My Brother Died (strange)

Today -- Somewhere in the Dunyah [material world here in the universe]

A brother wrote and asked if we could put it in the paper on Islam Newsroom. Why not?

Read . .

"He died" says this brother in Islam, "One day he had everything, then nothing in this life and now I hope he has Jennah. May Allah forgive him and give him high place in Jennah, ameen."

"My name doesn't matter, and I hope you don't mention our names in your newsroom. Just I want to say, this is very personal and important to me. I hope it benefits your readers and they can learn something from this strange story."

"I say 'Bismillah' (In the Name of Allah) to get started. OK, so when I first go to this university, I did meet a Muslim brother. We get to be good friends, like not just friends, like a real brother to do anything for each other, you know?"

In our last year at university, my brother he say he's to get married after the graduation and he gets a good job, maashallah. I am so glad for him and he's always talking about his getting married, even sometimes I feel a little like jealous, because now looks like he has it all. He's completing the education, getting married, having the good job and he's family is also very rich.

Anyway, one day he sees me and he's looking really bad, not smiling and he's not talking much. I say to him, what's up? He says he just came from doctor's and they think he has brain tumor which is cancer.

He's voice was shaking and his face has tears coming down. I try not to cry and not to show him I feel his hurt too. Inside my mind I am thinking, 'How?" Somebody like him, he's nice, he's a good person, he just finishing the college, getting the degree, finding a perfect wife, has career in front of him and has everything. I don't say this, only thinking you know?

We still hang out together, meeting for coffee and be together. But now I notice his memory not so good, he is forgetting things and his mind is slowing down. Finally, just before we supposed to graduate, he has to leave the university because of treatments and his memory is not good any more. He says things over and over again. He looks like lost sometimes.

His mom told him the family of the girl he wants to marry decided she can't marry him now, because he has no job and no future. So this really hard for him. He still talked about her sometimes and how lost he felt from all this happening and it made me really think too.

Next he was loosing his eyesight and the cancer on the left side of the brain made everything on the right side have problems. Because he is loosing memory he can't remember the surahs of Quran and even he forgets what time is the salat and qiblah direction.

Later his right side arm is not moving at all and he can't see. This really bother me to see him suffer like this. I really care about him like my brother and I keep coming every day and help him with Quran and salat.

Finally, he even had to go slow to repeat the Fatihah after me saying it really slow for him. He can barely remember what I say earlier from the same day.

Look at him I say to myself, his family with so much money but they can't find any cure. He has expensive car, but he can't drive it and even he doesn't know where he is if you take him out for a ride. He is good looking man, but no woman would marry him, because no future. He had the best mind in class and now he can't even recite Fatihah by himself. He used to be so exciting and telling jokes, laughing and very smart about everything. Now he only is trying to remember how to pray, how to recite Quran and even he can't make wudu without help.

I think to myself, my brother he had everything in this life. Allah gave him the good looks, the good education, fast cars, money, good family, nice recitation voice and a very smart brain.

Now I would look at him and think, he is stiff on one side, he can't see, his memory almost gone. But see how he tries to get up for salat, even he doesn't know what time it is. He is pushing himself to recite Quran, even he can't remember all of it. He is trying so hard to hold on to his Islam and be close to Allah. Do I even do that? And I have my eyes and my strength and my mind. But do I use it for worship Allah?

Allah gave him everything in this world, and so much knowledge but Allah took it back.

Allah tells us in Quran:

Ya`lamu Mā Bayna 'Aydīhim Wa Mā Khalfahum, Wa Lā Yuĥīţūna Bishay'in Min `Ilmihi 'Illā Bimā Shā'a

He knows what is before them and what will be after them, and they encompass nothing of His knowledge except for what He wills.
www.AllahsQuran.com/read Surah Baqarah ayah 255

Then I got phone call, his father said, "He died. His janazah after Asr salat. Will you come?" I did help wash his lifeless body and kept thinking, is this real? We did janazah, took him to the grave and buried him, and said duas and remind about the three questions of the angels. Then everybody just left, like almost no talking.

Later, I am just sitting there thinking about everything. What are we doing? Why are we here? What is really important? What is our true purpose in this life?

Allah said about the way He created us, we all are going to worship something, but will we worship the right thing?

Allah says in Quran:

Wa Ma khalaqtul Jinn wal Innsa illa liya buduni

And I did not created the jinn and the humans, except to worship Me.
www.AllahsQuran.com/read/ Surah Ad Dhariyat, ayah 56

 

After six years being with my brother and watching him dying and then burying him, I had not really put it all together. But now, finally I feel like I really understand. It is all about how we are with Allah.

You know how we always say, "Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi rajiun". For sure, we come from Allah and for sure we are returning back to Him. But we really don't think about what it really means. Otherwise, we would be reading Quran and making salat as much as we could.

Before he got the cancer he was like all of us, he loved to spend his time with the sports, watching big screen TV, cell phones and text messages, fancy cars, nice clothes and the best food.

But when the angel of death came to him none of those things mattered at all. As soon as he knew he would die, all of this life to him nothing mattered except to ask Allah to forgive and accept something from him. His Quran and his salat became so important because he knew, like we all know, when we leave this life, nothing will remain with us except our good deeds and what we have of Quran.

I am not a preacher, heck I am not even a very good Muslim, but I ask Allah to accept from our brother and to guide us before it is too late, ameen.

Without the right belief and good deeds in this life, it is nothing but a big waste, a huge loss.

Allah, in Quran Swears by the Time:

Wal-Asr! Innal-insaanu layfee khusr, illa latheena amanu wa 'amilu salehati wa tawwasow bil haqi, watawwasow bis-sabr"

"By the passage of time! All of mankind is in loss, except for those who come to the right belief, and do the righteous deeds, and exhort each other to the Truth, and exhort one another to patience."
www.AllahsQuran.com/read/ Surah Al Asr chapter 103

I ask Allah for all of us to have the correct belief in Him, and return us to Him, and make us aware so we practice real Islam as much as we can, before it is too late, ameen.

May Allah Guide us all. Ameen.

[names withheld]

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