Kindness - A rare quality

It's been a long time since I noticed small acts of kindness or the ones that I have done myself. Which is why it was a pleasant surpise for me when on the metro ride today, I could not get a seat and I was standing with my laptop trying to balance myself as the metro started running on the tracks. I noticed a niqabi sister with her son who noticed me and asked her son to get up from the seat so that I may sit down. She insisted and the son got up offering me his seat. Certain thoughts that came to my mind during this course of action are :

1. The mother was teaching her son a valuable lesson

2. ''Kindness inspires kindness'' - I read this quote somewhere today and it made me reflect on myself. How kind am I to people even if it is just offering an elderly person my seat. So by the end of the day, on my way back.. I did what the little boy had done for me.

3. Good Deeds in the account for the small act of kindness

SubhanAllah, we get so busy with other things in our lives sometimes that we forget to go back to the basics. This, is a reminder for myself first of all.

Need some inspiration to do the little acts?

Jarir ibn 'Abdullah said, "I heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say, 'Whoever is deprived of kindness is deprived of all good.'" [Muslim]

'A'isha reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "Whenever kindness is in a thing it adorns it, and whenever it is removed from anything, it disfigures it." [Muslim]

'A'isha reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "Allah is kind and loves kindness and gives for gentleness what he does not give for harshness nor for anything else." [Muslim]

Do not belittle any kind act for Allah SWT is THE Most Appreciative.

In our age and time, it is very important to reflect upon these ahadith so that we may inspire ourselves as well as our young ones to do the acts of kindness.