BismillaahirRahmaanir
Raheem 28th
Sha’ban, 1437 A.H.
Assalaamu
alaykum wa Rahmatullaahi wa Barkaatuhu brothers and sisters.
Salaatullaahi wa salaamuhu alaa nabiiyinaa wa habeebinaa; Rasuulullaahi wa ahlihi
wa sahbihi wa ummatihi ajma’in. May Allah azza wa jal grant us the best of what
He offers His most beloved servants both in this Dunya and the Akhirah. Aameen
Yaa Maalikulmulk Yaa Allah.
So,
a joke is told of a housewife whose husband always complained of how
dispensable her role was in his life. As in;
‘She only sits home all day, eat and
drink, spend his money and do nothing.’
She
decides to show him how things will run in their home if she really did as he
claims she was doing. One day, she decided not to do anything at all. She just
relaxed and had a TV and popcorn time. Her husband came home in the evening and
oh my God! His house that was always well-kempt had been turned upside down.
From the main gate to the hall, to the kitchen, bathrooms and bedrooms; there
was a total mess. Everything was everywhere, no sweeping or mobbing had been
done, the kids were left on their own to mess up further and the washrooms and
kitchen smelled like …! (Heheheee!)
He
was almost going crazy. He asked his most amused wife;
‘Sweetheart! What is wrong?’
She
replies with a smile;
‘I did absolutely nothing today.’
And
oh! Note! The housewives say they are better referred to as; ‘Home Management
Experts’ because after all, they are not married to the houses, they only
manage them. Smile to Jannah!
Ok!
To my headache for today…
I
used to completely freak out at the sight of a disorganized and dirty room or
environment. It was so bad that it starts with a build-up of confusion in my
mind and ends with a fever. Truth! But of course, my body has been forced to
adjust to such sights to a great extent due to constant exposure to them.
In
my first year at the university, I was exposed to roommates who were my exact
opposite when it came to keeping the room clean and organized. No matter how disrupted
the room looked, they were completely cool with it. They went about their
activities like nothing was wrong. So, no one swept or cared to put things in
place except a matured student in the room and I. And oh! The matured student
got fed up with time and gave up. The height of it was that they could exhaust
their utensils and not wash them until it got to a point where when they needed
a plate, they’d pull one out of the plates they had kept unwashed for days;
wash it, use it and then put it back in the collection of dirty utensils. That
for me was awesome and not my or the mature student’s consistent jokes about
that changed that situation – cleaning and putting things in place was just
something they found completely hard to do. So, I kept it up unperturbed
because I had something to protect; the sanity of my head.
Level
200, was quite better as two of my roommates liked to keep things clean and in
place but one will rather use disposable everything and where she doesn’t use
that then cleaning was out of the question. It will be left there for days.
Level
300; I met a ‘Miss Ghana’ who seemed to not like the smell of human beings.
Yes! But too bad – clean and organized were the very opposite of her
attributes. So, I asked myself many times and even laughed about it;
‘Gosh! Doesn’t this lady have better
things to smell than humans?’
And
she was my only roommate at a point. You can guess my troubles. They were
massive!
Level
400 was no better. It was almost a repetition of level 100. That was when I saw
ladies whom whilst cooking turned the room upside down. If she is cooking rice
and stew, be sure that almost every bed will have some rice samples. Stew
stains and utensils will be everywhere. Afterwards, the utensils are packed and
kept until whenever. They will wear almost all their clothes and washing them
becomes a problem. They will not send them to the laundry also. And where they
try to wash them, they will leave the clothes on the dry lines instead of taking
them off and folding them. Whenever they had to dress up, they take what they
want to wear leaving the others on the lines; turning them into their
wardrobes.
I
remember clearly how our tenants; young ladies; felt completely lazy sweeping
their portions of the compound and scrubbing the washrooms not to talk of the
backyards of the house. So, even though I didn’t use the washroom with them and
I was too young for such jobs; I just kept cleaning them
every day and they were unperturbed. Whether clean or dirty, they’d use the
washrooms in total comfort; a wonder to me.
My
mum is a clean and organized freak. She wants the environment and everything
clean and everything should be where it is meant to be. She does not like to
smell anything unpleasant and that is the exact discipline she brought me up
with. I remember her returning from work every day and complaining about
feeling sand under her feet even after I had swept until one day, I told her;
‘Mum, may be the sand under your feet
is from outside and not here.’
That
was proven true.
