Original Message From: xxxxxxx xxxx
Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2005 12:18 AM
Subject: The most important lesson I ever learned....
Salam Alaykum wa rahmatulahi wa barakatu all my dear and respected brothers and sisters in Islam,
My name is xxxxxxx xxxx and I am a third year student at San Diego State University. I recently went on the MSA West Tajdeed retreat in Boulder Creek and masha'Allah it was a wonderful experience and one I will never forget. Although I learned a great deal of beneficial Islamic knowledge from speakers Muslema Purmul, Munir Qtaish, Sheikh Alali and Sheikh Abdel Jaleel (may Allah reward them for their efforts) and learned better ways to live my life and come closer to Allah, my deepest lesson was learned on the dirve back to San Diego. My dear friend Badr and I had departed for San Diego Sunday night at 10 pm. As most of you know, it was raining quite hard that weekend but Alhamdulillah, 5 hours into the drive everything was ok. I got onto the 5 South towards Los Angeles and only had a couple of hours left until I would get home.
The last thing I remember is hearing the voice of Sheikh Anwar talking about Musa (as) in the Live's of the Prophets series when all of a sudden my car hit a puddle on the highway and hydroplaned. My car veered hard to the left. I frantically turned the steering wheel to the right and hit the brakes. Nothing happened. My car was spinning out of control and there was nothing I could do about it. All I could see was my body going straight into the center divide of the freeway. Fortunately the car turned far enough left that the front end of the car hit the wall instead of the drivers side door where I was sitting. The car then bounced off the center divide and back onto the freeway. As my car slid across all 5 lanes I was sure a car would hit us and had accepted that I would either get badly injured or die. By the grace, mercy and will of Allah, no cars hit us although there were a good amount on the highway at the time, and my car stopped perfectly in the direction of the freeway.
Badr and I were in complete and utter shock at what had just happened and even more shocked that we hit a wall at 60 mph, bounced back and slid across the entire freeway, and not one scratch on our heads ALHAMDULILLAH! My car is totalled but I hardly cared, and was just overjoyed that we were alive. But the reason I am writing this is because this experience served as a reminder, although a very scary one at that. We as Muslims always say, pray every prayer as though it is your last and that we never know when we will meet the Angel of Death so we should always do our best to please Allah. I understood this concept and it made sense. But not until this experience did I truly understand what this meant. At the moment I had accepted that I was going to die, I remember thinking that nothing I have in this dunya is of any value and
regretting how materialistic some of us can get.
The moment I got home, I prostrated to Allah in tears because it was through His mercy alone that I made it back in one piece. And after every prayer I performed Monday I couldn't help but get teary-eyed simply thinking that I might not have been able to worship Allah ever again. I write this letter to you my dear brothers and sisters, to urge you to use the time Allah gives you in this dunya wisely. Worship Him the way He deserves to be worshipped, ask forgiveness for your sins and constantly be mindful of your Creator and do everything in life thinking to yourself "Will Allah be pleased with what I am about to do?" Allah loves you and wants you to be among those who enter Jannah. You just have to make the initial step towards Him and He will always come running to you.
My brothers and sisters, we all know that death is certain. Allah tells us in the Qur'an that every soul shall taste death. Even atheists who don't believe in Allah accept this reality. Don't act as though you will live forever. Don't put things off to when you get older or when you get married because you don't know when your time in this dunya will be over. I ask Allah to make us of those who invoke and of those who He increases in Taqwa and Emman. May Allah forgive us our sins. The sins we commit not knowing they were sins and the sins we commit with full knowledge that we are sinful but still seek Allah's mercy. May Allah grant his peace and blessings upon our beloved Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and guide us to emulate him as best we can. And may Allah make us of those whom He bestows His mercy upon and grants Jannah. Ameen. I love you all for the sake of Allah and hope my story will allow us to benefit in some way insha'Allah. Jazak Allah Khayr. Salam Alaykum Your Brother in Islam
"So tell the tale - perhaps they will reflect" -Koran 7:176
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