I was recently told about the death of a newly graduated doctor who studied in Sheffield, UK. I read his blog which was written very well. I believe most of the medical students are well trained due to their assignments and number of case studies they had to cover - well, they are excellent students or else they won't get into medical schools. This brother, Mas Afzal had blood cancer and once diagnosed, he started writing his blog, sharing his experiences and moments with family and friends. There are many cancer patients linking themselves to his blog, sharing their strength and trust in God. In his last entry before he was terminally ill, he talked about his mom - how she had stayed by him during the hard times without complaining. Ya.. many people are fortunate to have mom's love - loving you without conditions. I read with tears in my eyes. magine the effort he had made to write at those difficult hours. Despite that young age, he is stronger than most .. always expressing his gratitude despite his condition.
I remember in one of the inspiring speeches given by Dr. Tareq Suwaidan, he said there was a time when Umar r.a., the prophet's sahabah sent a group of men to support a battle against the Roman. In that battle, he told the leader that he was sending 40,000 men. When the leader counted the men sent, there was only 10,000. When Umar was asked where are the rest of the men, he said, among those men, there are 4 whom each represents 10,000 men. Imagine how one man can be as strong of 10,000 men? Dr. Tareq Suwaidan added, most men now don't even add up to 1. Funny eh? So what happened to us? Strength in this context doesn't only refer to physical state. During the time of the prophet and sahabah, strength would also mean the state of IMAN and TRUST in Allah. Therefore, when you add all that to their physical being, they become undefeatable. Even if they are defeated in a battlefield, they are considered martyrs - a dream of all believers. Win or lose, you will be victorious anyway!
However, we don't fight in battlefields. We fight against many things in our lives. Some fight against their own desires whilst some had to fight against terminal diseases like Cancer (I used a capital C because he used to refer it as Big C). Brother Mas Afzal passed away at 26. He fought all through, knowing for sure that his way was surely not the primrose way, everything is determined by The Almighty and decreed by Him - good or bad. He said, "Allah surely has unique ways of showing His love, and I hope I will not lose my chance...". Such wise words... It is true that difficulties take people closer to Him. When we see people died at that young age, automatically our mind might think.. ahh, what a waste!!! There's so much to miss.... all the things that he could do like working, getting married, having children, building family, career and what not. But is that what life is all about?
Allah says in the Holy Quran, (3:185),
"Every soul shall have a taste of death! All of you shall get your full recompense only on the Day of Resurrection. Then only those will be Truly Successful, who escape the Fire of Hell and is admitted to the Gardens! As regards the life of this world, it is merely a thing that deceives! "
This is the true meaning of success - whether or not you escape from the torment of hellfire and be able to enter the gardens of delight... Allah's great heaven (Jannah). To enter Jannah, one needs a lot of perseverance, sacrifices, kindness to people and good relation with Allah. Are you establishing good relation with Allah? How about your relation with people? Do you love others enough? Do you love fellow muslims as we were told to? With SALAM, we spread love among muslims. Imam Muslim reported that our prophet p.b.u.h. said,
"I swear by The One whose hand my soul is in that you will not enter paradise until you believe. And you won't be believed until you love one another."
Only Allah knows what's in the heart but we, as human being, can only judge people by what they do. We can only see the obvious ones unless we are truly close. So how did this young man live his life?
This young doctor - although he passed away at a young age - might have more good deeds than many of us. He was actively involved in dakwah activities - enjoining the good and forbidding the evil. One of his last assignment was an invitation as a guest speaker for 2 days at a camp. Despite of his health condition and difficulties, he accepted the invitation. Imagine, he had to commute from his house that would take around 45 minutes and not only once but four times to be with the group at the camp. Amazing as it seems, at that young age, he might have collected better points than us... some of us live for ourselves. Let us ask ourselves if we had done anything for others lately? Have we benefited from the hours given to us? If only we think and reflect how precious these hours are especially to those who had been diagnosed with terminal illnesses. Think about it! Can we be more beneficial? Can we give without thinking whether or not we will be receiving anything back other than Allah's love? If we can do that, that's really good news and we must be doing ok.
So when he passed away, comments came pouring into his websites - from family and friends, near and far- sharing news and their grieves. Everyone talked about how great he was as a friend, a student, a relative and most importantly, as a believer of faith. There was also a lady who talked about how she was helped by brother Afzal even when she was a stranger to him. With all these good words, I believe they become his witnesses of his good deeds. And these witnesses are what we needed most .. at the time when none can help but your own deeds. Allah says in the holy Quran (46:19),
"And for all are degrees according to what they did, and that He may pay them back fully their deeds and they shall not be wronged".
Therefore, we are advised to use our time wisely for there are many who are diagnosed with terminal illnesses and would love to have more time to serve Him. To live our lives to the fullest is to serve Him well and loving Allah unconditionally more than the love of a mom to a son. When you look at the sky, how beautiful it is in the morning or during the sunset, take a deep breath and feel Allah's love. You can feel that it is overflowing in your heart. It is undescribable. Look at the shapes of the clouds and the landscape of the sky and just admire how beautiful it is. Do this in the car everyday you commute to work... look up there and feel the love of God, creeping into your blood. How much love can you feel? Can you not feel the abundance and overflowing love? Can you not feel the tremendous feeling that is just too intense? How does it feel like to be Muhammad p.b.u.h., His beloved, to have seen God in person. He must have felt so much more than us... , even greater than we could imagine.
So I believe for people who love Allah and whose life is devoted to Him and Him alone, there is no regret in anything that happened in life.. Come what may! They will not fear death, but even waiting longingly for the moment when he is called. He will smile when the angle whisper solftly in their ears,
"O sacred spirit, return to your Creater, satisfied and well-pleased" (89:27-28).
Al-fatihah to the soul of brother Mas Afzal, May you rest in peace, enjoying Allah's love and mercy in abundance!
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