Habibullo-Eugene Kiselev
A Synopsis of my Life
July 13th, 2018, Friday, 10:57:55 p.m.
Yekaterinburg, Russia. GMT 05:00
My paraskevidekatriaphobia has definitely suffered a defeat today. I cannot say this day was bad, rather, it was very happy and full of bright emotions.
In the morning, I went to the mosque named “Məylid” to participate in the jumuʿah. I arrived early, very early. When I entered the mosque, the saleslady whose name is Florida (just like the state in the US), greeted me with her clear voice. This is the saleslady I have met on Monday; she is the owner of the store. So, I bought a silver ring with an inscription of the Basmala (بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ bi-smi llāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīm; English: “In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful”). I also bought beads made of juniper. When I had paid for all, Florida said “goodbye” to me. “I am not leaving. I will stay for the jumuʿah” – I said. The lady was pleased to hear that from me.
Having waited for some time, I went to take the tahara. Having finished with that, I headed for the prayer hall, which is on the second floor. I spent a lot of time there sitting almost alone with just several men. To be honest, there were not very many people who came to mosque today. At about 12:40 p.m. Abdullah Hazrat, who is a mullah there, gave a talk before the actual khuṭbah. Never before have I seen anything like that in any of the mosques I have visited so far. This was completely new to me.
Here is a short synopsis of what Abdullah Hazrat said:
“We should always respect our parents. Attitude towards parents is very important in Islām. This attitude should always be positive. We should always remember, that we have to treat our parents like a servant treats his master. We should never talk to our mother or father in a rude manner, all the more so, we have no right to lift up our hand against them. This is always a ḥarām, we should know this. Nor can we look at our parents with contempt, we should avoid looking straight in the eyes of our parents.
Even if someone’s parent is a polytheist, we have no right to lay him/her low because of that. We still have to respect them. Our parents are believers, so it is our obligation to respect them.
It happens sometimes when a woman is worth one thousand men. There is a story, when there was a family, where all the children knew almost all the suwar of the Holy Qurʿān, whereas their father was not that advanced in this knowledge. When they were asked who had taught them, they said this was their mother! Such a woman is really worth one thousand men.
As our parents are getting older, they are becoming more like children. In this case, we certainly have to take care of them, we should not get irritated, say “I’m sick of you”, etc.
Thank you for listening.”
After the prayers, Abdullah Hazrat began to give a Friday sermon. Here is a short summary of what he said:
“Today we will talk about the importance of our ṣalawāt. Praying the ṣalawāt is our obligation and responsibility before Allāh. Those, who treat the ṣalawāt with disdain will be punished in the next life. First of all, people who are not careful about their ṣalawāt will die in pain. Next, their graves will be narrowed, and thus they will suffer a great deal in their tombs. Also, the shadows will fall on their tombs. On the Day of Judgment, these people will also be in a shadow. Allāh will make them stay on aṣ-ṣirāṭ for a long time, afterwards they will go to Jahannam.
There are three categories of Muslims. The first category prays their ṣalawāt regularly, but does not pay much attention to them. The second category does not pray the ṣalawāt regularly and does not pay attention to them, either. The third category prays the ṣalawāt regularly, with all accuracy and spirituality. When someone looks around during the ṣalāt, Shayṭān takes something from their ṣalāt. So, we should always be concentrated on our prayers. Also, brothers, please turn off your cellphones, because when we pray the ṣalāt and hear someone’s phone ring, Shayṭān steals from our ṣalāt. So, let us be diligent and responsible about our prayers.”
After that, we read the Friday ṣalāt, I liked it a lot. For this once, I tried to follow the Hazrat’s words which he had said during this sermon. I found that this was really effective! I felt more pleasure and joy during the prayer.
When all was finished, I went downstairs and saw that Florida had brought some electronic wall clocks. They cost eight hundred Russian rubles each. I told Florida I really wanted to buy one, but I only had five hundred Russian rubles. She said, “You can take the clock now, you will bring the rest of the money later. I believe you”. She has even made me a discount and asked for two hundred Russian rubles to bring. I will bring them to her later.
When I came home, I have received a feedback on my latest poem. This feedback was sent by Alexei Kuzin. He generally loved the poem. Andrej Gorbunov also replied to me that he thought it was good. Marina Kamenskaya offered me some more ideas how to improve it. I think I will follow her advice, all the more so she has already showed herself as a very talented and unprejudiced literary critic.
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