Category: Stories of the Pious

Malik b. Dinar (mercy be upon him) says, ”I was on my way to Mecca for the performance of Hajj. When I saw a young boy on foot. He neither had any means of transport nor provision for the journey. I paid him salutationto which he responded.

I said ”O young boy, from where are you coming?” He replied, ”From Him (God). ”Taken back by his reply, I asked him about him about his destination, to which he replied he was returning to God. I asked him,”So where are your provisions of food and water?” The young boy relied, ”I had , at the outset of my journey, some words as the provision of my journey.” I asked him what these words were. He told me: ”These are: Ka’f – Ha’ – Ya’- Ain – Saad – the Holy commandments of the Almighty God.’ He further expalined the words,”Ka’f – The Sufficient; Ha’- The Guide; Ya’- The Protecter; ‘Ain – Knower of all things and Saad – The True To His Promise. Thus a man, the companion of whom is One Who is Sufficient, the unerring guide, the Protecter, the Knower of all things and the true (True of His Words), can never be ruined or entertained by any fear. Can such a person bother another for the carriage of any provision and water during the course of his journey?”

Malik further says,  I wanted to give the young boy my clothes but he refused to take them. The boy replied, ”In the Hereafter, we will be answerable for the permissible things of the world and will have to suffer punishment for the forbidden things.”

When the darkness of night spread over, the young boy turned his face towards the sky and prayed to Allah by uttering these words, ‘O Allah!Favour me with that thing by which Thou art pleased, that is Obedience, and forgive me that thing which causeth Thou no loss, that is Sin’. After this, the people put on their ihram and began to recite the words: ”Here I am to do Thou bidding my Lord!” The young man remained silent. I asked him, ”Why don’t you declare the same?” He replied, ”I am afraid of the response that ”I neither want to talk to you or pay any attention to you (i.e Him not being worthy of service to Allah). After this, he was not seen during the journey.

At last, he was spotted in Mina where he recited some poetic verses,
‘The Beloved, Who is keen to shed my blood, has every right to shed my blood in haram or outside haram. By God! If my soul comes to know with Whom it is related, it may stand headlong instead on foot. O Censorer! Do not censure me for being entangled in His love. If you happen to see, what I am seeing, you would never dare to talk like this. On the day of ‘Id the people sacrified sheep and goats in the way of Allah but the lover of Allah sacrified his life in His way. The people have performed the Hajj but my Hajj is that, I have been able to acquire tranquillity. The people have sacrified sheep and goats but I sacrified my blood and soul. After this he prayed, “The people have gained access to thee by sacrifices. I have nothing to sacrifice save my soul. I offer it to thee for acceptance’. Thereupon he screamed and fell to the ground. He later died.

Malik after witnessing this incident said, “I performed the burial of the young boy and remained anxious and thoughtful about him the whole night. When I fell asleep I saw him in a dream. I asked him, ‘What had happened to you?’ He replied, ‘As had happened with the martyrs of Badr”‘

It was the practice of Ibrahim Khawas (mercy be upon him) that whenever he set out on a jorney to some place he neither informed anybody nor did anyone have any knowledge of it. All he took with him was a watercistern which he would use for whudu.

Hamid Aswad (mercy be upon him) said,”Once I was in his company, sitting in the mosque when he took his water cistern and set out. I followed him. When we reached Qadsiya he asked me. ”Hamid ! where do you intened to go?” I replied, ”I intened to visit the sacred city of Mecca.” And further added, ”I shall, if Allah so Wills.”

After three days journeying, another young man joined us. He travelled a day and night but did not observe a single prayer. I informed Ibrahim of this. Ibrahim later aked the young man, ”Why have you not observed the prayers?” He replied, ”The prayer is not obligatory on me.” He asked, ” why? Are you not a Muslim?” He answered, ”I am a Christian and in Christianity, I spend the time reposing my trust in God. My inner self had whispered that I had become perfect in the matter of trust. ”I refuted his claim and brought him to the wilderness, with the intention of testing his claim. Ibrahim however said nothing but walked on and advised me not to interfear and allow him to travel with us.

He travelled on with us until we reached Battan Mard. There, Ibrahim asked the Christian, ”What is your name?” He replied, ”My name is Abdul Masih! This is now the boundary of Mecca. The Almighty has prohibited the entry for those who scribe partners to Him”. Furthermore he recited to him a verse from the Qur’an; the translation of which means: “Those, who ascribe partners to Allah, are unclean. They should not even come near the Sacred Mosque.”  The outcome of the test you wanted to give to your inner self is already apparent to you. So you should not enter Mecca. If we happen to see you there we will object to your presence.

Hamid says, “We left him there and moved forward. We reached the sacred city of Mecca. As we passed by Arafat, we saw Abdul Masih there; donned in the lhram. He came to us and fell down at the feet of Ibrahim. Ibrahim asked him, “O Abdul Masih! What happened to you?” He asked Ibrahim not to call him by this name, as he was not the servant of the Masih but a slave of that Being whose slave was also the Masih (Peace be upon him).

Ibrahim then asked him what had brought this change on. He related, “, I sat down at the place where you left me. When another caravan of Muslims passed by, I could not help myself noticing the simple white garments in which they were dressed. Overcome by this, I decided to wear one too and Joined them in their company. On reaching the sacred city of Mecca I saw the House of Allah. At once my previous beliefs had paled into insignificance. I washed myself, became a Muslim and adopted the Ihram. I have been looking for you since the morning.” Thereafter, he remained together with us untill he breathed his last.