Ahh... spring. The time when the days are finally longer, the weather is getting warmer, joggers are back on their tracks, friends gather to grill (though summer would be a better time for grilling because it often rains in spring), and most importantly, the flowers, the natural crowns of mother nature, are blooming majestically.
Now is the time when SLR connoisseurs, well-abled and even the less well-abled photographers amongst them, take out their macro lenses to take pictures of flowers with which they would later upload it on their flickr pages, with sense of pride and satisfaction, expecting people to drop comments, praising their ability to take great pictures.
One fine day in this lovely spring, accompanied by a friend who is an SLR connoisseur like the one described above, we were on our way to the halal butcher when my friend pointed to the bed of colourful flowers by the roadside. Another trivial conversation ensued.
"Those flowers would really look great in my room.", my friend started the conversation ominously.
"Flowers? In your room? You being metro?"
"What do you think? They would fit perfectly well in my room, wouldn't it?"
"Don't you already have enough photos of flowers in your room? Thank God there are no bees in your room."
"Those are pictures. Not real flowers. These are flowers, real flowers! Perfect in my room I tell you!"
"Oh eh? So should we go the florist next?"
"Why should we? We could just take these ones here."
"Maybe you could, but I wouldn't. Is it right to take these flowers?"
"Eh, why not? These are flowers. Gift of nature."
"Subhannallah. But these are planted by the city council. Surely the flowers are planted to beautify the city. We should leave it as it is."
"But taking a flower or two wouldn't hurt."
"Are you certain? If you take these flowers, you would be taking what is not rightfully yours. Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) forbade taking away what belongs to others without their permission.* Just like using the tram without a valid ticket, you are burdening others for the convenience that you are benefiting from. If is it not rightfully yours, should you take it?"
My friend paused for a while. Would he say that I was being pedantic? Or would he think that I was being uncool for not doing what is the norm but is essentially wrong?
But, all praise to Allah SWT, he concurred with me,
"Well, you got a point there. I never thought about it that way. Let us go the florist then. I could buy myself a vase as well. By the way, how do you pronounce vase?"
The conversation actually went on with me explaining the two different ways of pronouncing the word vase. Seeing that it is difficult for me to write here how I pronounced the word vase, here is a link where you can listen to the two different pronunciations of vase.
Summary:
1. Vase can be pronounced in two different ways. Blame the Americans for the second pronunciation.
2. You can listen to the pronunciation here.
3. www.howjsay.com is a great site to learn the proper pronunciation of words.
4. People like to take macro pictures of flowers.
Allah knows best.
*Sahih Bukhari Volume 3, Book 43, Number 654:
Narrated 'Abdullah bin Yazid Al-Ansari:
The Prophet forbade robbery (taking away what belongs to others without their permission), and also forbade mutilation (or maiming) of bodies.
No comments:
Post a Comment