Wednesday, January 27, 2010


Wet Pants
by Anonymous

Come with me to a third grade classroom...There is eight-year-old Bashir sitting at his desk when all of a sudden, there is a puddle between his feet and the front of his pants is wet. He thinks his heart is going to stop because he cannot possibly imagine how that happened. Its never happen before, and he knows that when the other boys find out he will never hear the end of it. When the girls find out, they'll never speak to him again as long as he lives.

Bashir puts his head down on the desk and prays this prayer, "Oh Allah, this is an emergency! I need help now! Five minutes from now I'm dead meat."

He looks up from his prayer and he sees the teacher with a look in her eyes that says he's been discovered.

As the teacher is walking toward Bashir, a classmate named Ayesha is carrying a goldfish bowl filled with water. Ayesha stumbles in front of the teacher and inexplicably dumped the entire bowl of water in the boy's lap.

Bashir pretends to be angry, but all the while is saying to himself, "Alhumdu lillah! Alhumdu Lillah! (All praises to Allah! All praises to Allah!).

Now all of a sudden, instead of being the object of ridicule, Bashir is the object of sympathy. The teacher rushes him downstairs and gives him gym shorts to put on while his pants dry out. All the other children are on their hands and knees cleaning up around his desk. The sympathy is wonderful. But as life would have it, the ridicule that should have been his has been transferred to someone else - Ayesha.

Ayesha tries to help, but the other kids tell her to go away saying, "You've done enough, you lout!"

Finally, at the end of the day, as the children are waiting on the bus, Bashir walks over to Ayesha and whispers, "You did that on purpose, didn't you?" Ayesha whispers back, "I wet my pants once too."

May Allah help us see the opportunities that are always around us to do good...


Thursday, January 21, 2010


Burnt Biscuits
by Anonymous

You gotta love the anonymous people who are devoted to sending words of wisdom to anyone that will read them. So, I'm sharing with you another inspirational "forward" from Anonymous.

When I was a little girl, my mom liked to make breakfast food for dinner every now and then. And I remember one night in particular when she had made breakfast after a long, hard day at work.

On that evening so many years ago, my mom placed a plate of grits, scrambled eggs, beef sausage and burnt biscuits in front of my dad. I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed! Yet all my dad did was reach for his biscuit, smile at mom and ask me how my day was at school. I don't remember what I told him that night, but I do remember watching him smear butter and jam on that burnt biscuit and eat every bite!

When I got up from the table that evening, I remember hearing my mom apologize to my dad for burning the biscuits. And I'll never forget what he said: "Baby, I love burned biscuits."

Later that night, I went to kiss my Daddy good night and I asked him if he really liked his biscuits burned. He wrapped me in his arms and said, "Your Mama put in a hard day at work today and she's real tired. And besides - a little burnt biscuit never hurt anyone!"

Life is full of imperfect things...and imperfect people. I'm not the best at hardly anything, and I forget birthdays and anniversaries just like everyone else. But what I've learned over the years is that learning to accept each other's faults - and choosing to celebrate each other's differences - is one of the most important keys to creating a healthy, growing, and lasting relationship.

And that's my prayer for you today. That you will learn to take the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of your life and lay them at the feet of God. Because in the end, He's the only One Who will be able to give you a relationship where a burnt biscuit isn't a deal breaker!

We could extend this to any relationship. In fact, understanding is the bases of any relationship, be it a husband-wife or parent-child or friendship!

"Don't put the key to your happiness in someone else's pocket - keep it in your own."

So please pass me a biscuit, and yes, the burnt one will do just fine.

May Allah bless you now and always.