In the name of Allah, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy...
Seek honor and praise. You will find yourself debased and ashamed. Seek attention. You will find yourself ignored. Seek popularity. You will find yourself alone. Seek wealth. You will find yourself poor. Seek love. You will find yourself hated.
Seek Allah, Master and Lord of the Heavens and the Earth and everything in between. You will have Him and everything that comes with Him.
"What has he lost, the one who has found You? What has he gained, the one who has lost You?"
Interviewer: Of course this is Qadr from Allah; we do not object to it. Allah says, “Perhaps you would dislike something and yet it is better for you.” However, Abdullah, tell me about the most important things that you used to have and now you don’t and wish you would have again after you have been paralyzed.
Abdullah: Three wishes??!!! I have three wishes that concern me. I am grieved by the fact that I can’t have them. The first is to be able to prostrate even one “sajdah” to Allah (subhanahu wa ta’aala). I wish I could prostrate to Allah one sajdah only to never rise from it inshaAllah. There is fear inside me. There is an ayah in the Quran that says, “…on the day when a shin will be uncovered and they will be invited to prostrate [to Allah] but they will not be able to.” (surat Noon) Today I can’t prostrate; but when I was able to walk, I had neglected many prayers. Some people may feel sad for me when they see me now. Those people were not sad when I neglected my prayers. The second wish is to be able to turn one page of the Quran. This is something you (ie: healthy people) never think of. But for me it is like a mountain. The third is that in a day of “Eid” or happiness or any occasion, I wish I were able enter house and give my mother a hug……(long pause).
In the name of Allah, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy...
I smelled Death on May 25th. I was scared to journey on May 25th, thinking of leaving behind family that I might only long to ever see again, thinking that I was leaving a place where Death might visit. Little did I know on July 17th when I journeyed from a place where I was leaving behind new family members, great new brothers and sisters, that I was leaving with Death on my coat tails. It was July 18th when Death finally walked by, and filled my nose for the second time with that putrid stench of his. This time, he decided to walk a little bit closer than he did the last.
Shivers already jump down my sides knowing that he is planning to walk even closer--dreadfully very close--next time he is to visit.
I urge you Death...please don't come back. We are not well-acquainted, but you are a friend I would love to live without.
And these are the pleadings of a man who thought he was a man, thought he was in control...but these are the pleadings of a boy just as impotent as everybody else unable to change the way the wind blows, or the sun sets, or the tide flows.
