After much deliberation the young man decided he
would end his life. He walked towards the edge of the cliff. It was a long way
down. Good, he thought, it would suck to end up living in a wheelchair for the
rest of his life. Just as he was about to step over the edge he heard the
words, ‘Beautiful view is it not?’
The young man turned around, his eyes searching
where the voice had come from. Soon his sight fixated on an old man behind him,
he was sitting down, his back leaning against a large rock. The young man
blinked hard a couple times, making sure his eyes were not deceiving him. Yet
the same image stared back at him, an image of a man who had some type of terrible
skin disease that had deformed his face to such an extent, that the young man
stood in paralysed horror.
The old man had smiled, as if to suggest he was
mildly amused by the young man’s shock and disgust.
‘I must apologise’, the old man continued, ‘I did
not mean to startle you’
The young man’s expression had remained frozen.
The old man however, as though oblivious to his state, kept talking.
‘I come up here all the time and never tire of
watching that amazing sun set, subhanAllah’
The young man did not remove his eyes from the
hideous sight before him, yet curiously, he found the old man’s self comfort
somewhat contagious, and slowly returned to coherent thought.
The young man cleared his throat, ‘I didn’t come
here to enjoy the view old man, I came here to jump off this cliff and end my
life.’ He kicked up some dust and nervously strained, ‘To be honest, I’m
surprised you yourself haven’t done it already’
The old man had curiously smiled again, and then
returned his gaze towards the purple horizon.
“Now why would I do that?’
The young man initially assumed he was being sarcastically
self-deprecating, yet the old man’s eyes seemed to be telling another story.
‘Are you not OK in the head?’, the young man
asked, twice tapping his own temple with his forefinger. ‘You look like Allah
has cursed you’. The young man had suddenly found himself becoming increasingly
confident and slightly annoyed at the old man’s look of contentment.
‘Ah yes yes’, replied the old man, in what
sounded like a mocking tone, ‘Silly me to believe that Allah is Just, and that
He will not test anyone with a trial they are unable to pass. I suppose I
should thank you for making my life so much better by suggesting that I end my
feeling of tranquility and improve my appearance by splatting my brains across
the bottom of this cliff’
‘It pains me to say’, sighed the young man ‘that
the reality is, assuming He exists, Allah doesn’t love you. If He did, He would
not have cursed you with such a terrible condition’
‘Hmmm, yes yes’, nodded the old man. ‘I suppose
its much the same as when a parent tortures their child by refusing to give the
child what it wants. How dare they do that and at the same time claim they love
the child. This is nothing but blatant injustice. Don’t the parents know the
child knows best? Truly, such parents can only be described as insane’
‘Nice try’, scoffed the young man. ‘But we are
not talking about parents not allowing their child a toy. We are talking about,
a god who inflicts his child with an incurable, hideous and painful skin
disease, and then expects the child to love him. Oh and by the way, please spare
me the talk about an imaginary heaven where people who have suffered will go
and live happily ever after. You believers like to talk about this a lot to
justify the cruelty of this supposed god’
‘Did you notice my missing leg?’ asked the old
man. The young man confessed he hadn’t. He was too preoccupied with the old
mans face. He dared not ask what other misfortunes befall on him, it was simply
too depressing. ‘My condition has four lessons, so I ask you kindly to listen
carefully.’
‘I had gangrene’, the old man continued, ‘had my
leg not been amputated, I would have most certainly died. But I want you to
imagine a man witnessing this procedure, a man who was entirely ignorant of my
condition, what do you think he would have thought? He would think I was the
victim of the most sadistic type of cruelty. In reality however, he would not
know, that the person cutting off my leg was a physician who was actually
saving my life. This concludes lesson number one, acknowledge your ignorance to
open the door to wisdom.’
‘Lesson number two. Listen very carefully. To worship
something that is limited is irrational, for how can something limited be
worthy of worship when the unlimited is worthier of worship? Consider for example people
astonishingly worship their own ego even though they began as a tadpole and
will end as a rotting corpse, of which I am not too far from being. In other
words, the only thing that makes worship rational is that the worshipped must
be superior to anyone, anything and in everyway. In other words, the worshipped
must be absolutely great.
‘Wait’, the young man interrupted ‘look at what
Allah, the so called absolutely great has done to you!’
‘Lesson number three. Allahu Akbar is like the
concept of a priceless artifact, no amount of money, no matter how large, will
be equal to its worth. In other words, no price of pain and suffering exists,
no matter how high, that can limit His Greatness. It is why, even those in
hell, are proclaiming His Greatness. In any case, if the price of pain and
suffering could ever limit His Greatness, there would be no concept of an
Absolute Great, and if that were ever true, there would be no concept of worship,
for worship is only real, if the worshipped is absolutely Great. Perhaps if you
realised that earlier, you would be enjoying the artistry of His creation here
with me, instead of standing on the edge of that cliff, wanting to end your
life.’
‘Perhaps it was the cruelty of Allah that He
chose not to speak to me, perhaps that is why I stand on the edge of this
cliff’ retorted the young man.
‘Young man pay attention to lesson number four. Allah
has never stopped speaking to you, for He has shown you, repeatedly, the world
will always let you down. Experience of life will attest to this fact. Why then
continue to rely on it? You stand today on that edge because your search for
contentment is found in those things that will inevitably abandon you. Once it
does abandon you, then so will your happiness along with it. Do you not see how
God is speaking to you? The world keeps on failing you and you keep turning to
it for comfort, why? Do you need more loss and pain to realize the world will
always let you down again and again. Do you not see how God is inviting you to
Him whenever you feel you have nowhere else to turn? Do you not see He will be
your Friend when you have none, He will be your Witness when you have none, He
will be your Refuge when you have none and He will be your Hope when you have
none. This hardship you experience is His invitation for your prayer as it is
your prayer that is the seed which springs forth hope, with this hope will
spring forth strength, with this strength will spring forth freedom and with
this freedom will spring forth contentment. Here you will realize that even in
the most extreme pain and suffering, that there exists the ultimate relief, the
ultimate intoxication, the ultimate contentment, and that is, His nearness’
said...
...this story literally brought tears to my eyes....you have changed my life and my way of thinking...thank you for your efforts...may Allah grant you what is due in this life and the next.
Revolutionary said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Revolutionary said...
salam alaykum, thanks for ur kind words. inshaAllah do visit again.
i deleted my previous reply because i gave an address to a new site but it didnt work out too well there so ill be staying here.
hope to see u again, take care
said...
salaam un alaykum, inshallah you r doing well brother Rev guard.
This story mashallah, i lov it man!
well put, in an interesting manner. And i am glad to see that it has its effects mashallah. like all your other thought provoking, and spiritually uplifting articles. may Allah reward you, and give you the strentgh to write more and more and to be a strong defender of Islam. thank you.
said...
salaam un alaykum, inshallah you r doing well brother Rev guard.
This story mashallah, i lov it man!
well put, in an interesting manner. And i am glad to see that it has its effects mashallah. like all your other thought provoking, and spiritually uplifting articles. may Allah reward you, and give you the strentgh to write more and more and to be a strong defender of Islam. thank you.
Revolutionary said...
ws bro
may Allah be with you and your loved ones too. please if you have any ideas or want to share some work then email me inshaAllah.
said...
salam alaikum bro thank you so much for that blog I wil have to make a copy of it.I mean by printing it off if that is ok?
Kenonwes
Revolutionary said...
ws bro Kenonwes nice to hear from you.
ofcourse bro thank u so much for visiting.
stay in touch.
said...
Bro, can you email me at siraj@cycom.com