Aapko lagtha hai hum aapke liye kar rahe hai?

In that stressful year of 2023, while I was staying in Bengaluru in a 1 BHK preparing for NEET & INI-CET, the month of Ramadhan arrived. As usual, "the once- upon-a-time single launda" had the "Sehri" crisis. (Sehri = pre-dawn meal) With exams coming up, I can't fast and study,  and on top of that worry about where I'll have my food. So I needed to find a way to outsource my headache.

I went up to the local mosque's maulana and asked if he knew anyone who could deliver it to my room. A middle aged uncle, who appeared to be well-educated volunteered for the delivery task. I wasn't nosy enough to learn about what he does for a living etc., but he was kind enough to deliver food every day early morning around 4 AM. He wasn't any jobless individual or something, but he appeared to be a family man with his own share of roles and responsibilities to fulfill. Seeing him everyday bring food for me and maybe to a couple of other people as well, like this  started making me feel guilty. 

Back then I hadn't taken my motorcycle to Bengaluru out of fear that I'll start roaming around in bike instead of studying and thus despite the free food being served in a mosque around 4 kms away, it wasn't feasible for me to go there daily. But by the grace of almighty, this uncle became a source of God's provision for me. However my guilt-ridden heart couldn't take it anymore and I finally expressed to him that I was feeling embarrassed and guilty to make him bring food for me like this everyday, only to shatter my guilt like how I used to shatter those furniture glass in my home while playing cricket as a child. 

The words with which he responded, the words which manifested from his tongue, the words which came from a sincere heart - entered my ear , got stored in my brain and moved my heart. And those words were : " Aapko kya lagtha hai, hum aapke liye ye kar rahe hai, Hum to Allah Ke liye kar rahe hai!!!"

And that was enough to shatter my guilt and blow my brain with a sense of awe. The sincerity towards God that I had read about in the books and heard about in the sermons, but perhaps never understood was being practically demonstrated in front of me. He wasn't bringing me food to get gratitude from me and swell up his ego, nor was he doing it for people to see him and praise him (coz frankly no one's there around to see, that early morning).  Rather, he was well aware that if God intends his servant to have something, he shall have it irrespective of whether anyone wants it or not, and that him delivering me food is an opportunity for him to show his sincerity to God.

While our regular prayers and glorifications and rituals and prostrations and recitations, does require us to have a certain amount of devotion and sincerity, they can never be perfected unless this devotion and sincerity is manifested in how we treat the creations of God. A good deed done for some material gains or name & fame fades away in the eyes of mankind and surprisingly in our own eyes eventually. But a good deed done for the sake of God sincerely, is what remains eternally and gets multiplied and rewarded in ways beyond our imagination, for your Lord remembers and is the most appreciative.