Remember old friends and make duah - 19 May 2014

 

In the name of Allah Most Gracious Most Merciful

 

A few days ago I mentioned Faldela Williams’s beautiful Rhus Bukhari recipe and today a sibling mentions that she is in Intensive Care after a heart attack.  

Dearest friend, always a smile and a helping hand, never too busy to sit down with a cup of tea and a chat. Her book – Cape Malay Cooking has been appreciated by women and men all over the world. My relationship with Faldela goes back maybe some twenty years when I worked in Salt River and she had a cosy little café close by. I’d pop in for something wholesome or a juice and she ended up doing all of the catering for our organisation, for our families and weddings, and so on.

When I went for hajj, she said to me “when the muathin is done and you leave the house walk on, don’t look back, you are in Allah’s hands now. Don’t worry about your children – once you’re on the plane you’ll forget all about them and focus on the amazing Baitullaah.” Of course when I was on the plane I was sobbing all the way to Johannesburg, I was leaving behind five children the youngest only a year old.

When we returned she said – “OK I lied but it was the only way to get you to cheer up and on to that plane.”  She also told me Mabiet on Muzdalifaah – “throw your mat and look up into the dark velvet sky, the stars will be so bright you have to pinch yourself when you contemplate the majesty and splendour of Allah”. Well she was right and there I was lying on my back and the night sky was splendid, yet serene – shukran Faldela.

I also had some news that another friend of ours is really ill but at peace after a stroke. My brother Adli and Abu had a media business called Typeface Media. They were on their way to their office in Mowbray to have a meeting with him. When they arrived they found a man pruning their rose bushes and giving them advice about roses. I had the pleasure of spending time with him to take on one of the San youth as an intern at the radio station of which he was station master. A few months later I received a note from her in the United States – Chicago I think, where she was a part of an exchange programme. When my Mother passed, my brother was driving down from Johannesburg. Just before Fajr I opened the door to a soft knock and there he stood, he had come to fill in for Adli – so he opened the Qur’an and started reciting.

It is said that we are because of others. I do believe that Allah SWT puts people in our path and us in the paths of others for a reason. I am honoured to have been a part of both these peoples’ lives, tireless workers of the community and role models of their steadfastness.

Now it is our turn to make duah for them to ask Allah to grant them ease, shifa’a and sabr. To make duah for their dedicated partners and children and grandchildren and extended family. InshaAllah may Allah forgive your small trespasses and be pleased with the efforts of your lives.  You are always in our thoughts and duahs.

Yasmine

As I write this blog, I see Adli's post that Zane Ebrahim has passed on Inna lilaahi wa iena ielayhi rojioen, dera friend!