My
mum taught me that the towels one used as rugs either in the kitchen for
cooking and for cleaning the house are as important and should be taken cared
of as much as the towel one uses for cleaning the body. I remember seeing a
close friend whilst in Senior High School using a type of towel my mum used for
the floor; for her body and I laughed my head off. When I told her, she wasn’t
surprised because she knows my mum a bit.
My
mum taught me that you don’t wait to finish cooking and eating before you clean
the kitchen and wash the utensils. You should cook and do the cleaning
alongside so you don’t end up creating a total mess. So, as you cooked, you
wash as much of the utensils as you can, clean the environment as much as you
can and put the utensils where they are supposed to be.
I
could go on and on about keeping clean and organized; body and environment. We
must not just polish our bodies and perfume them whiles our environments are
the very opposite. We must teach ourselves to be extremely conscious of how
clean our bodies and environments are at all times. That is not so we prove a
point to others that we are clean and organized but let’s do that for ‘us.’ We
should remember that they say;
‘Cleanliness is next to godliness’
More
importantly, the noblest of souls, Rasuulullaah suallallaahu alayhi wa sallam, told
us clearly that;
‘Cleanliness is part of faith.’
The
long and short of it is that we must teach ourselves to be keenly conscious of
keeping clean and organized.
When
we wake up and we have no maids to do it for us, let us clean up. Wash
utensils, clean the floor, wash the clothes, keep things where they should be,
any unpleasant smell should be worked on; that is not to say you should go
perfuming the house when you smell a decomposing dead mouse. Smile to Jannah!
When
you see something on the floor that shouldn’t be there, pick it up. It must not
necessarily belong to you before you do that or it must not be that you only
pick it up if you are the one who put it there. If it has to be given to the
owner, give it; if it has to be put in the rubbish bin; do that. Be human! Do
not throw rubbish around and in drains or gutters. Keep them in the rubbish bin
and keep the rubbish bins clean also.
Our Househelps and their Woes
Unlike
Senior High School where we used to clean our hostels, classroom blocks and the
school environment ourselves, in the university and other tertiary
institutions, we have cleaners to do that for us and some people have maids to
take care of all their mess at home.
Some
of the disgusting things you will notice the ladies in the halls/hostels do for
the cleaners to come and take care of are;
-
Spilled water (clean or dirty) on the
floors; something they could easily mob off yet they’d rather let it be until
it messes the whole floor up for the cleaners to come and clean.
-
Rubbish thrown around the rubbish bin
instead of inside it. When throwing or pouring rubbish in the main floor
rubbish bins especially; and some of the rubbish falls off, they do not bother
to sweep or pick them and put them in the bin. Something they could easily do.
-
Food stains all over the kitchen floor and
cooking surfaces. Highly stained and or blocked sinks. Instead of sieving off
the solid food substances and putting them in the bin and the liquid in the
sink, they’d rather pour the whole mixture in the sink; blocking it and others will
come and keep it up. They leave all used items that could be put in the bin
easily; all over the kitchen.
-
Blocking of washroom sinks with food
mixtures. It is amazing how one will leave the kitchen sink and use the
washroom sink for something like that. The fact that most of them aren’t
Muslims; so do not use water to wash off urine after urinating leaves the washroom
in a dangerous mess. Interestingly, some choose to urinate just anywhere in the
washroom instead of where they are supposed to. Some choose not to flash the
toilet after using it. Worse of all is that they even put used pads in the
toilet bowls or sometimes anywhere in the washroom. It is such an eyesore.
And
a lot more. You could guess them.
Now,
some argue that the purpose of cleaners is to clean those mess and that but for
the mess we create, they would not have work to do. That is truth but…there is
always a but! Smiles! If we have a little humanity in us, we would understand
that even the cleaner/househelp deserves better. We should not go to toilet and
expect the cleaner to come and flash it off for us; that is inhuman. We should
not intentionally block sinks and throw used pads all over and expect another
soul to come and clean them up; that is so very inhuman.
Remember;
you lose nothing by cleaning up and organizing things – nothing. When you clean
up and I also do, and he/she/they also do; we keep a clean environment for a
healthier and happier life. Keep smiling and be more human, cleaner and more
organized. It is a necessity for the faith of a Muslim.
Jazaakumullaahu khairan
always for making time to read my articles. May Allah azza wa jal safeguard us
from riyaa and may He make us love one another for His sake solely. Aameen Yaa
Waduud Yaa Wahhaab Yaa Allah!
Jazaakumullaahu khairan
always!
Love
fiisabilillaah always!
Rubaba-Elhaam Mmahajia-Rahma Sabtiu-Morla Agooro-Kangara
(Keep smiling)
+233 279-073-410(Whatsapp)
