This is a picture of one of my tomato plants from just a few weeks ago. Most of the plants only had one or two rippened tomatoes hanging from their branches. Every day I enjoyed a fresh tomato from the garden. It was heaven. But then it happened, like it does to gardeners everywhere: an explosion of rippened tomates!
So Alhamdulillah, this afternoon I made spaghetti sauce from scratch. As I sit here writing this, I am enjoying the aroma from the kitchen.
I had to do something soothing like cooking this afternoon. Because this morning, I experienced what seemed to be a crisis: our well stopped working.
We share a well with three other families. My neighbor's landlord came over and changed the filter on the well pump. Sometimes the filters get clogged up and then the water stops flowing.
After that, we had water. For about 15 minutes.
The landlord came back and found that the well filter was totally clogged again.
Our area is experiencing low levels of ground water because we have not had sufficient rain this summer. Because the well pump has to work harder to find and bring up water, it brings up a lot of soot that keeps clogging the filter. The landlord finally took the filter off so we could at least have running water.
But wait! It's UNFILTERED water. OK for the toilet, but what about for the showers! And washing the dishes! Never mind a load or two of laundry. That's out of the question. Now I have to spend my day off tomorrow at the laundromat.
The bottom line is that we have it deal with it while the landlord arranges to hook us up to the city's water supply.
I say that the situation "seemed to be a crisis" because after all the excitement was over, I sat down and thought of all the Muslims from various areas of the world who have no access to clean water.
I'm sure that many Muslims who live in regions where there is drought would be grateful for the unfiltered water that I have flowing through my pipes.
Many Muslims also live in areas where there is no indoor plumbing - running water, toilets, washing machines, dishwashers, etc. - all the conveniences of modern life that many Muslims enjoy by the Mercy of Allah (swt).
I'm sure that some would even be grateful for my homemade spaghetti.
I'm now sure that it is not a crisis after all. Inconvenient, yes. Crisis, no.
"Allah is He Who sends forth the winds so they raise a cloud, then He spreads it forth in the sky as He pleases, and He breaks it up so that you see the rain coming forth from inside it; then when He causes it to fall upon whom He pleases of His servants, lo! They are joyful ... Look then at the signs of Allah's mercy, how He gives life to the earth after its death, most surely He will raise the dead to life; and He has power over all things." (30:48-50)
