The Fitnah of Fantasy

Anas (companion of the Prophet pbuh) said to one of his followers, “You imagine certain sins to be more insignificant than a straw. But at the time of the Prophet we used to count them among those that can destroy a man.”

Ibn Mas`ud said, “A believer treats a sin as if it is a mountain over his head that may fall on him any moment; whereas a dissolute (fajir) looks at them as a fly that perked on his nose and he waived it away with his hand.”
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Seeing as how I’m writing this post, or article (if you wanna call it that), reading on may be of no interest to you, for my words of wisdom (as I insist on calling them) may have no significance in your lives. But as I hear, in the back of my mind, the echoing voice of that lady in Spiderman (the cartoon) who occasionally told him as she faded away turning into smoke, “along with power comes great responsibility,” I feel compelled to address this issue that has affected so many of us today.

[Though I don’t have much power, I still feel obliged to share the responsibility. (So how is this related to Spiderman, you ask? Well, it’s not…I just like the cartoon :P)]

The virus of Fantasy Football has crept into many homes and has infected everyone except for maybe ammi and abbu…ummm, well…maybe some abbu’s have also been victimized. Some of you reading this may not know what I’m talking about (a very small minority, I’m sure), but you can get details by going to fantasyfootbal.com or something, because I don’t have much time to explain here.

Know that I’m not writing this as a way of condemning another product of the Western Society, but only as a reminder: stop sleeping in a complacent world of fancy cars and expensive clothing, and wake up to the reality of earthquakes, hurricanes, catastrophes, poverty, disease (of body and soul), hunger, homelessness, refugees (muslim and non-muslim) and an ongoing list of pathologies troubling a global community.

Imam Shafi’i said, “Out of my company with Sufis, I benefited only two things, one of which is their saying: like a sword, time will cut you if you do not cut it…” I need not explain the simple message of this quote, as it is self-explanatory. Many will read this and take it as a joke and ignore the message, belittling the gravity of wasting time and its consequences. At the same time, some will argue that it is only a ‘waste’ or haraam if one indulges in it excessively. To those people, I ask the question: how much is too much?

As an aside…
What I really can’t wait to see is to go to an iftar and hear the aunties talking about the trades they’ve proposed and accepted...or some uncles making dua for their team as they break their fast with a date, and then blowing in their hands and then all over their bodies…hoping that that will have a greater effect…somehow. Well, it should, because a dua at that time is one that Allah swt does not reject.

But it makes me wonder… how many prayers will be missed, how many iftars will be delayed, how many ayahs will not be read, how many khutbahs will not be listened to, how many prayers will lack khushoo (concentration), how many homework assignments will not be completed, how many parents will be disobeyed, how many sins will be accumulated, how much time will be wasted?

All I ask is, how much is too much?

Take yourself to account before you are taken to account.