The path of Islam ✨

- He lost his Imaan (FAITH)

All praise is due to Allah, The Most Beneficent and The Most Merciful. We praise Him, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evils of ourselves and the mischief of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides cannot be misguided and whomsoever Allah misguides cannot be guided. Peace and blessings be upon the final messenger, Muhammad (SAW), upon his family and his noble companions

- Ameen.

This  story is told by Sheikh Abdul Nasir Jangda. And he tells the story as follows:

In the Khutbah of Jumu'ah, a Friday Khutbah, in a community, in the states, afterwards a brother came up to me. And you know sometimes people just have that look in their eye like they have a story to tell. He had that look, and he walked up to me and said "Brother, what you just talked about really personally hit home for me."

And I talked about the death of Khadijah, the death of Abu Talib, such a serious thing. So I sat him down and said "please tell me, how did it hit home for you? Tell me your story."

So the brother started telling his story, he said "Brother today was the first day that I prayed, in a year. "

He said "I grew up in a Muslim home; I was born in a Muslim family. I was very practising for most of my life, praying five times a day but today, is the first time that I have prayed in a year."

So I asked him "what happened"? He said "About a year ago, my life was picture perfect."

You know sometimes you have like a five year plan or a ten year plan and you know when everything is falling into place, your plan is working out, everything is going according to plan.

He said "I was in that part of my life. I was nearing the age of thirty. I had gone through college and medical school, working two jobs on the side. I had gotten married during that time, found the woman of my dreams, the love of my life; we had two beautiful small babies. I was in my medical residency, working 16 hours a day and we were living in small tiny little apartment, not in a very good part of town. We had one car that was broken down; it kept breaking down every other day."

The man continues "It was very difficult, we were barely getting by, years and years and years we got through, some way, somehow. I was now nearing the end of my medical residency. So I was starting to get offers from clinics, hospitals, doctors and groups, very lucrative offers, six figures. Six figures in the US big deal! And things were starting to work out, I had not one but multiples offer on my desk."

He continues "We had gone looking for nice homes we could buy, in a nice neighbourhood, nice school for our children, we went to the car dealership looking for mini-vans and nice cars ... Everything was working out. All our dreams were coming true."

And he said "One day I came home a little bit earlier than scheduled, I walk into my house, I said 'As Salamu Aleykum' as the Sunnah is and nobody responded, I looked at the time and it was usually the time my wife would put the kids down for a nap, and she'd take a nap as well. So I said 'let them sleep, I don't wanna wake them up, I don't wanna disturb them.'

"So I went and got me some food. I sat down with my books and did some study, answered some emails. After a while I heard the kids from the room."

You know when the kids wake up and they start to fuss and make some noises.

"The younger one was crying, the older one was talking, so I could hear them, I got very excited as a father does, they're awake, it's fun time, family time. So I go to the room and I walked in and my kids are sitting on the bed next to my wife and my wife is laying there between them, she was motionless ... still not responding, not reacting... and it looked wrong."

"Being a doctor, I jumped right in and checked her and ...

She had been dead."

"Not now, but for like an hour, she was cold, she was gone, just like that .."

He said "Brother at that moment, my life had fallen apart, I lost the love of my life...my children lost their mother... and I lost my faith, my Imaan."

He said "The next 24hours were a blur ... Janazah, tadfeen, the burial, it went by, and I didn't even realize what was going on. After that 24 hours ended, we buried her, I went to my room and locked myself in it. And I didn't come out for days, I kept the lights off and just lay in my room and starred at the ceiling."

"I did not hold my own children, in my own hands for the next few days. My mother and my brother were taking care of my babies. I didn't know what I was supposed to do. After a few days I crawled out of bed, I reconnected with my children ... I tried to get back to work, figured out how am I supposed to work and take care of my kids, my mother and my brother they helped me so much."

"Slowly but surely over the weeks and the months, I put my life back together again, I got back to work and figured out the schedule for the children. I started figuring things out but there's one thing that was still missing. One thing I could not figure out, one thing I could not solve ... my Imaan was gone. My Imaan has been broken."

"I stopped praying. I no longer had faith, I was struggling."

And he said "My brother who wasn't just somebody who just showed up and told me what to do."

You know some people when they give advice, they're never there for you, they never help you, they don't support you, they just show up and tell you what to do.

He said "My brother wasn't like that, he looked after my kids. He stayed awake with my babies when I had to go to the hospital for a call. He's somebody who took care of me and my kids; I respect him, I love him. And he's very pious, very righteous, he prays. He kept telling me every single day 'Brother, come on, you need to pray, brother, come on, you have to pray'."

"But I kept resisting and refusing. Today morning he showed up at my house and he said to me 'I'm not taking no for an answer, mother will watch the children, you are coming to the masjid with me! You will come to Jumu'ah, you will put your face on the ground before Allah (SWT) and you will pray! You will make sujood and say Allahu Akbar and that hole in your heart will be filled'

And he said "I came to the Jumu'ah, I heard the Khutbah and you were telling the story of the Prophet (SAW) how he lost the mother of his children, how he (SAW) lost the love of his life, and I found the answer to my question. It makes sense to me again."

Think about this brothers and sisters! After going through so much tragedy, how does the Prophet (SAW) wake up the next day? He lost the love of his life, so how does he wake up the next day? He (SAW) goes out there and preaches harder than he did yesterday, works harder than he did ever before! Knowing that he's gonna come home to an empty home! Knowing that he's gonna come home to an empty bed! Knowing that he's gonna come home and have to look at his children in the face, and wipe the tears from their faces, that their mother is not coming back ... So how did he persevere? How did he continue?

It was at that moment that Allah (SWT) provided him a solution. Allah (SWT) took him on the most miraculous journey any human being has ever experienced called the journey of al-Isra Wal Miraj, the journey by night to Jerusalem and then the ascensions above the heavens.

And there he got closer to Allah (SWT) than any creation of Allah has ever gotten! Even Jibril (AS) stopped at Sidratal Muntaha and he said to Rasullallah (SAW) "you are to go forward from here". And there Allah (SWT) gave the prophet (SAW) a gift! What's that gift?

The gift was the five time daily prayers.

And Allah (SWT) told the prophet Muhammad (SAW) "Difficulties will come, adversity will knock your door, tragedies will befall you, but every single time you fall, stand back up and say 'Allahu Akbar'. Every single time you deal with a difficulty, say 'Allahu Akbar'. Salah will heal your wounds, it'll solve your problems, and it'll ease your difficulties."

As Salamu Aleykum.