Pillar No. 2

My husband Mi had started work at one of the chicken factories in Forfar (about half an hour away from our place)since two weeks ago - a day after our two boys arrived. Each morning he will wake up at 4.00 a.m. and by 4.30 a.m. he is already out of the house braving the cold Autumn morning. And he will be back at 2.30 p.m. or 2.45 p.m. On days when I have classes to attend, he will send me to the School. On the days when I do not have any class, sometimes he will be called by the owner of Al-Noor Halal Food to work (he works part-time there on an on-call basis). So, he somewhat is juggling between two jobs.

Well, when we decided to my furthering my studies we already know that we are not going to go through an easy path. We sacrificed a lot really and one of those is the comfortable life that we have been enjoying for quite some time. Sending him off to work in the morning I can't help feeling sorry for him - but it is our decision - not my own.

Anyway, what I am going to write about today is about his employers. He works at the chicken factory as a slaughterman. His working hour is from 5.30 a.m. to 2.30 p.m. Monday to Thursday. And on Friday, it is from 5.30 a.m. to 11.00 a.m. to enable everyone to perform Friday prayers. Our Friday prayer is currently held at 1.10 p.m. Well, that's very different from what it is back home.

And now, his Boss at Al-Noor is Abu Ziad (not sure of his own name - Abu Ziad is simply the father of Ziad and of course Ziad his son is also working at the shop with him - an ex-Principle from Iraq who started his business many years ago). Well, according to Mi, he is very particular about cleanliness (oh yes, Mi's job at the shop is to cut the chicken into pieces according to customers' needs - they provided him with a week on-the-job training) and another thing he is very particular about is prayers. When it comes to prayers, he will be the one who remind his employees and ask them to perform their prayers - there are times when all of them will be performing prayers in jamaah with Abu Ziad and the Imam or sometimes, he just close the shop and walk together with all his employees to the nearby Dundee mosque to perform their prayers.

>Now, how many employers back home are doing this? How many even bother whether their employees are praying. Abu Ziad is one Moslem in a non-Moslem country understood very well about his utmost duty to his employees and his greater duty to his Creator - while back home, we call ourselves Moslem staying in a Moslem country where we do not have any problem or obstacle in performing our greatest duty but still we are not doing - I feel so small and so embarrased with the Most Merciful and the Most Compassionate coz I too have in many occasions back in my own country not looking at what He had set out in His Pillars as I supposedly be.

Is it true that being far from home one just cannot help but feel closer to one's Creator? And being far away, we are always thankful for Him for every bit of everything (no matter how small or in waht shape) that He send our way. I hope it is not due to the distance - I hope it is because we really want to improve ourselves and so this journey is not just a jihad but a pilgrimage at the same time (:-D

(Images from ordinance survey map, www.beliefsinislam.com and www.islamcan.com)