What words come to your mind when you are describing a frog? Slimy, sticky, wet, clammy? I bet “attachment” is not one of them?
Perhaps you will change your mind after you read this incredible true story that was told to me by former Guantanamo Detainee Shaker Aamer, who was released nine months ago.
A few weeks ago I was walking near Southside shopping centre in Wandsworth when I bumped into Shaker. He had just passed his UK driving test so I told him that we should have lunch together to celebrate. We did this at a halal Lebanese restaurant. The food was good, but the conversation was exceptional.
Umar bin Al-Khattab, the second caliph and Companion of the Prophet (peace be upon him) once said that if it were not for three pleasures, he would not find any joy in life.
One of these three pleasures was “sitting in the company of men who like to pick good topics for conversation just as people like to pick good dates from a tree.”
I enjoy sitting in the company of people who inspire me. People who inspire me are those who try to search for the best out of every situation, no matter how bad things may seem.
People whose company I find heavy and difficult are those who are always complaining about the situation that the world is in.
It is one thing being informed about a person, people or situation. But it is another quite thing constantly whinging, whining and complaining about things without proposing a solution to do something about them.
One of my favourite lines of poetry from the famous ancient Arab poet Al-Mutanabbi is:
“Forget about the plundered vaults,
Tell me, instead, about the mounts.”
In other words, don’t tell me about the number of losses that have been sustained, I don’t want to hear it. Tell me, instead, about the number of horses (“mounts”) that have been mobilised in order to recover those losses and stop more losses from happening.
Anyway, returning to Shaker Aamer, somehow, our conversation turned to the encounters each of us had with animals when we were in custody. And somehow we ended up talking about frogs.
I told him the story of a frog in an American federal prison that another prisoner had caught and was using as a pet. I told him what I did about it. He in turn told me this incredible true story…
To begin with, all those who know him will testify that Shaker is a very generous and open-hearted person. His generosity extends to animals. He loves animals, just like the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) did. And that includes amphibians and insects. He cannot sit still and let pass any opportunity to act kindly to an animal.
Shaker told me that while in Guantanamo Bay, he would always save a portion of his food in order to feed it to the animals. He would have to hide this food because it is considered contraband.
I lived under the same rules for two years while in an American Supermax prison. You are handed a tray of food through your door slat at meal time. 20 minutes later an officer comes with a rubbish bag (“trash bag”) to collect your tray and any leftover food.
Hiding prison food in your cell is prohibited. At best, you will have it confiscated and at worst you will be subjected to disciplinary proceedings if prison food is found in your cell. Over the years I lost plenty of prison food that I had stashed away for a rainy (hungry) day.
Some prison officers would prefer to throw away trays of untouched food rather than let a prisoner eat it. I witnessed this several times while in prison in both the UK and US.
Whenever Shaker left his cell for his daily outdoor “recreation” period, he would have to smuggle this hidden prison food to the outdoor exercise “dog cage.” He would then feed any animals that happened to be in around the outdoor cages.
One of these animals was a frog. Yes, a frog.
Every day a frog, the same frog, would hop out to the dog cages where the detainees were on “recreation” and Shaker would feed it his leftover prison food scraps.
One day Shaker was placed in a dog cage far from the cage where the frog would normally visit. Being unable to feed the frog himself, he tried to pass the food to the detainee in the neighbouring cage and asked him if he would feed it to the frog.
“Are you serious?!” the detainee replied as he refused. “If it was a cat, I can understand. But you want me to feed this dirty, slimy, sticky little thing? No way!”
Shaker then asked another detainee, then another, then another. All refused. No-one was willing to take the food from Shaker through the cage wire and feed it to the frog.
Then something amazing happened. While all this was going on, the frog suddenly began to hop in Shaker’s direction. It hopped past several detainees and then it stopped in front of Shaker’s cage. Shaker promptly took out the food that he had brought and he fed it to the frog with his own hands.
The other detainees were astonished at this sight. They had always thought that frogs were cold-hearted amphiibians with no feelings. And here they were witnessing, with their very own eyes, a frog hopping all the way to Shaker’s cage because he knew that this man would feed him.
The next day, the same thing happened. And then the day after that. And then the day after that. Whichever of the cages Shaker was in, the frog would hop to it and stand there patiently waiting to be fed some food.
“I fed that frog the whole of Ramadan,” Shaker smiled as he ended this story.
This wasn’t a cat or a dog or a horse; it was a frog. But it was still part of Allah’s creation and it recognised when someone did good to it.
If a frog does not forget when a human is kind to it, how can humans forget when God is kind to them?
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brother you always manage to bring tears to my eyes, subhanAllahA=!
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noora.elatar@gmail.com
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Brother, I have have to stop on the newsfeed when I see your writing! Such an inspiration and strong reality check! From thanking the almighty Allah for giving us the blessing of freedom to consicously reflecting upon tiny creatures like this frog being thankful to humans, your blog serves all those purposes which the human mind hardly think of on any normal day.
