So what are you holding on to?
This has got to be the most touching (true) story I've ever read.
Bismillahir-rahmanir-raheem
ENGLISH: the Letter & Amr Khaled's comments
“I am a Lebanese girl, a daughter to a Muslim father and a Christian mother. I lived in Lebanon the first 10 years of my life before migrating to Australia with my parents to be the end to all my relation with the Middle East. I am 22 years old now. With my moving to Australia my relation with religion ended completely. All I know is that I am a Muslim, and that’s it. I do not know how the Holy Book (the Quran) looks like, I don’t know what Surat Al-Fatiha is, and I don’t even know how to pray.
Religion doesn’t even encompass any importance in my life. My father left my mother, before I entered university, and each married others. Both my parents then left Australia, leaving me alone, without a family or siblings, and without any information on my grandparents back Lebanon. I lived by myself, so I had to work to provide for my living. I went to university in the mornings, and worked at the bar at night time. I had a boyfriend, in the Western meaning of the word, and didn’t leave anything from the forbiddens/sins (il-Haraam), I did not do, without feeling embarrassed or ashamed, for I was totally Western. I only knew very little Arabic.
Because I am very pretty, I entered a beauty contest in New Zealand, and won the title of the town the contest was held in. I am now getting ready to compete in the major beauty contest in New Zealand. I became the cover girl (model) of improper (unrespectable) magazines. During this time, I was visiting a Lebanese family in Australia. I watched an episode talking about chastity/virtue, and the site address was on the screen. (http://www.amrkhaled.com). I had a severe breakdown when I was watching, as if that episode was directed at me (talking to me). So here I am writing to you to ask you whether it is possible for The Divine to accept. Can my God accept me and can I return to God?”
Amr Khaled’s comments: “I received this letter and said to myself Subhana Allah the human soul no matter how low it goes, it longs to God. It’s like how the stomach longs for food, the soul longs for God.” So I wrote her back telling her that of course God will accept your repentance and I directed her to some tapes on the repentance.
She called me after two days saying “I repented to God, and left my boyfriend, and won’t see him after today)”
Two days later she called and said: “I want to learn how to pray”
Two days later she called and said: “I want Quran tapes” So we sent her through DHL AL-‘Ajamy, Mishari Rashid, Al-Madina readings, and all my tapes.
She became silent for a week (i.e. they didn’t hear from her for a week), then she called saying that she gave up her Beauty title.
Then the surprise came four days later when she called to say that she wore the scarf/ veil.
The story does not end here. Several days after her news of wearing the scarf, she said that she had been feeling severe pains in her head, so went to the doctors to get it checked. The doctor told her that she had cancer in her brains and her days are few.
This girl will enter the operation room in Australia next Friday to undergo an emergency operation to her head with only 20% chance of succeeding, according to the doctors over there.
That was what the doctors said, but for her, she sent saying what the scientists fail to say, namely: “I am very happy to be meeting God. I am happy that I repented before knowing that I was sick. I don’t know if my father and mother will know of what happened to me, as they don’t call me but rarely. But I repented only three weeks ago, and have sinned/ disobeyed God for twenty years prior. I pray to God to accept me from the people of Heaven, and if I lived, to serve Islam through this site, for this site was my window to Islam.”
Comments: Pray to God with me to cure her, and the rest will be next Friday, Insha Allah. ……
Sarah, 22, passed away, and the prayed on her the Friday prayers and buried her today in the Muslim cemetery in New Zealand.
Immediately before entering the operation room, Sarah sent me a short note saying: “I lived far away from God for 22 years, but I repented 3 weeks ago. But I witness you, that I repented to God, left my boyfriend, working in the bar, and the beauty contest. I wore the scarf, and was consistent with my prayers. I witness you, that I did all this for my God, and I don’t know of any Muslims, but you and this forum, so please pray to God to be Merciful on me and Forgive me. And pray to God to Guide my mother, for she doesn’t know anything about me.” – Sarah
Please dedicate as much effort as you can in good deeds from Hajj, and Umrah and Sadaqah (charity/giving alms) and praying, and dedicate it to Sarah. Have you seen with me God’s mercy on his creations, and that it’s written for her to die at that time, but that God has written for Himself to be The Merciful, and let her seek forgiveness, and leave all sins just three weeks before passing away.
{Verily, therein is indeed a reminder for him/her who has a heart or gives ear while s/he is heedful} -- verse 37; Surat Qaf.
All I can think after reading this is: how much wealth, power, influence, fame, and freedom do WE have? Probably not much...but STILL we hold on to whatever we have SO dearly that some of us don't register the concept of giving it up for the pleasure of our Creator and Sustainer.
