To Park or Not to Park?

A Muslim man drives to the local mosque to attend the Jumu’ah* salah. He is running late, looks for parking—nothing around. So he parks the car in a place on the street that is partially blocking a driveway. A minute later the home owner opens the garage to reverse the car out of the driveway as he has an appointment to get to. To his shock he cannot drive the car out onto the road because of the car partially blocking the driveway. Infuriated, he calls the police. The police turn up, and write a parking fine for the vehicle. 

The Muslim man returns to find an infuriated owner and an unimpressed police officer. 

“Sorry, I ...” 

The police officer interrupts: “Don’t apologise, you don’t block other people’s drive ways. Does your God teach you to block people’s drive ways? Doesn’t your god teach you to respect the rights of others?” 

In hindsight, the Muslim man would realise that the amount of time that the home owner was late for his appointment was more critical for that person than the amount of time he was late for the prayer. The man may also come to realise that God will forgive one for missing an appointment with Him, but a person may not forgive one for making him or her miss his or her appointment.

A solution to the problem may be this. The mosque attendees who come early should try to park a little farther from the mosque. This would allow those coming later to find parking spaces near to the mosque. Those coming late would not become frantic in trying to find parking and in desperation park somewhere they shouldn't. Moreover, God surely will reward those coming early who park farther from the mosque for their act of charity. 

The moral of the story is this: respecting the rights of others is just as much a religious act as prayer is.

*Jumu'ah is the Friday Prayer, prayed in congregation after noon.