Mahmoud Al-Misri
07-17-2007, 02:48 AM
The negative effect of a bad example
The negative effect of a bad example
This story was mentioned by Sheikh Ahmad al-Qatan about his father, who was away from the path of Allah for many years because of the actions of an ignorant person falsely associated with this religion.
The Sheikh mentioned this story in a lecture he gave called: "Freeing the chest from ill will (bitterness)", he said:
"My father [may Allah have mercy on him] fell ill, when a ship he was on was hit by a thunderbolt… They (his father and the ship crew) were entering the Arabian Sea carrying palm dates, when they saw a Kuwaiti ship that was out of order and needed to be fixed. The captain of the broken ship asked the captain of the ship my father was on to help him out by pulling his ship out of the shallow waters. The captain of my father's ship promised him to help him at a later time. However, he was in a hurry, since his ship was carrying a heavy load, and he did not keep the promise he gave.
After they left the Arabian Sea, a cloud appeared over the ship and the weather suddenly turned. The sky filled with thunder and lighting. All of a sudden, a thunderbolt hit the ship's sail, burned it, and injured some people on the ship. My father was one of those injured when this bolt hit the ship, and was left nearly fully paralyzed. The people on the ship blamed the ship's captain for what happened, and they used to say: If only you went back and helped the other ship this would not have happened.
They returned my father [may Allah have mercy on him] to his home after he became handicapped, incapable of walking. This illness ate up all his savings, until he used to crawl on the streets looking for anyone that would even give him a loaf of bread. When his situation reached this level, and his sickness lasted for nearly ten years, sitting home with no cure, people described to him a Sheikh, who is falsely associated with this religion, who used to recite Quranic verses and read Prophetic traditions on the sick for healing purposes. My father asked for this Sheikh, who people called the "Mullah". When this Mullah arrived [sadly] the first question he asked my father was: "How much are you going to pay me for this?" My father [may Allah have mercy on him] replied: "I am a poor handicapped man, and the only thing I have in my pocket is half a rupee, which I was going to use to buy food for me and my mother". The Mullah said: That is not enough … and he asked for more. When my father did not give him what he wanted, he left without reciting anything … From that point … my father felt a great distress, and a great feeling of hate grew in his heart to this religion and to anyone associated with it. That incident was always on his tongue, and being the fluent intelligent poetic man that he was, he focused this talent to mock religious people because of this incident with that Mullah.
Days past, and Allah -all Mighty- willed that a man comes to my father and asks him: Why don't you go to the American Hospital? People are praising it, and there is a very good doctor there called Dr. Skyder … etc. It was a hospital run by Christian missionaries. My father asked him: "But how could I reach the hospital, it is far away from my home, and I can't even walk there". At that time means of transportation were very limited.
At the time of Fajr (Dawn) my father [may Allah have mercy on him] crawled from his house to the American hospital, and only reached there just before Duhr (noon), and that was during the summer time. He says [may Allah have mercy on him]: "When I reached the wall of the hospital, there was not a single drop of water in my mouth, nor my eyes, nor my body … I felt that the sun is burning me, and that I was going to die. I was unable to yell, scream, or call for help … so I got closer to the wall, and slept and started repeating the testimony [That there is no God, but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger], waiting for death. I fainted, and thought that I had died.
When I opened my eyes, I found myself in a clean room with medicine next to me. I asked the people that were treating me in the hospital: What happened? They replied: The people [in the hospital] told the doctor that there is a man that fainted next to the hospital's wall. He looked from the window and saw you. The doctor then came down with some nurses and carried you to the hospital.
After that the doctor performed a full diagnosis on him, determined the source of his illness, he gave him an injection and provided him with some medication. Then he drove him back to his house with his personal vehicle.
My father [may Allah have mercy on him] said: "When I [reached home and] put my hand in my pocket, I found 5 Rupees, so I asked: Who put these rupees in my pocket? My mother answered: It was the doctor that brought you home!!!"
After this, my father was cured from his illness and started walking again. That doctor kept visiting him every week. He used to joke with my father, clean him up, and treat him until his health improved and he started walking as before.
My father started to work again, and then got married. When Allah blessed him with his first son – myself – he stayed loyal to the doctor to the level that when I reached five years old and started realizing things, he used to take me every week with him in special visits to that doctor, and used to tell me every time when we went there: "see that man that is in front of you (i.e. Dr. Skyder) … he is the reason your father is not sick anymore … he was the one that treated me and put money in my pocket, while the Mullah refused to treat me because I did not have money". Then he'd order me to kiss the doctor's hand, so I get up and kiss the doctor's hand. These visits continued until I became ten years old … were we used to visit the doctor every week, as if it was a form of worship or a religious practice… and during every visit he'd push me to go and kiss the doctor's hand.