This sister had everything that can be desired and she had the ability and freedom to experience any desire left unfulfilled. But she gave up that freedom, that wealth, power and fame to attain the pleasure of Allah swt.
So I ask plain and simple: What are you holding on to?
posted by working4islam @ 11:51 PM
16 comments
16 Comments:
asalaamu alaikum
i actually saw that episode (we have arabic satellite at home). it was very touching. Mostafa also told this story at one of ISRU's meetings (maybe last spring).
masha'Allah its definitely a wake up call. subhanAllah we take our deen for granted. jazaak Allah khair for the post. its a great reminder to us all :)
That is a beautiful letter.
Eid Mubarak
mashaAllah i love this story. SubhanAllah Allah guides whom he wills.
so true!
i was watching that "turning muslim in texas" video, and i couldnt help but wonder...how many ppl would ever think about going to a completely white town (not being racist) and tried to give those ppl dawah. no one would probably think of doing that, but these ppl are STILL being guided.
it just makes one wonder how much reward we're missing out by not doing dawah (or for some of us, not doing enough).
this is a 'game' (if you will) where we know the ending (i.e. everyone will be guided), but we dont know the means (i.e. how the masses will come to islam).
thus we should use our common sense to join the race, at the end of which is a prize waiting for us!
I am moved... May Allah bless sis. Sarah with jannah...
This resemebles one hadith when Prohphet (PBUH) went to his neighbours , their young son was dying and how he accepted islam before he died...
asalaamu alaikum
i agree. dawah is very important. it doesn't matter where ... it matters how and if you get the message across.
how do you feel about passive dawah?
what do you mean by passive dawah?
asalaamu alaikum:
I apologize. I should have been more blatant. My context of passive dawah is dawah by action not so much by words. For example, at Rutgers we have a Dawah committee as well as a Muslims In Action committee. Alhamdullilah I am one of the co-heads for Muslims in Action and the mission is more of passive dawah; so it's all about spreading the message of Islam, not in words - but in deeds. It's a passive form of da'awah, wherein we show the outside community what Islam and Muslims are all about, instead of just filling their minds up with our endless speech. They will remember what we stand for if they see its implementation. We say that Muslims respect their elders and are kind to their parents, so the MIA team would get a group to visit the nursing homes regularly. We say that Muslims are kind to children and teach them what's right, so you'd see MIA after school reading to the kids or organizing projects for them. A Muslim helps out his brother when he's in need, so MIA organizes tutoring programs within the community. We are supposed to visit the sick and help them in any way we can; MIA finds out who in the community is ill or just had a baby and whatnot, alerts the ISRU membership about it, and encourages all of ISRU to visit with MIA on whichever days. Or MIA gets a group together to walk for a national, or local - or even international, cause to raise funds for charity. MIA collects donations for the soup kitchens and thrift stores. MIA organizes community cleanups or barbecues for charity. So, MIA is all about activism and volunteerism in the name of Allah.
jazaakAllah khair for the response!
then i'm all for passive dawah.
i was in a school where there was no MSA and the students knew nothing about islam. a brother from the (newly-formed) MSA asked me as to what i suggest is the best way to do dawah on campus. i advised that the MSA teach the MUSLIMS how to live according to the teachings of islam.
active dawah and passive dawah have their place. when a da'ee sees an opportunity, he should 'turn-on' active dawah. passive dawah should be 'on' all the time. that's what working for islam is all about.
asalaamu alaikum
takbeer! i think what scares most people about active dawah is what other people think. but what better than to worry about what Allah swt thinks??
asalaamu alaikum,
alhamdullilah at rutgers we have dawah tables every week on one of the college campuses with a different theme. at the same time we have dawah workshops specifically aimed for different topics -- dawah to hindus, christians, jews, atheists, etc. alhamdullilah they started implementing a dawah table for Muslims. subhanAllah, we always think that what we know will suffice us in the akhirah, not consciously thinking/aware that status quo just isn't enough!
my question is:
should we start with ourselves, our communities, etc, before moving onto non-Muslims?
wa alaikum assalaam
everyone that i know (for the most part) is taking part in one of those three. the most difficult part about dawah work, however, is striking a balance between personal development (tarbiyyah), dawah to family/freinds/community, and dawah to nonmuslims. in fact, i dont know many people who have been successful in reaching that balance.
there are some organization/movement workers (i.e. msa/ym/myd) who know everything there is to know about movements and their ideologies/methodologies, and everything about organizing events, but still cant make wudu properly!...let alone praying properly and reading the quran properly.
there are also those brothers that are in the front row for every salaah in the masjid, but have never attempted dawah of any sort to the old lady next door, or their tenent, or the person whom they sit next to in class everyday.
