Do you see anything wrong in the following imaginary situation?
Story
Yunus is an admired brother in the community. Everyone looks up to him. He has an amazing charisma when he speaks and everyone, especially his peers on his college campus, loves hearing his Quran recitation. He leads a halaqah every wednesday afternoon on campus, friday nights at the masjid, and is a volunteer teacher at his masjid’s sunday school.
On Thursday, Yunus comes home immediately after school to prepare for his halaqah the next day. His father–retired and aging– is mowing the lawn. Yunus says salam and briskly enters the house. He warms up some food from the refridgerator, eats, leaves his dishes in the sink to be washed later, and marches up the stairs to his computer where he spends the majority of his time at home. Yunus’s mom arrives home from the grocery store. She pants as she comes into the house holding a cart of water bottles.
“Yunus! Can you help me bring in the groceries?” Yunus forgets to say “Assalamualaikum.” “Not now, mom, I have to finish writing this khutbah for Jummah tomorrow.” His mom sighs and asks her husband to help her. He leaves the lawn mower and helps carry the groceries. They laugh as they enter the house and finish bringing in the groceries. Abdul–Yunus’s dad, pours himself a glass of water and walks up the stairs to chat with his beloved son. He knocks on the door. Yunus replies, “Dad, I’m really trying to focus, I can’t talk right now.” A bit disappointed, Abdul enters the room anyway. Yunus has a hard time controlling his look of annoyance, but manages to pull off a smile. Abdul ignores the look and says to his son, “You know, it gets really lonely at home, with your sister married and gone, and your mom working full-time, I don’t seem to have the energy anymore to do the things I used to do. I wish you could spend more time at home, I miss you a lot. It seems like you spend most of your time with the MSA brothers now.” “DAD, I hold a halaqah every wednesday and fridays. And monday nights are the MSA board meetings, I can’t skip out on those.” For a brief moment, the treasurer of the MSA–Sister Sarah–runs through Yunus’s mind. “Okay,” Abdul whines softly, “But just remember your dad misses you, and Oh, what about Tuesday nights? You come home late even though you don’t have class?” Yunus laughs and says, “Ahhh dad, those are MSA basketball practice meets, I can’t miss out on those! I need to exercise for the sake of Allah.” Yunus winks at his dad, “Maybe I can bring you one day?” His dad laughs and replies, “I wish, however it seems like after 7 Pm I begin to get really tired, I dunno why…it’s strange.” Yunus turns aways from his father to continue writing the khutbah, “Listen, just make dua, Allah will help you, trust me, just place your trust in Allah, what can I do?” Abdul thinks and gets up, “Ok, I will make dua, make dua for me too, and add that the strength in my left arm returns, for some reason it is weaker than my right.” As Abdul leaves, Yunus mutters “ok” and that Muslims are not supposed to use their left hand most of the time anyway.
I may continue to write this story. But there is something obviously missing from the way Yunus practices his religion. Due to his imbalanced priorities, Yunus has neglected the rights of his parents. I subtly included details about how his father is developing a muscular degenerative disorder. After the diagnosis, Yunus begins to realize his imbalance.
