We are all humans and we all sin, as much as a mount to as little as a pin. We regret, and again forget. We weep, and still our promise towards our Lord we can’t keep. So what’s new? What makes a believer different from non-believer is his capacity to hope for Allah’s Mercy. The slave may despise himself, cursing and wailing before Him. Maybe the whole world becomes so narrow in his eyes. The day seems to be night. The food becomes tasteless for his taste buds. But that doesn’t affect the sinner’s thought about His Loving Lord. It doesn’t take a miracle to sin, but it does require great efforts to hope for forgiveness from Him. Some people are very smart! They cleverly think that their sins can beat the Mercy of Allah. In fact, they are doing two crimes. One that of a sin, the other to doubt the all-embracing Mercy of Allah. The first may be a fault I him. Fine. But with the second one, he is attributing a fault to Allah which is all the more contemptible. It is up to Allah to forgive us. He has not assigned us or anyone else to declare whether we are eternally damned or not. There are some who pass such verdicts, even for very silly matters. Sometimes in a conflict between friends, or in tensions between in-laws, or between the yelling husband and the screaming wife- these types of damnations are heard. They condemn each other to hell for the slightest differences between each other and promise each other that they are cursed from the Mercy of Allah. They are never ready to forgive their fellow beings. Once a group of people arrived in the assembly of a saint in the south Indian city of Hyderabad and asked him why he always praised Imam Hussein (radiallahu anhu) but never cursed Yazid. The learned saint replied in a philosophical but light-hearted manner, saying that Imam Hussein is the grandson of the Mercy to the Worlds sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. It is possible that on the Last Day, he may very well forgive Yazid and latter’s sins may be forgiven. But what if the same Yazid may claim his right from us who cursed him? What will happen to us then? We therefore need to guard our tongues and not let anger take hold of our minds, keeping our hope in Allah’s Mercy. We need to follow the example of His Holy Prophet in the most serious and silliest affairs of our lives. Even while putting on and off our shoes, be it before rushing to the office in the morning or while returning tired from a shopping mall, we need to remember that Tutor of Humanity sallallahu alaihi wa sallam who strived with all his energy to give a uniform scent for the entire human race. And how successful he was, without a cane in hand nor a gun in the pocket, his followers obeyed him to the minutest detail? Once a noble-spirited man fainted and the people who came to help him, tried to remove his shoes from the right foot first. But the shoes would not come out. When they tried to remove the left shoe first, they faced no problem. (It is the practice of Prophet to remove his sandals with the left foot first and while putting on with his right foot first). Sallallahu ala Muhammad, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. The ones whom we now as sages and saints were those who could not tolerate missing to imitate his acts, even by mistake! What more to speak in praises of Mustafa sallallahu alaihi wa sallam? Lord made even the directions in the world subservient to His Beloved. The more we talk about him, the more shall remain to be said… sallallahu ala Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam… July 26th 2003, inspired by a lecture at masjid