[الطامعة في رضا ربها]

REAL LIFE STORIES

First Story : Sudden sickness
A healthy member of parliament is in his prime youth full of vitality and energy. Suddenly, a virus invades his brain, and in a few days he turns to a living “vegetable” who knows nothing about himself and his surroundings.

Second Story: Death does not distinguish between the sick and healthy
A high ranking army officer is strong, healthy, muscle bound, and very active. One morning, his mother enters his room to wake him up, only to disocer that he is dead; death has taken him in his sleep!

Third Story: My friend burned up

A friend of mine told me the following story:
I do not know how to start to tell this story that drastically changed my life. Frankly, at first I hesitated about divulging it. However out of my feeling of fear of Allah, the All-High, and to warn my brothers and sisters who do not heed the wrath of Allah, I decided to tell it.
We were three companions, our common denominators were impetuousness and vanity. We were three human companions, and Satan was our fourth!
Our pastime used to picking up gullible girls by sweet talking them, and taking them to isolated farms. Over there, they see us as we really are: human wolves with no hearts or feelings, who do not heed their tears and pitiful begging!
That was how we spent our lives; farms, camps, cars, and beaches. Until that unforgettable day! As usual we went to a farm where everything was prepared; a prey for each one of us, the damned drink, and the nice atmosphere. One thing we have forgotten: food. After a while one of us went to buy dinner. When four hours passed and he did not return, I was worried about him, so I rode my car, and went looking for him. On my way I saw a car that had met an accident; it was turned over on its side, while flames were shooting over it. Getting nearer to the car, I discovered that it was my friend’s car. I parked my car, and ran like hell trying to save him from the burning car. When I arrived I found out that half his body has charred, while he was still alive. I pulled him out and laid him on the side of the road. Within minutes he opened his eyes, and shouted: “The fire, the fire.”
I talked to him trying to soothe him, and promised to get him to the nearest hospital as quick as possible. He replied with a weak crying voice: ‘It’s no use. I will not make it.’ Tears blurred my vision of my friend dying in front of me. Suddenly he cried: ‘O what shall I tell Him? What shall I tell Him?’ I asked him: ‘What will you tell whom?’ He answered in a deep faraway voice: ‘Allah’.
Panic struck me when all of a sudden he let out a long shriek, after which he died.
That picture never left my mind: my dying friend burning up while shrieking: ‘What shall I tell Him? What shall I tell Him.’ Until finally one day, while I was lying in bed trying to sleep and the picture of my ding friend in my mind, I heard the Call for Fajr prayer commencing with:

الله أكبر الله أكبر ، أشهد أن لا إله إلا الله ،


أشهد أن محمداً رسول الله .

I broke down, and tears ran unchecked out of my eyes, and when the caller reached the phrase:

حيّ على الفلاح ، حيّ على الفلاح

(Which means: Come hither to perform the good deeds for success.)
I felt as if the caller was addressing me alone calling for me to abandon my way of life, to close the curtain on a dark chapter of my life, and to start a new one following the path of guidance and light. That was when I performed ‘ghusl’ to cleanse my body, and I turned back to Allah in repentance to cleanse my soul.
I always thank and praise Allah, Who no one else deserve to be thanked, for from that point onward in my life, I am a changed person. I always perform my religious duties, and I am planning to perform ‘Umrah and Hajj. Who knows when I might die?

Fourth Story: Two contradictory finales

Another friend who is working as a member of the highway patrol told me following:
I spent my entire school years with my parents in a decent pious atmosphere. Whenever I came back from a long night out, I used to hear the prayers of supplication of my mother, and the voice of my father in his long night prayer – Tahajjud. I used to wonder about my father’s devotion and persistence and the length of his Tahajjud, especially during the long nights of winter when sleep is the sweetest. What I did not know then, that THAT was the oasis of relaxation of the believer, and that the Tahajjud is the prayer of the chosen God, who abandon the sweetness of their beds to talk to their Lord.
In our line of duty, me meet all kinds of horrible endings of the lives of men. In most cases we reach the parties that are involved in bad accidents, to find them either dead or unconscious. In few cased to we see them in their last moments, while they are actually dying.
I have witnessed two particularly bad accidents. The first one involved two men, whom we – my partner and I – pulled out of a car in a state of semi consciousness. My partner was a pious man. When he saw that these two men are definitely dying, he repeatedly asked them to pronounce the Shahada but to no avail. Shahada is saying: I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and messenger. Sadly, all they did was to blab about their work, and to sing, until they were exhausted, and finally died.
The second one, which happened quite some time later, involved a young man who was repairing his tire. While doing that he was badly hit by a speeding car. When we picked him up, his clothes were covered with blood, his limbs were almost torn apart, and he was assuredly going to die. On our way to the hospital, we were surprised to hear his voice reciting versed of the Holy Qur’an! The voice was so beautiful that it was almost angelic. Just before we reached the hospital, the victim lifted up his index finger and very clearly pronounced the Shahada after which he died.
My partner told me that the final moments of a human being in his life are probably the most important moments. These moments reflect his whole life! If he was good and pious, then he will be able to die mentioning the name of Allah and pronouncing the Shahada. Otherwise he will not be able to pronounce the name of Allah, and will be preoccupied with whatever earthly business that was repventing him from performing his duty towards Allah, the All-Merciful, Almighty.

to be continued ensha'Allah