Written by Abdulrahman Mutahhar
Translated by Janet Watson
M - Now what is it making you cry over your sister and moan about like this? We all have to die, and anyone who isn't prepared to meet his maker every minute of his life is very shortsighted.
Ma - I know that. I'm not totally stupid. Let's pray that we may die well in God's eyes.
M - Amen! So why are you still crying over your sister two months later?
Ma - Are you trying to ban me from crying over my sister?
M - It's two months since your sister died. Is she collecting her things in preparation for resurrection, or is something else making you think about her all the time, Mus'ida?
Ma - I'm thinking about the trust she placed in me as she was dying. She asked me to look after her children, and said she was relying on God and on me because the father couldn't be trusted. He'd get a step-mother for them as soon as he'd put her under the ground.
M - You did what you had to do. You looked after them properly and they stayed with you from the time their mother died until their father remarried and came to take them back.
Ma - I told you at the time, Mus'id, when their father wants to take them back, please make sure he doesn't. They're still young and motherless, and we'll be rewarded by God for keeping them with us.
M - You're right about that. Those who are entrusted with the care of orphans are rewarded in heaven. But the fact is their father did come for them, and it wasn't up to me to stop him from taking them.
Ma - God help them with that father they have and the step-mother he got for them, and the treatment they're likely to receive. And they were put under my care!
M - They are no longer under your care. They're under the care of their father and their step-mother now, and every guardian is responsible for his own ward.
Ma - How are they under the care of their father and step-mother, and what do you mean by saying that every guardian is responsible for his own ward? The way the father has gone and left the children to the step-mother is rather like a shepherd leaving his sheep to the wolf! This makes me really mad!
M - Don't get mad and don't make problems with other people. Go and see your sister's children when you can, and do what's in your power.
Ma - Look! If I go to see them or they come over to see me they cry so much they break my heart, and they won't tell me what's up with them or what's making them so sad at this tender age.
M - I'll tell you why they cry when they see you, and what's making them sad.
Ma - Please do!
M - Your sister's children see their mother in your face and your voice and your sympathy and generosity. That's what makes them cry, particularly when they compare the way you treat them with the way they're being treated by their step-mother.
Ma - You know, Mus'id, the only thing she's any good at is turning the father against those poor orphans. If she had her own way, she'd kick them out of the door onto the street!
M - This is often the way when the mother dies, Mus'ida. If the father takes on an unsympathetic wife, the child is denied the love and affection he needs, and isn't brought up in the way Islam and the Prophet (PBUH) have told us to bring up children.
Ma - Peace be upon him.
M - And if the child ends up on the street, the deprivation and harshness of life he experiences will have a very negative effect on him. It's very likely that he'll go off the rails and become a destructive influence in society. It's partly because of that, Mus'ida, that Islam has told us to care orphans and tells us that we will be rewarded well for this in God's eyes. The Islamic scholars say that the Prophet (PBUH) said he would be in heaven with people who have cared for orphans properly.