and offered the sweets to the staff there. They were not expecting such a gesture, at all.
When I left, feeling light and smiling, I just felt that this is Islam. Islam is not killing ambassadors and destroying property, but Islam is feeding people and making them happy, whether I know them or not.
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