Throughout this time my father continued to mock people close to the religion, and he used to make fun of them. When [I grew more, and] Allah guided me to the straight path and I started to grow my beard, he started to mock me and make fun of the beard. At that point, I told myself: "It is impossible for me to remove the picture of that "Mullah", and the picture of that doctor from my father's head unless I treat him better than that "Mullah" and even better than that doctor, otherwise I won't be able to do it".
I waited for that opportunity, hoping for my father's guidance, until my father fell ill to a chronic disease and he became bedridden in the hospital, and was incapable of even going to the bathroom when he wanted to. I stayed next to him morning and night, and said to myself: "This is the opportunity that I have been waiting for".
In that state he [may Allah have mercy on him] used to order me with difficult tasks to test my obedience to him, and from these tasks is that he ordered me once in the middle of the night to bring him a kind of fruit, not available during this time. So I went and looked for it everywhere until I finally found it, and brought it to him … he didn't eat it.
Whenever he wanted to relieve himself, but could not get up I used to place my hand under him, so that he would excrement and urinate on my hands. I used to keep my hand there until he was done. He was amazed by my actions. After that I would go to the washroom and clean my hands.
At one point, when his illness worsened, he used to relieve himself every 10 minutes, which left me unable to go to the washroom to clean my hands after he excrements or urinates on them (due to the high frequency it used to happen) … After my father saw me behaving in this way many times, he started to cry … I felt that these tears were the sign of the start of faith in his heart, and he said: "O son, I never knew your value, until this moment".
Then he asked me: Are all the religious youth like you?
I replied: No, they are much better then me, but you didn't get a chance to know them.
From that time, my father started to pray, fast, and remember Allah. From that point, his tongue never stopped remembering Allah, and testifying that 'There is no god, but Allah. And Muhammad is His Prophet'. And Allah blessed him with adhering to this religion.
Arabic Version:
http://www.alsoufia.com/articles.asp...alse&gate_id=0
Original Translation:
http://www.ahlalhdeeth.com/vb/showthread.php?t=100260
The negative effect of a bad example
This story was mentioned by Sheikh Ahmad al-Qatan about his father, who was away from the path of Allah for many years because of the actions of an ignorant person falsely associated with this religion.
The Sheikh mentioned this story in a lecture he gave called: "Freeing the chest from ill will (bitterness)", he said:
"My father [may Allah have mercy on him] fell ill, when a ship he was on was hit by a thunderbolt… They (his father and the ship crew) were entering the Arabian Sea carrying palm dates, when they saw a Kuwaiti ship that was out of order and needed to be fixed. The captain of the broken ship asked the captain of the ship my father was on to help him out by pulling his ship out of the shallow waters. The captain of my father's ship promised him to help him at a later time. However, he was in a hurry, since his ship was carrying a heavy load, and he did not keep the promise he gave.
After they left the Arabian Sea, a cloud appeared over the ship and the weather suddenly turned. The sky filled with thunder and lighting. All of a sudden, a thunderbolt hit the ship's sail, burned it, and injured some people on the ship. My father was one of those injured when this bolt hit the ship, and was left nearly fully paralyzed. The people on the ship blamed the ship's captain for what happened, and they used to say: If only you went back and helped the other ship this would not have happened.
They returned my father [may Allah have mercy on him] to his home after he became handicapped, incapable of walking. This illness ate up all his savings, until he used to crawl on the streets looking for anyone that would even give him a loaf of bread. When his situation reached this level, and his sickness lasted for nearly ten years, sitting home with no cure, people described to him a Sheikh, who is falsely associated with this religion, who used to recite Quranic verses and read Prophetic traditions on the sick for healing purposes. My father asked for this Sheikh, who people called the "Mullah". When this Mullah arrived [sadly] the first question he asked my father was: "How much are you going to pay me for this?" My father [may Allah have mercy on him] replied: "I am a poor handicapped man, and the only thing I have in my pocket is half a rupee, which I was going to use to buy food for me and my mother". The Mullah said: That is not enough … and he asked for more. When my father did not give him what he wanted, he left without reciting anything … From that point … my father felt a great distress, and a great feeling of hate grew in his heart to this religion and to anyone associated with it. That incident was always on his tongue, and being the fluent intelligent poetic man that he was, he focused this talent to mock religious people because of this incident with that Mullah.
