A saint says: “Once I set out on a jours wW for Hajj in the most sweltering heat of summer. - The hot wind was blowing violently. The day I reached the centre of Hejaz, I was, by chance, separated from the Caravan. I felt some drowsiness. All of a sudden, I got up from sleep and happened to see a man in the wilderness. I hurriedly marched towards him and saw that he was a boy of tender age and his beard had not yet grown out. He was handsome like the mid-day sun. He was an embodiment of beauty and delicacy.”
I said to him: ‘‘Peace be upon you !”’ In return, he said: ‘‘O Ibrahim! Peace be upon you also!” I was greatly astonished when I heard him calling: my name so much so that I could not help speaking. I with extreme amazement, asked him: ‘‘O boy! How did you come to know my name when you had never seen me before ?” He said: ‘O Ibrahim! The moment I was blessed with wisdom, I never remained ignorant, and since that time I was favoured with His (God’s) meeting, I never suffered separation.”
I asked him: “What urgency has compelled you to come here in this woods in such a sweltering heat.”
He said: “O Ibrahim! I have neither shown any attachment.to anyone. Otherwise, save Him (God); nor have you made any companion and comic?> except Him. I have devoted myself entirely to Him, believing in Him as One God.” I asked him: ‘‘What is the source of your eating and drinking (livelihood) ?” He said: “It is unto Cud.”. I said: ‘By God! I fear the loss of your life due to troubles I have just narrated.” The boy burst into tears, which seemed to be rolling down his checks like a pearl. He recited some poetic verses which are translated as:— ‘“Who can cow me down by the troubles of the woods when I am covering the distance of this woods by travelling towards my God and when I have already believed in him.
His intense love is becoming a cause of my anxiety, and the eagerness to meet Him is urging me forward and forward that a lover of Allah can never be afraid of a person. If I feel hungry, the remembrance of Allah will satisfy it and I cannot be thirsty because of Allah’s praise; and If I am weak, the love of Allah can take me from Hejaz to Khurasan, that is, from the East to the West.
You take me as weak due to my tender age. Don’t censure me. What was to be, has been”
I asked him: “I adjure you to disclose to me your age.” He said: “You have put me to a hard test. My age is twelve years.” Then he said: ““O Ibrahim! Let me know the main object of your enquiring about my actual age which has already been told to you.”’ I told him that I was taken aback when I heard you talk like this. He said: “Thank God. He hath favoured me with countless blessings and it is the. the grace of Allah that He made me more venerable than most of His obedient bondsmen are.” Ibrahim says: ‘His beauty, his good manners and his sweet talk amazed me very much.” I said: ‘All praise be to Allah! How handsome human figure the True and Almighty God hath created!” The boy bowed his head for a while and then, by raising his face up, gazed at me with frowning looks and recited some poetic verses from the translation. of which is given below :
“If Hell is my punishment, it will destroy me. At that time, this beauty and grace of mine will be of no avail. The doom, at that moment, will reduce all my qualities to nothingness and I will have to weep in the Hell for a long period. And the Omnipotent, the Glorious and the Majestic God would say: O the worst slave! Thou art one of my nonbelievers. You had defied Me in the world. You had disobeyed Me. Had you forgotten My covenant which I had made since Eternity; or had you forgotten your meeting with Me on the Last Day (the Resurrection Day)?
O Ibrahim! On that day, you would see the faces of the believers shining like a full moon, and the True and Almighty God would cause the removal of the curtain of Light as a result of which these believers by seeing the Holy Being, would become so confounded that they would forget each and every comfort. The True and Almighty God would favour these obedient believers with dresses of awe and pleasure, and their faces would also be blessed with brightness and freshness.
After reciting these poetic verses, he said: ‘“O Ibrahim! Forsaken is the one who has been separated from his friend; and one who has earned a good deal of share from the obedience of Allah, is blessed with His meeting. O Ibrahim! You have been separated from your companions on the journey. I confirmed his statement by saying that I was in the same state and that I would request you in the name of Allah to pray for me to the effect that I might meet my companions.”
