The Trial

Eid Mubarak to everyone. I pray that all our prayers and supplication done in Ramadan are accepted Inshallah.
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I met an aunt few days ago who has been chosen by Allah for guidance. I have always known her as a hedonist. She was known to be a chatterbox and a person who would make any dry conversion into an animated one. Recently one of her friend died a sudden death. While she was recalling the entire scenario she had tears in her eyes. She has started to ruminate and that every following decision of hers to change gets tougher than the previous one.

She is going through the most difficult phase of her life- The Transition as I prefer calling it. This is what every believer goes through when he initiates to bind himself with Allah and His Laws. When she was talking about her feelings to my mom, I remembered how I had changed for good.
For everything to happen some source has to initiate for that to take place. Take the sudden death as an ex. for my aunt. For me it was a special friend. I had first met her in my school prayer room. Our friendship grew gradually as we got to meet each other everyday at Zuhr in the same praying room. Although not very close, we started to discuss our personal lives with each other. I had come to know that she was the only person in her family who takes the Shar’iah Hijab. And how her brother constantly threw mordant remarks on it. I was amazed how she fought alone to remain steadfast. The major problem for her was her family not at all supporting her actions. Infact she once said ‘the only person who supports me is my cousin brother and that’s whats funny’. She had done the Hijab infront of everyone except her cousin. And when her brother had really started to worsen the remarks it was then that her cousin had urged her to start the purdah infront of him too. He said he was no different and that the support comes from Allah alone. After that not only she started praying extra nafl (during school hours) whenever she got the chance too she dragged me along with her. Not that I had mind, it felt so good to be with her. She started teaching me Qur’an and reflected on some specific verses. She would give me audio cassettes of Dr. Farhat Hashmi and would share with me her life troubles. Not to forget, it was then I had started the veil of face and my mom did not speak to me for three days. She got used to it for she knew I was too stubborn to give up. My family (for a while) did not really appreciate my extra time on religious activities. And it was exhausting trying to convince them. Allah helped me through my sisters. I would talk to them alone every night about religion and they too gradually started to change.

God had sent my friend as a blessing. That was the time I would treasure throughout my life. It’s been three years since she’s married and the last time I spoke to her was last yr. to congratulate her on the birth of her daughter. I have not been the same after she left, but I pray to God, to change me to the person I was with her and that I die with His Love in the heart.

It takes a lot of courage to convert from a different religion to Islam. But to convert from a non-practical Muslim into a practical one is tougher.No one should be disappointed in Allah and should always fight for his Deen. May we all be guided to the Allah’s Path and live a life serving Him and His Servants. Ameen.