The path of Islam ✨

The Pious "Drunkard" and "Fornicator"

All praise is due to Allah, The Most Beneficent and The Most Merciful. We praise Him, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evils of ourselves and the mischief of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides cannot be misguided and whomsoever Allah misguides cannot be guided. Peace and blessings be upon the final messenger, Muhammad (SAW), upon his family and his noble companions.

Ameen.

Today I came with a beautiful verse from the Holy Qu'ran. And In Sha Allah to understand better this verse, I'd begin with a story and as well, we'd talk about the lesson we should learn from this story. Because this is a story a lot of us, may relate to in one way or another.

Sultan Murad IV, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1623-1640, would  often anonymously go into the midst of the people and see their state.  One evening, he felt an uneasiness in himself and the urge to go out. He  called for his head of security and out they went. They came to a busy  vicinity, and found a man lying on the ground.

The Sultan prodded him  but he was dead and the people were going about their own business.  Nobody seemed to care about the dead man lying on the ground.

The  Sultan called upon the people. They didn't recognise him and asked him  what he wanted. He said, "Why is this man lying dead on the ground and  why does no one seem to care? Where is his family?"

They replied, "He is so and so, the drunkard and fornicator!"

The Sultan said, "Is he not from the Ummah of Muhammad (Saw)? Now help me carry him to his house."

The  people carried the dead man with the Sultan to his house and once they  reached, they all left. The Sultan and his assistant remained. When the  man's wife saw his dead body, she began weeping. She said to his dead  body, "May Allah have mercy on you! O friend of Allah! I bear witness  that you are from the pious ones."

The Sultan was bewildered. He  said, "How is he from the pious ones when the people say such and such  about him? So much so that no one even cared he was dead!"

She  replied, "I was expecting that. My husband would go to the tavern every  night and buy as much wine as he could. He would then bring it home and  pour it all down the drain. He would then say, 'I saved the Muslims a  little today.' He would then go to a prostitute, give her some money and  tell her to close her door till the morning. He would then return home  for a second time and say, 'Today, I saved a young woman and the youth  of the believers from vice.'"

The people would see him buying  wine and they would see him going to the prostitutes and they would  consequently talk about him. One day I said to him,  "When you die,  there will be no one to bathe you, there will be no one to pray over you  and there will be no one to bury you!"

He laughed and replied, "Don't fear, the Sultan of the believers, along with the pious ones shall pray over my body."

The  Sultan began to cry. He said, "By Allah! He has said the truth, for I  am Sultan Murad. Tomorrow we shall bathe him, pray over him and bury  him."

And it so happened that the Sultan, the scholars, the pious people and the masses prayed over him.

We  judge people by what we see and what we hear from others. Only if we  were to see what was concealed in their hearts, a secret between them  and their Lord. If Allah knows, why does it matter who knows and who  doesn't know?! 

"O you who believe, abstain from many of the suspicions. Some suspicions are sins. And do not be curious (to find out faults of others), and do not backbite one another. Does one of you like that he eats the flesh of his dead brother? You would abhor it. And fear Allah. Surely Allah is Most-Relenting, Very-Merciful." (Surah Al- Hujurat 49:12)