zonabutt The definition of laborer on google is “a person doing unskilled manual work for wages”
I don’t know but that sort of hard, physical effort looks like a pretty big skill to me. We can sit in our air conditioned rooms and type away on our computers working and feeling all high and mighty and get recognition for it. A pat on the back, a thumbs up on Facebook on our next promotion etc etc.
What about the laborer? What does he get?
Whose mere definition on google I find extremely condescending. Unskilled manual work for wages….
If you follow me on instagram you’ll know that yesterday we ordered 4 yards of soil. I went on and on about it on my stories babbling, about what I learnt. But really my privileged self can’t even begin to understand the struggles of a laborer or anyone involved in manual work for the most part of their lives.
Growing up in Pakistan we’re used to house help around us, for us I had one special woman Maasi see me through, from my teens till I got married and then had children. Maasi was always there. She was more family than family. She passed away this year shortly after my aunt passed. It was shocking. I was devastated. (inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi rajiun)
For us they were and still are like family, I know this doesn’t happen in most households. Yes house help is still treated with respect and kindness but really not like family. Not really. People separate their dishes, they sit on the floor and eat. I remember we had a new comer who took ages to sit on the table saying “Nai baji mujhe zameen pe theek lagta he” while my mum insisted “Mujhe nai lagta, idher beth ker aram se khao”. My mum was always told off about it “Is ne tu apne saray naukar kharab kiay hoay heyn” Of course I’m not being high and mighty and saying we went above and beyond to include house help at meal times. Dinner time was family time, more like dad time, so we (just the family) ate together. They would either eat before us or after us, depending on what they wanted. But it was an uncomfortable feeling of being reminded constantly of our advantage like that, that they knew in society we were above them.
These people give their lives for us, literally. To please us, to serve us. When my paternal grand mother passed away (inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi rajiun) and I was in Australia and so was my mum, one of our old house help, who left because he wanted to start a business and we encouraged him for that, came specially to help that day. Because it was June and so none of the AC’s were working and there were so many people coming for the burial, and he stayed at our place to help out for free. He did not take any wages, he just knew that my sisters and my dad were there without mum who was with me in Australia. And that he couldn’t let that be. He wanted to help. I remember my sisters telling me, furious how someone had mistreated him, at my grandmothers funeral. Where HE came to pay his respects and help out as a brother. It made me so angry, we should have said something. But we didn’t. And so we are part of the problem. And I recognize it.
That kind of selflessness. That kind of empathy and kindness, you don’t see in our class. You just don’t. I don’t have it. Yesterday I mentioned in my stories that I just moved 5 wheel barrows worth of dirt and I felt like I was dying. Today in the morning while I was dying again( oops I really need to work out) I was reflecting, that did I think that I can compare a few hours of hardwork to a lifetime of hard work? I can never truly understand what manual work is, day in and day out. Working away with your hands, to ensure a meal for yourself and your family, whilst being called unskilled. Or Jaahil in our society.
But I have some confessions to make, with Covid going on, we haven’t had any help in the house because well… Covid. And so I clean, do the laundry, cook and occasionally garden and try to teach the kids and lose my cool daily. Its not much what I do in comparison but when I’m tired which I am all the time (perpetually lazy much)… I lose it.
.And when I lose my cool at my poor husband if he leaves a wrapper somehere and I spy it, I say something that made me realize what a classist I am.
What do I say?
I get angry and reply “Mein tu yahan kaam wali he ho na” And since I wanted this place to be real and raw I won’t hide it. I say it multiple times a week every time I lose my cool. And I say it with the INTENT that it is understood that I’m better than a kaam wali and so when I’m “reduced” to being a kaam wali I get angry.
How many of us have said it or heard it?
- Safayi wali lagti he
- Mechnaic lag ra he
- Sweeper lag ra he
- Kaamwali lagti he
- Bilkul gaon ke kissan lag re ho
- Sirf bartan dhonay k qabal ho
Why do I think any of these jobs are any less than white collared jobs? While the prophet elevated these jobs, over all others. Who am I to think I am better than them? I promised myself I won’t ever say it again. Its insulting to the memory of the beautiful woman who served me and my family, her entire life, and offensive to every laborer working fairly to put food on the table for himself/herself and family. If I can be even 1% of what Maasi was, I would be a much much better person than I am today.
Abu Hurairah RA reported: The Prophet (sallallaahu ’alayhi wa sallam) said, “No food is better to man than that which he earns through his manual work. Prophet Dawud (alayhi sallam), the Prophet of Allah, ate only out of his earnings from his manual work.”
(Bukhari)
This doesn’t mean that all other types of labor is not good, but that food from hard labor is best. And I understand now that the Prophet said this to protect the working class in all societies, because whether you deny it or not we do look down on them, and they suffer every day because of the inherent classism in our society. While what a laborer eats is better in the eyes of our Lord than what a person like me does. SubhanAllah.
Realize that we are all classists, and stop being one. It is not cool. And most importantly self reflect. You think you’re unprejudiced? I thought so too and then I thought about what I say when I’m angry. And well hurrah for self reflection.
My heart wouldn’t stop throbbing yesterday, my legs were numb and my hands hurt, and then I rested because I was privileged enough to. Because there was food in the fridge that would last us an entire week. Because I was doing it just for fun. But my heart broke for those who would have to keep going despite the difficulty so they wouldn’t sleep on an empty stomach.
The Prophet pbuh always showed respect to workers. ”Our prophet pbuh kissed the hands of a laborer who showed him his rough hands due to his lard labor”(Abu Dawud, 2008)
Let that sink in, he kissed his hands! We need to be better, stop being condescending or making vile, snarky remarks that are offensive to the labor class even if you’re saying it to one another and not to them directly. It still hurts. We need to be better and actively work towards being empathetic , because our children? They are always listening and watching and learning. Workers need to be treated with respect and dignity, this is a requirement from our Lord. It is a religious duty. To deal with our inherent classism. Because in the eyes of our Rabb, we are all the same.