Days past, and Allah -all Mighty- willed that a man comes to my father and asks him: Why don't you go to the American Hospital? People are praising it, and there is a very good doctor there called Dr. Skyder … etc. It was a hospital run by Christian missionaries. My father asked him: "But how could I reach the hospital, it is far away from my home, and I can't even walk there". At that time means of transportation were very limited.
At the time of Fajr (Dawn) my father [may Allah have mercy on him] crawled from his house to the American hospital, and only reached there just before Duhr (noon), and that was during the summer time. He says [may Allah have mercy on him]: "When I reached the wall of the hospital, there was not a single drop of water in my mouth, nor my eyes, nor my body … I felt that the sun is burning me, and that I was going to die. I was unable to yell, scream, or call for help … so I got closer to the wall, and slept and started repeating the testimony [That there is no God, but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger], waiting for death. I fainted, and thought that I had died.
When I opened my eyes, I found myself in a clean room with medicine next to me. I asked the people that were treating me in the hospital: What happened? They replied: The people [in the hospital] told the doctor that there is a man that fainted next to the hospital's wall. He looked from the window and saw you. The doctor then came down with some nurses and carried you to the hospital.
After that the doctor performed a full diagnosis on him, determined the source of his illness, he gave him an injection and provided him with some medication. Then he drove him back to his house with his personal vehicle.
My father [may Allah have mercy on him] said: "When I [reached home and] put my hand in my pocket, I found 5 Rupees, so I asked: Who put these rupees in my pocket? My mother answered: It was the doctor that brought you home!!!"
After this, my father was cured from his illness and started walking again. That doctor kept visiting him every week. He used to joke with my father, clean him up, and treat him until his health improved and he started walking as before.
My father started to work again, and then got married. When Allah blessed him with his first son – myself – he stayed loyal to the doctor to the level that when I reached five years old and started realizing things, he used to take me every week with him in special visits to that doctor, and used to tell me every time when we went there: "see that man that is in front of you (i.e. Dr. Skyder) … he is the reason your father is not sick anymore … he was the one that treated me and put money in my pocket, while the Mullah refused to treat me because I did not have money". Then he'd order me to kiss the doctor's hand, so I get up and kiss the doctor's hand. These visits continued until I became ten years old … were we used to visit the doctor every week, as if it was a form of worship or a religious practice… and during every visit he'd push me to go and kiss the doctor's hand.
Throughout this time my father continued to mock people close to the religion, and he used to make fun of them. When [I grew more, and] Allah guided me to the straight path and I started to grow my beard, he started to mock me and make fun of the beard. At that point, I told myself: "It is impossible for me to remove the picture of that "Mullah", and the picture of that doctor from my father's head unless I treat him better than that "Mullah" and even better than that doctor, otherwise I won't be able to do it".
I waited for that opportunity, hoping for my father's guidance, until my father fell ill to a chronic disease and he became bedridden in the hospital, and was incapable of even going to the bathroom when he wanted to. I stayed next to him morning and night, and said to myself: "This is the opportunity that I have been waiting for".
In that state he [may Allah have mercy on him] used to order me with difficult tasks to test my obedience to him, and from these tasks is that he ordered me once in the middle of the night to bring him a kind of fruit, not available during this time. So I went and looked for it everywhere until I finally found it, and brought it to him … he didn't eat it.
Whenever he wanted to relieve himself, but could not get up I used to place my hand under him, so that he would excrement and urinate on my hands. I used to keep my hand there until he was done. He was amazed by my actions. After that I would go to the washroom and clean my hands.
At one point, when his illness worsened, he used to relieve himself every 10 minutes, which left me unable to go to the washroom to clean my hands after he excrements or urinates on them (due to the high frequency it used to happen) … After my father saw me behaving in this way many times, he started to cry … I felt that these tears were the sign of the start of faith in his heart, and he said: "O son, I never knew your value, until this moment".
Then he asked me: Are all the religious youth like you?
I replied: No, they are much better then me, but you didn't get a chance to know them.
From that time, my father started to pray, fast, and remember Allah. From that point, his tongue never stopped remembering Allah, and testifying that 'There is no god, but Allah. And Muhammad is His Prophet'. And Allah blessed him with adhering to this religion.
Arabic Version:
http://www.alsoufia.com/articles.asp...alse&gate_id=0
Original Translation:
http://www.ahlalhdeeth.com/vb/showthread.php?t=100260