Khalaf Al-Birzaalee mentions the following incident:<\/p>\n
On one occasion, a man with leprosy who was also blind and had lost his arms and legs was brought to me.\u00a0I thus took him and kept him with the other lepers. I thereafter forgot about him for a few days. When I remembered, I (went to see him and) said to him, \u201cO so-and-so! I had forgotten about you! How are you doing?\u201d\u00a0He replied, \u201cMy Beloved, He Whose love is such that it is infused into my every particle and it prevents me from perceiving the pain of my condition, does not forget me.\u201d<\/p>\n
I (again apologized and) said, \u201cI forgot (i.e. I did not intentionally neglect to check on you).\u201d He replied,\u00a0\u201cI have One who always remembers me \u2013 and why would the lover not remember his beloved when he is before his eyes all the time, in signs recognized by intelligence and understanding?\u00a0(i.e. when I recognize Allah Ta\u2018ala through His signs and constantly remember Him, then how can He forget me?)\u201d<\/p>\n
I then asked him, \u201cShall I not get you married to a woman who will assist you to remain clean?\u201d Hearing this, the man began to weep. He then took a deep breath, turned his eyes towards the sky and exclaimed, \u201cO the Beloved of my heart!\u201d He then lost consciousness.<\/p>\n
When he recovered, I asked him, \u201cWhat is your answer (i.e. do you want me to get you married)?\u201d He responded,\u00a0\u201cHow will you get me married, when I am already the king of the world and all its brides?\u201d\u00a0I replied, \u201cWhat kingdom of the world do you possess, when you do not even have arms and legs, and you are blind, eating like an animal eats?\u201d He answered,\u00a0\u201c(What I possess is) my happiness with my Master, Who is such that when he tested my limbs (with sickness), he still spared my tongue to remain engaged in His remembrance.\u201d<\/p>\n
(When I heard his response,) it (created a deep impression on my heart and) had a profound effect on me. Nevertheless, he passed away shortly thereafter.<\/p>\n
After his demise, I took out a cloth to use for his kafan, but since the cloth was long, I trimmed the excess portion from its length. (After attending to his burial, when I went to sleep,) I had a dream in which I was told,\u00a0\u201cO Khalaf! You treated My friend and beloved with miserliness regarding the long kafan. We have returned your kafan to you and have enshrouded him, from Our side, in silk and brocade.\u201d<\/p>\n
(On awakening,) I proceeded to the room where the kafans were stored and found that the kafan had indeed been returned and was lying within.<\/p>\n
(Sifatus Safwah vol. 1, pg. 565)<\/em><\/p>\n Lessons:<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. Despite his sickness and losing the use of his eyes and limbs, the leper had such love for Allah Ta\u2018ala that he did not even feel the pain of his affliction.\u00a0When a person develops this level of love for Allah Ta\u2018ala, then everything besides Allah Ta\u2018ala loses importance and seems insignificant.<\/p>\n 2. The leper regarded himself to be \u2018the king of the world\u2019 on account of the fact that Allah Ta\u2018ala had allowed his tongue to remain engaged in His remembrance.\u00a0In other words, he did not look at what he had lost, but looked at what he still enjoyed, and regarded this bounty to be more valuable than the entire world.\u00a0Indeed, the bounty of the tongue can never be adequately appreciated, and a tongue that remains engaged in Allah Ta\u2018ala\u2019s remembrance is invaluable.<\/p>\n 3. A person being afflicted with poverty, sickness or a calamity is not necessarily a sign of Allah Ta\u2018ala being displeased with him, just as affluence, good health and prosperity are not necessarily signs of Allah Ta\u2018ala being pleased with a person.\u00a0At times, Allah Ta\u2018ala, in His wisdom, makes a person undergo difficulties, and through holding firmly to sabr (patience), these tests become his ticket to Jannah\u00a0(read more on this\u00a0here<\/a>). Hence, though the leper seemed downtrodden in this world, he enjoyed an extremely high rank in the Hereafter on account of his patience.<\/p>\n 4. No matter what condition we experience in life,\u00a0we must accept the decision of Allah Ta\u2018ala and remain pleased with His decision. We must never complain against Allah or object to His decision.\u00a0However, we should also make du\u2018aa to Allah Ta\u2018ala to alleviate the difficulty and bless us with \u2018aafiyah (comfort).<\/p>\n
![Download Musjid Poster<\/a><\/strong><<<<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18691,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspirational-incidents"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alhaadi.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alhaadi.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alhaadi.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alhaadi.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alhaadi.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18690"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/alhaadi.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21459,"href":"https:\/\/alhaadi.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18690\/revisions\/21459"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alhaadi.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alhaadi.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alhaadi.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alhaadi.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/alhaadi.org.za\/download\/inspirational\/a-personification-of-patience.jpg\"){kind=link}