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I am sending out a longish article
I found on www.islam-qa.com titled as above - it is really good Masha'Allah.
Please read it and pass it on to others:
I was coming back from a long
journey, and Allah decreed that my seat in the airplane should be beside a
group of carefree young men whose loud laughter and voices were too much, and
the air was filled with clouds of smoke from their cigarettes. By the wisdom
of Allah, the plane was completely full and I could not change my seat.
I tried to escape from the problem
by sleeping, but it was impossible… When I got fed up of their noise, I took
out my Mus-haf (copy of the Quran), and started to read what I could of the
Quran in a soft voice. Soon after that these young men started to quieten
down. Some of them started to read newspapers, and some of them fell asleep.
Suddenly one of them said in a loud
voice, even though he was sitting right next to me, “Enough! Enough!”
I thought that I had disturbed him
because my voice was too loud, so I apologized to him and carried on reading
in a whisper that only I could hear. I saw him holding his head in his hands,
then fidgeting in his seat, moving a lot. Then he raised his head and said to
me angrily, “Please, stop it, I can’t stand it!!”
Then he got up from his seat and
went away for a while, then he came back, greeted me with salaams, and
apologized. He fell silent, and I did not know what was going on. But after a
while he turned to me with his eyes full of tears and said to me in a whisper,
“For three years or more I have not put my forehead on the ground, and I have
not read even one aayah!
For a whole month I have been on
this trip, and there is no evil action that I did not indulge in. Then I saw
you reading Quran, and my world turned black and my heart was filled with
despair. I felt as if someone was strangling me… I felt every aayah that you
read coming down on my body like a whip.
I said to myself, for how long will
this negligence go on? Where will this path lead you? What will happen after
all this foolish play? Then I went to the washroom, do you know why?
I had the strong urge to weep, and
I could not find anywhere else to hide from the people’s sight!”
I spoke to him in general terms
about tawbah (repentance) and turning back to Allah, then he fell silent.
When the plane landed, he stopped
me, and it seemed that he wanted to keep away from his companions. He asked
me, with a serious expression on his face, “Do you think that Allah will
accept my repentance?” I said, “If you are sincere and serious in your
repentance, then Allah will forgive all your sins.”
He said, “But I have done terrible
things, very terrible.”
I said, “Have you not heard what
Allah says (interpretation of the meaning):
‘Say: O ‘Ibaadi (My slaves) who
have transgressed against themselves (by committing evil deeds and sins)!
Despair not of the Mercy of Allah, verily, Allah forgives all sins. Truly, He
is Oft‑Forgiving, Most Merciful’ [al-Zumar 39:53]?”
I saw him smiling with joy, with
his eyes filled with tears, then he bade me farewell and left. Subhaan Allah
al-‘Adheem!
No matter how great a man's evil
and sin, in his heart there is a seed of goodness. If only we can reach it and
make it grow, it will bear fruit, Insha’Allah.
This seed of goodness is always
fighting in man's heart, even when it is covered by layers of whims and
desires. When Allah wills good for His slave, He causes the light of guidance
to shine in his heart and guides him to the path of those who are guided.
Allah says (interpretation of the meaning):
“And whomsoever Allah wills to
guide, He opens his breast to Islam; and whomsoever He wills to send astray,
He makes his breast closed and constricted, as if he is climbing up to the
sky” [al-An’aam 6:125]
From al-Bayaan magazine, issue #
152, Rabee’ al-Aakhir 1421, pp. 66-67
Wasalaamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi
Wa Barakatuhu Ahsin.
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