and there is also the movement/organization worker or the 'panch-time-namaazi' (one who prays 5 times a day) who goes home after the weekly halaqah and/or praying 'isha in the masjid and finds that his family is calling him to join them for a late-night movie marathon...watching 'indian films' filled with (the usual) love story, singing and dancing (which, by the way, is performed by nearly half-naked women). but wathching it with your parents makes it okay.
right?
so getting back on track, i would have to say that lack of effort or success in one department shouldnt hinder someone from working in others. however, one should always work to attain that balance.
think about it this way...
look at some of the greatest da'ees in the world, if they didnt seek that balance then they wouldnt have been able to do the work they've done. if their families refused to accept islam, then would they just sit around and not spread the message of islam?
asalaamu alaikum,
can you elaborate more on this:
if their families refused to accept islam, then would they just sit around and not spread the message of islam?
and i know its not easy. it takes a lot of hardwork and dedication. it surprises me how much people pass on da'awah opportunites.
the other day, we held a juice stand on campus and we initially were going to sell the juices to raise some funds for some pakistan earthquake victims getting treatment in nyc. however, Allah swt is the best of planners and we weren't able to raise funds, so instead we just gave it out. of course, presentation is everything -- we had funky, swirly straws and umbrellas to go along with our crazy, off the hook juices (mango, guava, pineapple, etc). people kept asking us our purpose ... our answer was: "we're part of the islamic society on campus and we're muslims in action. we're all about community service and this is just one of our projects. people are thirsty, and we're here to help provide a service for you"
we got some weird looks but it made us feel good. we even had a sheet out if people wanted to join our mailing list and help us out with some other community service related events.
however, the turnout for people helping us out (brothers and sisters) was very tiny. yet people always talk about da'awah non-stop yet when the test comes, they're hiding.
*just thinking out loud*
what can we do in our communities to jump start da'awah activities? community service is one branch of the tree. also, as the 'youth' (by the way we'll always be looked at as that) how can we convice the older generation to activate themselves or let us take charge?
wa alaikum assalaam
coincidentally, today we talked about Abu Dharr al-Ghifari, who almost single handedly coverted his whole tribe. but when he started, he started with his brother and mother. had his family not accepted islam, would Abu Dharr have continued his dawah work? or should he have stopped until he could convert his family...and THEN move on to giving dawah to his neighbors/community, etc.
some people say that we MUST start with ourselves, THEN we must work on our families, THEN we must work on our communities and then and ONLY then can we do dawah to nonmuslims. that is rediculous (at least to me). what if my family isnt practicing, does that mean that i can never give dawah to a nonmuslim because i havent fulfilled my obligation to my family.
but instead, we reach for that balance in dawah to oneself, one's family/freinds, and nonmuslims.
as for jump starting activties in muslim communities, i think almost every muslim community is at a different level, so a general answer may not apply to some individual communities.
some masajid need to really strengthen their communities, while some are in need of good leaders to lead them, and others are really doing alot of good work, mashaAllah.
as for the second question, let me say this first...
this coming generation (our generation) is very active mashaAllah (for the most part), but we should not at any point discredit those who have brought us to this level! some youth in some communities are doing just that.
also, why must the youth take charge to be successful in their dawah efforts? i understand that we think at a different wavelength, but we are on the same spectrum. the elders' ideas and suggestions arent as creative and colorful as our's, but there's no need to discard them (along with years of their hard work) and start afresh.
the youth in some communities are very successful in this regard. i dont think we'll see the day when the youth are making major decisions for their masajid and running all of their activities. so i recommend that when some people are getting in our way, we just go around them.
i suggest that the youth should set up their own committies and organize their own events, and in the end, seek shura from the 'uncles.' (the 'seeking advice' part will win them over, inshaAllah).
let me also say that the benefit of an organization like YM is that their youth groups (or neighbornets) arent masjid based, they're community based. they serve their communities, not their masajid. if their masjid gives them problems, they can just pack their bags and move to another masjid (in that community).
jazaak Allah khair for clarifying.
alhamdullilah my family actually started this masjid reformation program where we re-build our community and try to get people to come back to the masjid. it has gotten to the point where its only a place of prayer. but that of course is another discussion.
as for events, alhamdullilah although we go through obstacles to convince the uncles, they let us have events.
and i agree with you. i must have not explained myself too well when i said how can we get the older generation to let us take over ... walahi, that was not my intent. subhanAllah, i guess i never realized that it occurs in all the masaajid. mashaAllah they have helped pave the way for us to want to be active in our masaajid.
I guess we never asked you:
so what are you holding on to?
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