JazakAllah khayr for doing what all u do for the society. May Allah bless u with health and longevity
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Thank you Danyaal for reading and sharing my posts and for feeding back to me what you like and don’t like.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-31604026 this story about a little girl and the crows who leave gifts for her reminded me of your story about the frog! Enjoy!
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May Allah bless these two incredible men. ALLAH SWT selected you for the test and ALLAH is All-Wise. May you continue to overcome all your trials in this world and the next with such elegance and fortitude. I pray to Allah AZZAWAJAL that he allows me to meet you both and embrace you.
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Amazing story and such an eye opener on Allah almighty creation……even frogs have “feelings”.
Thank you for sharing this story.
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Ive had a real difficult year trying to obtained my dream job and just reading your blog makes me feel content and appreciate what I have in life – alhamdulilah. Content to rely on Allah and what he has ordained for me, in terms if risq. There is a time and place for everything, and Allah is the best of planners. Truly amazing article. Most definitely one of the best article I’ve read all year.
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Happiness lies in being grateful for what we have. We may not have everything we want but we all have plenty to be grateful for. May Allah bless you with your dream job soon.
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Spot on, people spend so much time wanting what others have the forget what they do have, always make what you have better . If you’re healthy happy and can feel the sun in the morning that’s all that matters
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Absolutely, count your blessings and be happy.
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This story put a smile on my face.
Thank you Brother.
I really look forward to Mondays now.
I have called them Meaningful Mondays .
Keep up the good writing.
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Awwwwww 😢.
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Inspiring… mashallah x love you brothers
Abdul Rehman
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Loved your story on the frog. Would love to hear further stories. I found it inspirational and uplifting. Thank you
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You are welcome zubeida, thank you for reading my posts. There are plenty of more stories to come!
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Assalamu Alikum Wa Rehtatullahi Wa Barakatahu..No one in the existing world has ever inspired me more than Shaker Aamer. However, I don’t know him personally but I have offered duas for him, shed tears for his freedom from Guantanamo Bay. I first came to know about him through a facebook post of brother Moazzam Begg in 2012. I am from Kashmir and I had no one there to tell me about him. I searched web and tried to get as much information as possible. Rejected the news from corrupt media houses about him and went on with some unbiased stories about him. Learnt about his charity work and all things he had come to Afghanistan for. He became my inspiration and the best specimen of a human being in the existing world. I shared his name and work with all those I knew and came across.
I was one of the happiest persons on the planet to see him coming out of the Guantanamo Bay. I was watching it live when Shaker Aamer was coming home on 30th of october, 2015 from Kashmir on the youtube covered by Ruptly TV. I have admired this brother more than anyone else in the existing world. Then, I saw him first him being interviewed by a journalist while he was campaigning for closing of the torture centre, Guantanamo Bay prison. I saw him smiling and I would never forget that smile for the rest of my life. Other brethren would come, meet him, shed tears while seeing him but Shaker would hug them tight and encourage them to be strong. It was something I had never imagined.
Coming to this story you have shared. Beautiful. Amazingly beautiful. Says a lot about the man who created such an amazing connection with a specie no one would ever think of connecting with. He chose to remain sweet despite seeing a lot of bitterness on the other side of his story.
JazakAllahu Khairan Katheera, brother Babar for sharing this amazing story with us. You are yourself an unbelievable inspiration for me. May Allah bless you with more righteousness. I have read a lot about as well. Your extradition to US was one of the saddest moments I ever had. I saw your father campaigning for you and every time got emotional on seeing that. It is such a blessing that finally you are free and I am commenting on your blog. I thank the lord of the world, Allah Azza wa Jal for granting you freedom from the tyrants and granting me an unbelievable opportunity to read your writings.
Wassalam
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Assalamualaikum Safdar and thank you for your kind comments. Shaker is much more better in person than even his image, he mashallah is a great person. Being in his company you would never know that this man has been through so much suffering. He is full of life and not angry or bitter in the least, the way a Muslim should be. May Allah grant us all the ability to be better in private than we are in public.
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Wa Alaikum AsSalam brother. May Allah accept us all for the service of Islam and bring us all closer to HIM.
It is the love of a fellow brother in Islam which Allah Azzawajal has instilled in our hearts that has dragged me to this blog and reading your posts.Love for a brother in Islam is so pure and such a blessing. I have a dream of meeting both of you and many more brothers in UK inshaAllah. I don’t know how will it happen but I hope Allah will inshaAllah make a way for me. Aameen.
Waiting for more such inspiring stories 🙂
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Reblogged this on safdarj and commented:
Story of a person who did not lose anything while being imprisoned for 14 years but came out as a much more learned and a much better person than he ever was. Came out as much more appreciated person than he ever was. May Allah save Shaker Aamer from the tyrants and accept his service for this amazing religion, ISLAM.
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Jazak Allah, for the quote of Umar (Allah be pleased with him). And such an amazing story! Reminds me of the story in Hadith of the bad woman who got forgiven because she gave water to a dog.
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