Preparing for the Tests Ahead

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1. Ruba said

   on July 14, 2009

   Jazak allah khair for this lecture….

   There are many interesting lessons that could be extracted from this story. I think the moment we take that leap of faith, for whatever reason compels us (recovery of sight, contemplation of the universe etc), we are subjugated to being tested. In this story everybody was tested; the monk, the boy, the king’s companion, and the people who believed.

   Perhaps what the monk didn’t realize was that that boy was his test. The knowledge passed on from the monk to the boy was the impulse for the whole story. Because after all, that’s how the boy came to know of Allah and made dua to the real One of killing the beast. Though the monk wished to spread his message in secret, that was the first sign that exposed him. So he should have realized that it was also his test which eventually led to his death. The monk was not willing to expose himself for the message that was more beloved to Allah, perhaps out of fear of being killed. But his faith surpassed his fear when he was ordered to discard Truth for falsehood; die for Allah or live for the king?

   The boy on the other hand, had inspiring faith. He not only chose to spread the message of Truth vis-a-vis exposing himself. He told everybody, including the king’s close friend of Allah. But also he constructed his own sacrifice (death) to incite people to believe in Allah and have more of His pleasure than to live solo with his truth. Afterall he was saved, he didn’t have to die to avoid blasphemy.

   Ironically, the king’s friend wanted so badly his sight back that he was willing to give his wordly treasures to the boy. Little did he know that what the boy gave him was faith (through Allah’s rahma ofcoarse) and his sight was only a medium to that faith. Hint, he chose death in the end over giving up his faith not his sight. At close inspection, there is a subtle humour in his story about how to go from being miserably blind to happily dead!

   All in all, this is an interesting story of how people of faith are all connected; healed and guided by the One, opressed by falsehood on a mundane level, they observe patience and austerity in the face of this opression, and sacrifice themselves for the Truth.

   And things haven’t changed. How all too often do we see that happen today? Opression has many different faces; whether it be a leader who takes it upon himself to forbid the divine rights and freedoms of others or whether it ibe the toxins of a global economic order that leaves many people hungry, malnourished, and destitute. Yet everywhere in the world there are people of faith, probably more in the disenchanted places than in places where people are deluded by wealth (I suspect). And just like the boy and the monk, each one of us has our story in however form it may come.

   May Allah increase all our faiths of His true Oneness in our hearts and whatever it is we go through, never fear for Allah is with us always.