SUGAR IN THE SOUP: Salt in the Tea

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)

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