Repentance

         Rassool once heard his neighbor Mohammed Mansur, a pious Muslim, say that 'for the last thirty years I am repenting for a sin and I don’t know how Allah will deal with me.'

       Rassool did not respond, thinking that he would have committed a big crime and it is better if he himself find a solution. Rassool had great regard for his religious life but the more he thought of his undisclosed sin the less he regarded his neighbor. He listed all possible sins that Mansur could have done and slowly confirmed himself that he is a big cheat who might have done all that. Rassool decided to avoid his company and abstain from talking to him.  This continued for weeks.

In the mean time, an urge to know what exactly the sin of Mansur was began to pop up within him.  In his curiosity, Rassol asked Mansur’s wife what serious crime Mansur had done. 

“His sin?” Subaida, his wife asked him. Knowing that it is exactly the cause of Mansoor’s sad face that Rassool is referring to, Subaida said, 

“It is a sad story that happened some thirty years back. At that time he was running a shop in the big bazzar.  One day when he went to open the shop, he saw that all the shops, except that of his were razed to the ground in a big fire, the previous night. He then said, ‘Al- Hamdo lillah’ (all praise to Allah). Immediately he realized the mistake. He knew that he missed to feel the losses of all others. He many times has asked me how he could be called a Muslim. For the last thirty years he lives in repentance of that big offence.”

(Collections from Folk's Track - Indian Thoughts)