A Drowning Man’s Story - I

This is a true story and I witnessed the events myself. I narrate it
hoping that it may contain some lessons for whoever wants something
that draws him near to Allaah The Almighty.
Like other young men in secondary school, I was under the pressures of
studies and getting good grades, so, I decided, with some of my good
and righteous friends, to go to a beach where one of my friends owns a
cabana. We were all looking forward to having a goodtime by
entertaining ourselves within the limits of obeying Allaah The
Almighty.
To our horror, when we were on our way to this place, the luggage of
one of my friends fell from the bus. He left the bus immediately to
search for it accompanied by one of our companions. As we had
separated, the rest of our friends and I decided not to complete the
journey; however, soon our friend found his lost bag and joined us on
the road. Consequently, we decided to continue our journey. It seemed
as if Allaah The Almighty wanted us to continue on this journey to be
eyewitnesses to the incidents that would happen.
After arriving at the cabana, we cleaned up and set things in order. A
few hours later, we decided to perform some Rak'ahs(units of prayer)
before Fajr (Dawn) prayer in the cabana's garden which overlooked the
other cabanas. Before we could start, though, a group of youth reached
the cabana that faced ours and bombarded us with torrents of very loud
music. At once, we went to their cabana hoping to advise them gently
andgood-humoredly, as well as to invite them to join us, hoping that
Allaah The Almighty would guide them at our hands.
However, they rejected our adviceand it seemed as if they had come
there for the sole purpose of committing any sins they wanted and to
satisfy all their evildesires. This seemed especially true, seeing
that they had come from another state and did not want to run into
anyone who would restrain their desires or end the flood of confusion
and heedlessness in which they were drowning themselves. So, we
returned to our cabana and left them.
However, we noticed that one of them had some vestiges of goodness,
for after a few moments, this young man who was called Ahmad, along
with another young man from that group, came to us. They asked us to
knock at their door at the timeof each prayer. We welcomed thisrequest
and were very happy thatAllaah The Almighty had granted us success to
call them to His straight Path. Indeed, when the Athaan (call) of Fajr
Prayer startedwe knocked on their door and they joined us in prayer.
When we performed prayer, we spoke with them and tried to extract some
light of guidance from their hearts, however it wasvery faint and
buried under long years of deprivation and disobedience. Ahmad, that
youngman, surprised us when he started relaying his story with tears
of sadness and bitterness filling his eyes.
He said,
"I was a good and tenderhearted young man. Allaah The Almighty blessed
me and I grew up during the first years of my youth among righteous
young men who truly loved Allaah The Almighty, and who had sound
hearts and souls that were humbly submissive to Allaah The Almighty.
They loved me and I loved them. I lived with them, performing prayer,
reading the Book of Allaah and attending religious lectures in
different mosques.
It was a beautiful life; I was close to Allaah The Almighty and I
loved Him greatly to the extent that, by Allaah, I felt that love for
Allaah The Almighty flowed through my bones until it reached my brain.
It was an indescribable feeling, but whoever has tasted the sweetness
of obedience would realize what I am saying.
I interrupted him as his words affected me deeply, yet I was
alsoperplexed because of his current state, which was very different
from what he was saying. What was the cause behind this radical
change? I posed the question to him, but he surprised us by saying: Do
you know that I have not prostrated even once to Allaah for four
years?
Four years of deprivation and disobedience! What had happened? What
filled his heart with hatred and cast it into the pits of misery and
deprivation? What prevented it from the life ofillumination and
closeness to Allaah The Merciful, The Forgiving?
The answer was as I expected: it is the disaster and obstacle that
stealthily destroys many young men after having tasted the sweetness
of Faith and ascendingits ranks. Therefore, its strikes are lethal and
cause many young people to fall down screaming until they hit rock
bottom.
He said,
"It was bad company that brought me to this state. Ever since I came
to know them, they took me with them everywhere until I left my good
companions and prayer, and committed sins that I had never imagined
that I would dare commit."
Dear brothers, do you see what the supporters of the devil can do?
They are truly devils in human form who do not observe any pact of
kinship or covenant ofprotection with a believer. They just want you
to be like them; a wanderer on the roads of misery in this worldly
life and a companion in all the evils they commit. However, on the Day
of Judgment, they will deny and curse one another. You will see them
standing before Allaah The Almighty screaming at the face ofone
another, "If it were not for you, we would have been believers!"
The two young men stopped reminiscing with these memoriesand we
promised them to knock at their door at the time of every prayer.
However, we were not able to do that.
(To be continued)