Desert Son: Tales of Le_Muslim_MAN

Super Unexpected Death

If this weren't a personal story, I'd have put this in the daily sigh. Nonetheless, I literally just got off the phone with my mother receiving some very unexpected news. I'm not even sure how to deliver or process this all. The shock is layered, so forgive my lack of eloquence this time.

Apparently, I have a cousin in Philadelphia, a year younger than me. Well, technically he's my second cousin (ie his dad is my mom's cousin). Neither of us knew he existed. Shock  #1

His dad (who I also did not know existed) is my mom's paternal cousin (my generation knows next to nothing about my mom's dad's side of the family). We'll call the dad J and the son L from now on. So J unfortunately was not always a Muslim, and lived a very... problematic lifestyle to say the least. Shock #2

L's mom, Alhamdulillah, is Muslim so she kept L from the lifestyle of his father.

Last week, L reverted to Islam. Alhamdulillah. Shock #3

This week, yesterday in fact, L died. Shock #4

Now, how did L die?

He was killed. In cold blood. Over something so meaningless.

Now remember, L stayed AWAY from the bad life of his father. L wasn't a criminal or on the streets or anything like that. So why would anyone kill L?

Well, because of a bag.

No, I don't mean some fancy shmancy purse or designer bag or some crap like that.

A literal bag, like a freakn store bag. Trash bag or whatever.

Who would do such a thing?

A ridiculous roommate.

Apparently, the roommate is a neat freak and when he saw the bag on the couch, he called L a pig and picked a fight with him. When he realized he couldn't take L down, he tried to strangle him. L resisted. That's when the pathetic man pulled his gun, beat him over the head a few times, and shot him.

Over.

A.

Bag.

Yeah.

Now, again, I literally just found this out, so even though this is family, it's not like I'm in deep mourning. However, I do feel saddened by this. To what depths of depravity will humanity go that a human life is so devalued and easily robbed? How can anyone abuse someone, let alone kill them, over something so trivial??

It doesn't matter if it was 100 bags, or if he had literal trash on the couch. WHO PICKS A FIGHT AND KILLS A PERSON OVER SOMETHING LIKE THAT?!

Like, obviously we die when Allah decrees so there's no such thing as dying too early, but just in a linguistic sense, he had a lot so much more ahead of him. He was young. A YOUNG man was beaten, shot, and killed ALL OVER A PLASTIC BAG ON THE COUCH.

This is the part in the daily sigh where I... sigh.

I don't have too many words left to say. Like I said, I'm not exactly in grieving, because up until 20 mins ago I never knew any of these people existed (sidenote typing on my phone takes awhile when my fingers are asleep). But still.

My mom (who, like I said, also didn't know of L's existence) is of course broken up over it. Three of her children are older than L, with me and my sister being the closest in age to him, so she keeps thinking in terms of his relation to us.

I'm personally looking to the silver lining. Allah let him live long enough to find guidance and accept Islam. Let his past sins be wiped out. He lived one week as a Muslim, Alhamdulillah. So may Allah have mercy on him, forgive any wrongs left on his record, and grant him jannah. May his grave be a place of comfort for him now and may he find peace and happiness on the Day we're all brought back and complete justice is established. Ameen.

I just wanted to share that bit and I guess perhaps it serves as a reminder that death can come at any time, even if you're not up to no good. Also, be safe in regards to whom you surround yourself with. Morals are in decline these days. And sadly, they will continue this way...