Malik ibn Al-Huwayrith (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that the Prophet said,“When the time for prayer is due, one of you should announce Adhan and the oldest among you should lead the prayer.” (Al-Bukhari)
Disrespecting the poor, ignoring the minorities and never helping the elderly – some of the aspects we see daily on social media done by Pakistanis. We ignore the moral and ethical principles due to our self-righteousness, social status, and self-esteem. We have forgotten how we need to help out others, even if they offer us nothing that fits our interest or needs.
Nida Karamatullah experienced something similar last night. While out with her husband on a casual stroll in Khadda Market, Karachi. Here is how Nida shares her experience as shared on Soul Sisters Pakistan:
“Two days ago me and my husband were passing by shops next to french bakery at Khadda market. An old aged uncle stopped my husband out of desperation and gave him the card of his shop which was right in front of us and asked us to visit it if we have time. My husband and I both felt his desperation and without giving a second thought went inside. It was a very tiny shop with very basic girly stuff.. small clips, ponies, replica bags and jewelry and mostly hair stuff for baby girls.
Since I don’t have a baby girl .. all I could look around for was clips and ponies for myself. They weren’t out of the ordinary but i had made up my mind that i would buy something. The uncle was quite old.. wearing pant shirt and seemed from a good background. He was trying to show me everything that he could so that something sells. His hands were trembling but still he would bent down grab stuff and show me.
We told him we’ll see stuff ourselves but he was like “yeh to hamara kaam hai.. service nahi denge to sale kaise hogi”. My heart was literally breaking at the thought of the conditions that must’ve forced him to behave that way.
I’ve often seen salesmen misbehaving and saying, “yehi hai buss lena hai to le lein” and here there’s this uncle who is trying to show me everything even when his hands don’t allow him to. Girls if you do cross that shop any day..do buy something even if its worth nothing for you. I dint know how to help him. I could just pray that Allah makes him successful for the hard work and dedication hes putting in.
The name of the shop is ZAMF. Its next to french bakery.”
Soul Sister Pakistan has already collected a good amount of money that will be used to shop from ZAMF as a way to help the old man. The purchased items will be donated to Edhi Foundation and other NGOs. The founder of Soul Sister Pakistan, Kanwal has addressed many issues and continues to address more of them alongside the members of SSP.
An important lesson here is that there are people in the world who choose to work with sheer hard work regardless of how old they are. A lesson here for us, the readers, is that we need to help these people out as much as possible. As Nida mentioned, you can find his shop named as ZAMF near French Bakery, Khadda market.
