91热爆

You might recall the film East is East, and the dreaded mosque bus that extricated children from their homes to take them to Quran class every Sunday, well that was sort of me and my brother every weekend when we were growing up.

There wasn鈥檛 a mosque bus and we didn鈥檛 exactly hide under the beds as they did in the film - mainly because there was no room under them, but whenever Dad uttered those ominous words, 鈥淩ight children, it鈥檚 time to go to the mosque!鈥� We winced, we complained, we dragged our feet.

We knew we鈥檇 be gone for hours, sitting in a queue of restless girls and boys, waiting our turn for 2 minutes with the Quran teacher who looked like the lost member of Roald Dahl鈥檚 The Twits. I was not happy with this whole scenario, simply because I was made to do it. My experience of faith at that time was as about as inspiring as bowl of cold porridge. I remember one Muslim uncle type figure, complete with pot belly, moustache and knitted tank top say, 鈥業f you don鈥檛 pray, you will go to hellfire! And if you buy an easter egg, God will be very angry with you!鈥�

I wanted to tell him the fire and brimstone approach was not a good marketing strategy. If I鈥檇 listened to his hot air, I鈥檇 have run a hundred miles from Islam, but I later came across an Islamic saying that brought me closer to God.

Prophet Muhammad said that a man was walking one hot day, when he became really thirsty. He found a well, but saw a dog panting and licking the earth in hope of quenching its thirst. The man rushed down into the well, having nothing but his shoe to fill with water, held it in his mouth as he climbed out and gave it to the dog. For this, God granted him Paradise.

I was so moved by this story, I thought wow, one act of compassion can get you into the best seat in Heaven. Just one deed. And no one can judge anyone else, but because anyone could be holding the golden ticket, the golden deed. This story gives me humility, hope, and surges my love for God. It doesn鈥檛 leave me thinking I鈥檒l rely on one thing to gain God鈥檚 generous love, instead it drives me to do everything I can to deserve it.

As long as no-one drives me in a mosque bus to Sunday school, East is East style.

听