Twin benefits

The masjid was holding a food drive for the poor people of the community, and tomorrow was the last day to turn in the donations.  There was a special nasheed program after the donations were counted too! The family that collected the most number of donations would get a special certificate at the end of the program.

Rayyan and his twin sister Khadija had come up with a fabulous idea to ask all their neighbors for donations. They went door to door with their dad, and talked about the food drive to the neighbors. People were happy to help! Soon, they had lots of boxes and cans of food! It was almost the end of the day, and Rayyan and Khadija were counting all the stuff that they had collected.

‘So the grand total is 66 cans, and 42 boxes of food!’, exclaimed Rayyan. Khadija wrote down the totals and grinned happily. ‘We sure did great, didn’t we bro? I was so happy when all the neighbors came by with the donations. It sure would be nice to win that certificate.’, said Khadija.

‘Yeah, it really would! Come on, let’s go tell mom we’re done here. I sure could use a snack.’, replied her brother.

They found their mom fixing the lamp. It had fallen down by accident a few days ago, because of which the shade kept tilting over to one side. Mommy was trying to get it back in place. She had been at it for almost three days now, trying to fix it whenever she had a moment to spare.

‘Oh Mommy, are you still trying to fix that lamp? Why don’t you just get a new one instead? It doesn’t look like it’s going to get back right’ said Rayyan.

‘Hmmm, I like fixing things honey. And it still lights up, it’s just the shade that needs to get on straight. And do I look like a giver upper to you big guy? ’, teased Mommy ruffling Rayyan’s hair and making him laugh.

‘Mommy, we’re done with counting all the food stuff. We got so many! I sure hope we win tomorrow! I can’t wait to go drop off all the boxes and listen to those nasheed singers!’, said Khadija excitedly.

Their mom grinned and gave Khadija a hug. ‘I’m so proud of you both! You guys were so good about going to every house on our street and talking to the neighbors. I was so happy to see how patient you both were, even when you were getting tired. And you counted up the stuff way past snack time, mashaAllah. Come on, let’s get something to eat, you must be starving.’

They all sat at the table with their snacks and talked about how wonderful the neighbors had been with the donations. Soon, it was time for homework, dinner and bed.

The next morning the family woke up early and loaded all the things in the car, and headed to the masjid. When they got there, they handed over their things to the masjid staff and jotted down their totals on the list. Daddy volunteered to help with counting the donations, while Mommy and the kids went to save some seats before the program started.

The twins were waiting and waiting for the program to start. ‘Mom I’m so bored! When are they going to announce the winners??’, grumbled Rayyan. ‘Yeah, what’s taking so long anyway?’, echoed Khadija.

Mommy looked at twins and explained , ‘ They have a lot of donations you know. It takes a while to finish counting everything. And remember how we talked about patience yesterday? I am still working on fixing that lamp even though it’s taking so long. And you two patiently counted all your donations, even past snack time.

In sha Allah, both of you will already be getting good deeds for your food collection. But if you’re patient and wait just a little longer, you’ll get even more reward from Allah! How about we go play in the playground so it’ll make the wait time go faster?’, Mommy suggested.

‘Yesss’!, both the kids jumped with joy. They raced to the playground where they met some of their friends and told them all about their door to door collection idea. Their mother looked over at them and smiled, being patient wasn’t so hard after all.

*“No one will be granted such goodness except those who exercise patience and self-restraint, none but persons of the greatest good fortune.” (41:35)