the BasmaAllah

As Abu Bakr (ra) walked beside the mounted young captain, Usama bin Zayd (ra), leading his army to meet the Roman battalions that threatened from the North, he offered him advice. 

He did not tell him how to meet the Romans, neither the configuration nor the tactics that he should employ. 

He did not, at least not at first, remind him of the rules of engagement neither to chop the tree, nor to harm the peasant farmers, nor the old, infirm or young. 

His first advice was the most telling. 

For the battle worn companions in the train behind them marvelled at such a sight. 

The older, wiser veteran of many campaigns, Abu Bakr (ra), wanted to impress on the men that followed the necessity of discipline, and so he refused Usamah’s offer of his mount. 

And then the first rightly guided Caliph, the then leader of the Muslims, advised the young captain to remember the BasmaAllah. 

“Remember when you eat to say the BasmaAllah “- in the name of Allah, the true name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. 

At one and the same time a dedication, a means and a way of partaking by His leave and through His grace, and then a remembrance of that grace. 

Indeed it is Islam that advocates a systems approach to living life to its fullest. 

And whilst it is vogue in today’s modern world to recognise the utility that a systems approach brings to work, it is less so for the things that are the more important. 

For the modern world advocates a lasse faire- everything and anything goes- approach to our personal and interpersonal lives and to our spiritual side. 

That your children should be the concern of the state, that your marriage doesn’t need time, nor work, that your faith is inconsequential. 

And that you are free in your social life to do as you please. 

And yet it is our Islam that advocates a systematic approach to all those things, as being in fact just as important, if not more so. 

That there is a right way to do those things. And therefore that there are better and also worse ways to do them. 

That your children will need your continual guidance, even that is when they are all grown up. 

That your parents have a right over your company, and friendship. 

That some times it is enough just to be there for your loved ones. 

And that in our social conversations we need to be aware of the hurt we can cause, or the alienation that can surface when we are not fully open to others. 

And it is the BasmaAllah that should remind us of all those things, precisely because it is the right way to start any, and all things. 

Remembering God, that He blessed us with the ability to try and achieve, to do and to fail, to learn and then go on. 

That the right way to start to eat, is to do so recognising that it is by God’s leave and grace that you partake of it’s nourishment.

And the right things to eat are wholesome foods, and these are those that are halal. 

And the right way to finish eating is by Thanking God for His provision and care. 

Alhamdolillah, Allah and his Messenger (saw) have taught us gratitude, even for the simple things in life. 

Like the clean and pure water that we sip, fully savouring it’s taste and eschew the thirsty gulp of an ingrate - even that is when we are thirsty. 

And it is this ever present gratitude, even when we have little, that makes us both happy, and contented, and is our strength in adversity. 

What I have said here is my considered opinion. If it is wrong then that wrong belongs to me. 

Knowledge is sought through study and contemplation, not via lectures, nor speeches, nor this above.  Knowledge is sought through study and contemplation, not via lectures, nor speeches, nor this above.