Story of a Brother Wrongfully Deprived: From Pain of Disappointment and Oppression to Happiness

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

In The Name of Allah, The Most Merciful, The Bestower of Mercy.

The brother narrates:

In 1994, I finished a course in NVQ Level 3 Business Administration. Then I started looking for a job to earn enough money, because even though I was born in the UK, I had got married back home and needed £1000 within 9 weeks to pay for the air fare for both my wife and child to join me in the UK. So, I was hoping that securing a job with my new qualification would at least raise some of the money.

I then went to the Jobcentre and eagerly applied for a job. A very kind white lady was very eager to help me with an interview with the employer on the phone. She rang the employer and passed the phone over to me. The employer sounded impressed when I mentioned that I had just finished an NVQ Level 3 in Business Admin. After taking some details, he told me to hand over the phone to the white lady. Then, within very few seconds, I saw an angry expression on her face, and she said to me, “Don’t go for this job, I will find you another one”. I was very surprised as well as disappointed. So, I left, and an appointment was made for another job search.

Later on that day, while I was out, my uncle received a phone call from the same white lady from the Jobcentre, informing him that the employer I had spoken to asked her whether I was coloured, to which she replied yes, so he said, “I don’t prefer to employ coloured people”. She also told my uncle that the conversation was recorded, and she is begging me to sue the employer for discrimination. When my uncle related this message and begged me constantly to pursue the matter, I reminded him that I only have 9 weeks to raise this money, and these matters take many months. I will leave it and look for something else. I was very disappointed and felt oppressed, but did not give up. So I went out every morning and afternoon looking for a job until I found one at a bakery, but the wages were extremely low and the heat started affecting my asthma.

Then one day, after finishing work at the bakery, I went past a takeaway and said to myself, let me find out whether they have a vacancy. I went in, and straight away the owner said yes, we have a vacancy, and the hours are 2.30 pm to 1 am in the morning, and the wage was more than enough to gather the air fare within 7 wks. I could not believe it. When he asked me when can I start, I said the next day. I started and worked and raised the money, sent the money back home, and my wife joined me within a week after sending the money. After my wife came over, I worked for a few more weeks. I carried on working at the takeaway to earn more income, as my wife was now in the UK.  Then I found a job at a school as a teaching assistant for foreign children who had just moved to the UK. I stayed there until I found another teaching job at a Muslim independent primary school that paid higher wages. My children enrolled in the school, and I finally had a stable job as well as enhanced my career prospects. From then until now, I am still in education.

When I look back, one interesting thing is that the job I was deprived of at first was only £120 a week, and the job I got at the takeaway was nearly nearly 3 times the amount. I ponder upon the sadness when I could not secure the first job, and it was something I hated, but later on until today I know that it was something good. [end of story]

This story reminds us of the Ayah:

There is for the servant (of Allah) -in this verse – a number of insightful guidelines, underlying benefits and welfare, because indeed if he knows that Al-Makrooh (what is disliked) can bring forth Al-Mahboob (i.e. what is beloved), and vice versa, then neither would he feel safe from the harm that might occur from something that makes him happy nor would he lose hope whilst expecting a final source of happiness from a situation of harm. That is because he does not have (infinite or perfect) knowledge of the Awaaqib (i.e. the final outcomes), but Allaah knows that which he does not know.

When he hands over his affair to his Lord and is pleased with what has been chosen for him, his Lord facilitates him with strength, determination and patience in that which has been chosen for him; repel the afflictions he would have encountered due to the choice he makes and show him some of the good end results of the choice his Lord made for him, which could not have been attained through the choice he makes for himself. If he is pleased with Allah’s choice, then what has been decreed will come to him, whilst he is deserving of commendation and graceful in it; otherwise, what has been decreed will come to him while he is blameworthy and ungraceful, because he is left with the choice he made for himself.