A Good Example of Muslim’s Behavior
It was one of winter evenings in Russia. I was sitting in a minibus taxi when an old lady around seventy years old entered the transport. Her clothes was poor and I noticed that she looked worn to a shadow. She started speaking to the driver of the bus. I could not hear well what they were speaking about as I was sitting quite far. But I noticed that the driver was a Muslim. There was the name of Allah on his front window. He looked like Uzbek or Tadjik.
Somebody barked loudly, “What a heartless bugger!” I felt that there was something wrong with the old lady, a lot of bad ideas came to my mind. I decided to sort out what had happened so I went close.
Surprisingly to me she told the driver, “Thank you, dear, God bless you! ...A compatriot shooed me away but a foreigner helped me.”
I asked another witness of this case to tell me what had happened to the old lady. And he did. When she entered the bus she said to the driver, “Dear, I am old and weak, I have only a few coins and I cannot walk farther. Could you please take these coins and let me stay in this bus. I was shooed away from the previous one. That driver pointed me to the door saying that he would not drive me free of charge…”
The driver of the bus answered. “Dear old lady, you are of the same age of my grandmother. How will I refuse you? I do not need your money and if next time you will be short of money again and you get into my bus just take your seat and consider that you have paid already.”
This is a great example of behavior of a Muslim. Muslims should show respect and compassions to elders in any situations. In the Prophet Mohammad’s time there was a case described by Al-Tirmizi: An old man came to see The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) but people blocked the pass for him. Then the Prophet said, "He is not of us who does not have mercy on young children, nor honor the elderly."
Showing respect to old ones and being merciful to anyone is a part of Islam.
Allah SWT says in Quran:
"Then will he be of those who believe, and enjoin patience, (constancy, and self-restraint), and enjoin deeds of kindness and compassion. Such are the Companions of the Right Hand." (Quran, Sura alBalad, 90:16-17)
So be a Muslim! Be a kind, respectful, merciful person, not a poor excuse for him.