The Weight of a Tear

Bismi Allah

Today is no different than yesterday, than last year, or even 1400 years ago. Wars happened. Wars are happening. And I suspect that they will happen in the future. People live. People die. The only worthy reference point for me right now is to consider the difference between how we handle these struggles compared to that of the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, and his righteous companions, may Allah's mercy be upon them all.

We weep for the deceased. We weep for our failures. We weep for what we don't know and what we can't do. Don't we? Or have our hearts hardened to the point of no tears? Do we only weep when we have direct pain or are tears still an invaluable energy source for our hearts?

Abu Bakr, may Allah's mercy be upon him, was a righteous man known to be soft. He was a respected man, an amazing leader, and he held the honour of leading our ummah upon the death of our beloved Prophet, peace be upon him. He was known to weep easily, but that never made him any less of a man in all respects. To me, his tears reflect a worth more than that of gold. As for the tears of the Prophet, peace be upon him, words cannot describe them. I imagine they are still benefiting his ummah today, whether we realize it or not.

What is a tear worth today? Today, crying is considered a weakness. Tears are a private affair except under dire circumstances where the human cannot control itself and thus it is deemed acceptable to weep in public. Otherwise, one is considered to be unstable and incompetent. Today, tears demonstrate a weak mind, body, and spirit. But no one speaks of the heart. Tears soften the heart, or at least they used to. Now they seem to only reflect internal hypocrisy where the heart is part of a continuous pendulum that the world controls.

If our tears bring us no peace and if they do not serve as our heart's fuel, then maybe they are in vain. To cry for what we don't have instead of what we are not reflects a sorrowful state for the soul. A tear is worth as much as the reason it is shed. Are our tears worth more than the dust from which we were created? We can only hope and pray that our tears will tip the balance in our favour on the Day when our deeds are weighed.