"Sabr Wins the Race"

Brothers and sisters, the road from College Park to Al-Huda, PA is far. Really far. 110+ miles.

Insha’Allah, by 10am this Friday December 9, 2011 we must meet Principal Sr Sadia Rafeeq and her PreK-3rd Grade students and staff at the finish line in Camp Hill, PA. Then we must continue to Masjid as-Sabireen in Harrisburg, PA for a noon jumuah with Br Safi, and then on to another masjid and jumuah by 1:30pm. No rest til after we combine maghrib/isha.

Then ride it all back again, only farther: 125+ more miles, along a railroad, through the heart of Baltimore, to meet 500+ PreK-12th Grade students, staff and families for the finish at Al-Huda in College Park, MD. Insha’Allah.

To make it that far on time means to ride all night, when it’s cold, pitch black and creepy. Who will wake that night to know what we’re doing? Who will come out to see? I’d just watch the video myself but I have to ride the bike.

So when we say insha’Allah it’s not because we’re leaving ourselves an excuse, it’s because we pray Allah helps us fulfill our obligation. We promised, and that’s that.

Teachers and parents, each of you promise children and families and students that you will do what it takes to care for them: to stay up late washing/mending uniforms, to prepare meals and lesson plans, to check homework early in the morning and late into the night, to work 2 and even 3 jobs just to make tuition while you juggle utility bills and expenses and even your own schoolwork…and you do it all in the dark or in crowds of busy people, in traffic, in the heat and cold, where few see your sacrifice beside Allah. And students, has anyone ever thanked you for working so hard just to grow up?

I say, what you do every day is harder than this bike ride. My own family might worry more about me than I should worry about the long road away and back to them. I’m just as impatient and unprepared and afraid of failure as some of you, but in spite of that I’m also arrogant enough to believe I can finish and crazy enough to start, masha’Allah. That’s parenting in a nutshell, and most of you do the same each day for your own children. I say, that’s the real work and we do it for love. No matter how hard.

If folks ask us to quit this ride, or to make it easier and more comfortable, or to wait for a bigger payoff, maybe they have a point. Yet maybe, if this ride is like a stone that blocks a trench in battle, we need only to apply what Faith we have to achieve great opportunity.

Allah never quits. Rasulullah (SAW) never quit. Neither will we insha’Allah. THAT is the sabr that shall win this race.

From Sabr Wins the Race