Being without my own transport for the past two months I to resort to daily usage of the public taxi service in South Africa – generally a Toyota HiAce certified to carry 15 passengers.
The South African taxi driver is notorious as a wild driver prone to accidents. In fact, just this morning, I was in a taxi that met up in an accident. I had not used this service with frequency since my teen years. However, the older and hopefully wiser version of yours truly now has the opportunity to look at the good in people who otherwise do not enjoy wholesome reputations.
- Intelligence – the taxi driver is under immense pressure stopping to pick up and drop off passengers while demonstrating his wild Grand Prix skills. Yet he is carefully aware of who owes what and how much change he owes to whom. This may seem minor in the greater scheme of things, but if you have ever dealt with the average cashier in South African shops who cannot manage simple calculations without an electronic device, you would surely have to salute the computing skills of the taxi driver.
- Charity – I have seen taxi drivers stop and give charity during trips.
- Consideration – I have witnessed passengers saying they do not have enough fare and the driver lets them board the taxi.
- Courtesy – Most drivers I have observed show great courtesy in dropping passengers at an exact spot most convenient to them.
- Cleanliness – although a minority in my observation, there are those who display a fanatical desire to keep their vehicles clean. A truly marvellous feat if you examine what they accomplish and measure it against the hundreds who tread in and out of their vehicles on a daily basis.
- Humility – I have witnessed them maintaining calm and silence when irrational rude passengers vent their anger at them. I driver slammed the door closed early as I was disembarking. My hand was trapped where the door shuts and received the full force of the door slamming. My knuckles turned black and my hand swelled. It pained for two weeks. Yet the sincerity and humility with which he apologised made it impossible to be angry with him.
I have also had opportunity to observe little Black children (generally not Muslim) walking to school and commuting with self assured independence. This is a most refreshing sight when compared to the average Muslim youth who does not seem to be capable of doing much for himself. Mummy will take me to school.
Make no mistake. I do not say that these taxi drivers are angels. I hold to whatever negatives I have alluded to. Furthermore there are other factors I have not mentioned which make the usage of this means of transport a daily inconvenience and hardship. Yet that is exactly the point I wish to drive at.
To see good in saints, scholars, parents, friends, benefactors, spouses etc is easy. To see good despite the negatives requires a concerted effort. But why bother?
On a personal level, if I harp on finding fault in others I am merely blackening my own soul and ruining my character. Actively searching for the good in others is a means of purifying myself.
On a global level, Muḥammad (صلى الله عليه و سلم) was a well-wisher unto every living person, desiring that they accept the truth and ultimately enter Paradise. I would venture that it is truly difficult to be a sincere well wisher if we allow ourselves to only see evil in people. The least good we should acknowledge is the common dignity of descent from Adam (peace be upon him) and that Muḥammad (صلى الله عليه و سلم) would have strove for his guidance if he could.
One extreme is those who actively collaborate with evil. The Sudaises of the world. The scholars who keep silent when the land of Muḥammad (صلى الله عليه و سلم) is evermore desecrated.
The other extreme is the arrogance of the religious to condemn to Hell people who are still living and about whose fate we have no idea of. I am grateful to Allāh that I am amongst the few amongst my fraternity who have spoken and written against the Satanists who rule the sacred lands. Yet it would be claiming knowledge of the unseen to act as if their fates are sealed. That they will not repent. That they will burn in Hell while I am guaranteed Paradise. Allāh knows best if the delinquent little boy who massacres Yemen as if he is playing some Play Station game might repent and attain the closest of relations with Allāh.
While I live I am obliged to hate his evil and fight it as best I can. When my life is over I am answerable for my deeds, not his. May Allāh grant us an easy reckoning.
My deeds are defective. My sins are many. I can but hope that Allāh smiles on all who held onto His religion during this time of endless tribulation and allows us to enter Paradise without any reckoning at all.
That is much for a sinner to ask for, but absolutely nothing for the Most Generous to grant.
سليمان الكندي
@sulayman_kindi
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