– Tuesday the 20th of November about 7:30
we were all around her and she just took her last breath and she left this world SubhanAllah.
I just wanted to wake her up,
I just wanted her to just wake up one more time, I just wanted to see her face one more time.
Nothing can prepare you for the pain of losing your mother
and for my brother and I the day we lost our mother Salwa
was the day our hearts shattered into pieces.
So we arrived at Lakemba Mosque
and me and my three auntie's and Umm Abdurahman started washing my Mum
and Subhanallah just, I can't describe what it was like to wash my Mom.
I'm so glad I did that, it was such a beautiful experience
because I felt like I needed to say goodbye to her
and I wanted to kiss her hand and kiss her feet one last time
and just being with her because I knew she'd want me to be with her at that point.
It was the hardest day of my life,
not only had I lost my Mom, but my best friend.
It feels like my heart has been ripped out, I miss her so much,
even the little things like get to me,
for example I was shopping for a dress a couple of months ago
and I couldn't take, I went to my cart and I started crying
because I couldn't message Mom so she can tell me her honest opinion of how I look in that dress
or I couldn't show her clothes or me tailor my clothes.
A girl sometimes, you just need your Mom.
You've got family around you, but there's no one like your Mom.
There's no one that just can be like her, so yeah it's been very difficult.
Yet as difficult as it was to cope,
I find relief knowing that my Mom has returned to the One she loved the most.
For she loved Allah, loved His Messenger and of course loved His book, the Quran.
She would always be playing the Quran and going through what she memorized,
because one of her dreams that she wanted to achieve was to become a memorizer of Quran,
but SubhanAllah she never reached that
because she died before she could actually finish memorizing the Quran, but I think she got 6 Juz in.
One of her saddest moments though was that there was a point about couple of years ago,
where she could no longer do Sujood anymore,
that she had to pray on the chair and that was her saddest realization
that she wasn't ever able to do Sujood anymore,
because she loved doing Sujood, she was always a person that just loved it, it was her favorite prayer position.
But for Salwa being religious meant so much more than exceeding impersonal worship.
When we think of someone that's going to get the highest of Jannah,
we think of somebody that closed off, just prayed all day, that's not what Mom was.
She was a comforter to her friends,
an amazing Mom to me, she was an amazing sister to her sisters,
she was really a pillar for so many people in their lives
and she touched the hearts of so many people even strangers.
– She just knew how to deal with people and she saw Allah in those dealings.
Every single one of our neighbors knows her, they know her by name, she knows their story,
she knows their families, she's gotten them gifts,
but again she did for Allah Subhana Wa Ta'la,
I think that is one of the greatest lessons that she's imparted here.
That's loving people, to love Allah.
– And she'd go for walks around this park here
and she met a lady that was visiting here from India,
she was visiting her daughter and she should sit there
and she talked to the lady and interact with the lady,
she actually invited the lady over for a cup of tea once, SubhanAllah.
The effect that she had on that lady was that lady was messaging Mom's phone
when Mom was in hospital saying, "How is Salwa?
I'm just checking in to see how she's doing"
– She would always ask people, "Are you happy, habibi?
Are you happy, habibti?
Are you happy Mostafa?"
– I love you all! We miss you, wish you were here!
– By connecting with the hearts of others,
my Mother ideally hoped she would connect the hearts of others with Allah.
– In order to love Allah or to be close to Allah,
you don't have to stop being sweet,
no, I'm religious and I love Allah Subhana Wa Ta'la
and I'm gonna show this person I love Allah Subhana Wa Ta'la.
You know and when we go to the physiotherapist or the chiropractor and the chiropractor tells me,
"Oh, you know Mostafa you shouldn't lie down on your tummy",
"Oh, you know Prophet, ﷺ told us that we shouldn't lie down on our tummies?"
She'll find a way to turn it into some sort of Dawah
in her sweet, affectionate, loving, bubbly way that just made you so drawn to her.
That's what the world can learn from Salwa El-Gashingi.
– It was her love for Allah that saw her dedicate 17 years to teaching children Islam.
She never missed a day as teacher
and SubhanAllah like a month ago, one of the girls said to me,
she's like, "Oh, I miss miss Salwa"
And she just got so emotional,
so SubhanAllah, she even touched the lives of kids
that only saw her for half an hour once a week.
– Salwa was a great and kind teacher,
she made us parties, she gave us prizes and rewards.
And I will pray for her and we will never forget her.
– Yet above all, it was her immeasurable service
in caring for her sick mother that showed the true caliber of Salwa's character.
She sacrificed her life for my grandma,
there were many times when Mom would shower her,
look after her, Mom would spend hours with her.
Mom didn't actually even have a social life at one point,
because it was all about looking after her Mom
and that's why my grandma, she used to look at my Mom,
she's to point at my Mom and she says,
which basically means "This girl is gonna enter Jannah with no حساب
Also after my Mom's mom passed away, my dad's Mom she also got sick
and she was living with us for three years here and my Mom was looking after her mother-in-law
as if she was her Mom, with that same love and that same affection
and my grandma appreciated that and saw that,
because she actually had no daughters, my other grandma.
Taking a look at Salwa's life,
it was easy to see the effort she put forth in preparation to meet Allah.
Her countless handwritten notes reflecting on death
are a testimony to the concern that she had for the day she was to pass away,
a day she most certainly knew would come soon.
– So one of the things that Mom was really big on was she was a big writer.
She used to love to keep journals and diaries
and write things down and write things on notes
and write things on pads and she had a calendar
and she would mark all her appointments on it,
so she had hanging on the wall.
One day Subhanallah after after her burial,
the thought dawned on my sister "I should check Mom's calendar"
So she she went downstairs and she had a look at the wall that Mom had a calendar on
and instead of the pen hanging from the top like it normally does,
it was hanging on the side but it was pointing and the tip of the pen was pointing
to the dates my Mama left this world the 20th of November.
It was like the last connection to Mom.
This is pin that she held and she left there
and it's very significant date SubhanAllah,
we've left it as it.
Is it's one of those things that we haven't changed or moved at all in this last year
and I doubt that we will, it's a very strong reminder and connection to her.
– May Allah have mercy on my Mother
and grant her the highest of Jannah.
May her legacy serve as an inspiration to us all.
A story of service to Allah, service to the people
and spreading love to all those around her.