Becoming a Caring Muslim

Often we heard of the words sympathy and empathy being promoted everywhere. Both are similar in usage but differ in the emotional feelings.

Empathy is the ability to mutually experience the thoughts, emotions, and direct experience of others without them directly communicated intentionally. This will make us to have the urge to help them out in everything that we could. =)

Sympathy on the other hand is a feeling of care and understanding for suffering beings. 

Islam always encourage the Muslims to be caring and helpful. Rasulullah himself is a very caring person and a lot of musyrikin Mecca and Madina revert to Islam because of this. 

One famous example is when Rasulullah fed a blind Jewish beggar everyday in the market who hated Rasulullah so much. The beggar kept saying to him to stay away from a man named Muhammad without knowing the one who fed him was Muhammad himself! After Rasulullah passed away (peace be upon him), Abu Bakar asked Aisyah what are the sunnah Rasulullah that he had not done yet? Aisyah said everyday Rasulullah will go to the market to feed this one old Jewish beggar over there. 

The next day, Abu bakar brought some food to be given to the old beggar but he refused to eat and asked "who are you?" Abu Bakar said "I’m the usual person who came to you". But the beggar said "No! The usual person usually will grind the food with his teeth so that it will be easier for me to eat the food!" Abu Bakar cried and told the Jewish beggar, the person who used to fed him everyday was Muhammad, the one whom he hated the most. The beggar cried and finally revert to Islam. 

So my brothers and sisters, let's be caring! Bring out the sympathy and empathy feelings that we keep holding back before. =)

Show our love to our parents by helping them with the house chores and call them at least once a week if you are staying away from them.

If you go out for shopping and a few people come to you asked for some money, why not give them a little bit of the countless ‘rezeki’ that Allah gives us.

If we have friends who are in trouble, do not leave them but instead be with them.

If your housemates are sick, give them some attention and show some love. Maybe that is all they need to recover and gain some strength back.

If you are dealing with your patients, the trust between you two will make them ‘talk’ so that you can see their problem with a bigger picture which is usually helpful to come out with an accurate diagnosis.

And to our beloved brothers and sisters in Gaza, lets pray for them and give support in every ways possible. 

And the most important thing, who knows the caring attitude that you bring along will make people attracted to know Islam, let them already a muslim or non-muslim. This is one of the way in dakwah, it's actually nothing new. This is indeed, how Rasulullah portrays Islam before. =) 

p/s: This is a gentle reminder especially to me, because we as human beings, tend to forget ^^ 

By:

~Chrysanthemum~

Msoc Committee 2011/12