On my saying this, that boy looked towards the sky and uttered something in such a gentle voice that his lips were seen vibrating. At that moment, I fell into asleep or became unconscious. On recovering from this state, I found myself on the back of a camel in the midst of the Caravan and my companion, who was also riding on my camel along with me, was saying: “O Ibrahim! Be cautious and sit firm lest you should fall from the camel. And I knew nothing about that boy who either had flown towards the sky or got down into the earth. When I, after covering the whole journey, reached ‘Haram Sharif’ the sacred territory of Mecca, I saw that boy weeping, while holding the curtain of sacred Ka‘ba, and was reciting some poetic verses, the translation of which runs as follows :
‘I am holding the curtain of Ka‘ba and also visiting Allah’s House; but what is Thee (Allah) I have travelled on foot towards Allah’s House without using any conveyance as I am, despite my tender age, a devoted lover. I have been since my childhood when I knew \ nothing about love, ready to die for Thee; and, if the people begin to accuse me of anything, it is no matter because I am still a boy of the school (i.e a raw and unexperienced man) in this sphere of extreme devotion. O Allah! If the time of my death comes it may then perhaps be _ possible to be blessed with Thy meeting.”
After this, he fell prostrate and I continued to look at him. Subsequently, I went to him and shook him but he had taken his last breath. ‘May Allah be pleased with him and he with Allah !’ Ibrahim (mercy be upon him) says: ‘I experienced a severe shock on his death. I stood up from that place and returned to my retiring place and secured a piece of cloth for his shroud, also took with myself one or two persons for assistance, and reached the spot I had left him dead but his corpse was not found anywhere.
I enquired about him from other pilgrims but none either knew him or had seen him. Then I perceived that Almighty and Glorious God might have hidden him from the eyes of the people. I returned to my retiring place and felt some drowsiness and in the dream, I saw that he was amidst a huge gathering and was ahead of all; so much light was emitting out from him and such an excellent dress he was wearing that no words are adequate to describe them. I asked him: “Are you the same boy?” He replied in the affirmative. I asked him: ‘Have you not courted death?”
He said: ‘Yes.” ‘I told him: ‘I went in quest of you sincerely to perform your funeral ceremonies but you could not be traced out.” He said: “O Ibrahim! Listen. The same Being that turned me out of the city and blessed me with His love and separated me from my heart and home has performed my funeral rites and thus saved me from need anyone else.”’ I asked him: ‘What the Almighty God had done with you after your death?” He said: ‘The Almighty God caused me to stand before Him and said: ‘What do you want?’ I implored: ‘O God! Thou art the apex of my aspiration and thou art the alpha and omega of my ambitions.’
God said: ‘You are, no doubt, my true bondsman, and you can get everything you desire’.” I prayed: “It is my utmost desire that Thou accept my intercession in case of my contemporaries.” Allah said: ‘‘Your intercession for all of them is accepted.” Ibrahim (mercy be upon him) says that after this, the boy shook his hands with me at the time of his parting, and then I woke up from my sleep. I performed the remaining rites of my Hajj but I felt agitated because of the memory of that boy. After performing my pilgrimage, I returned but, on the way, all the members of the Caravan said: “O Ibrahim! Everyone is surprised by the perfume that your hands are smelling out and how fine is it!” The authorities narrating this event say that the same fragrance continued to emit from Ibrahim’s hands till his death.”
READ ALSO;
[CONCERNING THE DEATH OF GOD-FEARING MAN]
[THE STORY OF TWO SLAVE GIRLS.]
[THE STORY OF MUSA BIN MUHAMMAD AL HASHIMY]
[THE STORY OFRASHID BIN SULAIMAN]
[THE STORY OF A CHRISTIAN MAN]
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