Friends in Difficulty

Friends in Difficulty
By Dr. Aslam Abdullah
A few months ago, the Muslim community lost Syed Salman —now comes the news that Dr. Dilnawaz Siddiqui is on a ventilator and fighting a crippling illness. We hope that Dr. Siddiqui will recover soon and join us again in the ongoing struggle for Islam in this country.
But we acknowledge the reality that in front of God’s Will nothing works. We accept His divine will for determining the destiny of people He creates.
Both Syed Salman and Dilnawaz Siddiqui are true gifts of Allah for humanity. Salman, through his dedication and sincerity, served the community to the fullest and until his last moment was ready to give all he had for Muslims.
He was active in the local Muslim community in Detroit and his contribution in national and international arena was of no small significance. He worked to bring people together. He struggled to help the poor, neglected and impoverished masses in the world, especially in India.
He was involved in the movement for an educational renaissance of Muslims of India, and he was concerned about the plight of the so called untouchables all over the world. He led a full life. He certainly would have no regrets for the time he spent in serving people and His Creator and most certainly His soul must be happy for what he did in life. This is what God wanted him to do and this is what he did. We are grateful to God for giving him to us and inspiring us to work with him. He lives on in his work and in his contributions in the field of Muslim unity.
Dr. Dilnawaz Siddiqui is in critical condition, and we hope that he will come out of the situation healthy. But if so, his recovery will take a long time. He too was vibrant and dynamic during good health. He too was eager to serve his religion and his community.
He has not neglected his responsibilities toward His Creator while he was working as a professor or researcher. He would use his spare time and weekends imparting the knowledge he had gained to his community.
His absence from the active work will be greatly felt. But his dynamism and vibrancy lives through his work. He too must be content with the contribution he made to help his community gain a respectable position in this country.
These are the people who have done their best to serve us all and above all to serve God Almighty. The question that we must ask is what do we do to honor them?
The least we can do is to remember them in our prayers, and to make their families know that their contribution is appreciated and acknowledged. Above all, we can try to institutionalize the values they tried to practice throughout their life.
Moreover, we must constantly remind ourselves that we too will be recalled one day by Allah Almighty. We must also realize that the moment could be sooner than later. Thus we must hurry up doing good that is required from us.
They didn’t wait for tomorrow to do good. They did good at the time available to them and they did it (and Dilnawaz may continue to do so) with humility and dedication. Thank you, friends, for doing what you did and thank you for being part of our lives—Dilnawaz, we hope you will recover.