A story of Ibrahim Adham

Assalmualaykum all. 

Being able to go to masjid is one of the thousand blesses from Allah. How many people that have a lot of free time, but yet they not able to go to Masjid with many excuses, some is even  settled around the Masjid, but they'd felt such a heavy hearted to move forward their steps. Alhamdulillah, as I have a chance to go Masjid, I went there with my best ukhti. Once in masjid, after I've completed ablutions and waited for isya', I saw one small book on the table with title "Islamic story for kids". I took it and started to browse the book. As I quickly went through the book, I found one interested story of King Ibrahim Adham and I decided to share it with all of you. For those who's familiar with this story take it as a revision and for those you never heard about this story take it as a lesson, inshaallah.

Ibrahim Adham, was the king of Balkh (now a part of Soviet Union). He was a sovereign over forty princes. As a young king, he's having such a luxury live, anything he wants he'll definitely get it, whatever it is. One day, when he was hunting, he had a rest after a while and he took out his best food to fill his tommy. before he could bites the food, one crow flew over and snatched his bread. As he was so hungry, he ran after the crow. This brought him to the top of the hill, where he saw a man who was tied to the tree by ropes. In the meantime a crow flew along and pushed into the man’s mouth the bits of the most superior and delicious food that he usually ate at home. He shocked for a while then untied the man and asked him what had happened to him.

The man replied: “I am a merchant. The robbers looted me and fastened me with ropes and threw me here. Since that day this crow comes daily and feeds me with anything so that i'm survived until now.” As Ibrahim heard the man's story, he started to ponder about the greatness of Allah. How Allah feeds all His creature, even when we can't move and weak and he as a king never could feeds all his folks or at least he never care about them whether they have food or not, as long as he always have a foods served when he's hungry. 

There is another story of Ibrahim Adham that brought him to the right path. One day, he was visited by another strange mystic from the dessert. This was Khizr, the green man of the dessert. He blew in, evaded the guards, and made his way into the inner court. Instead of bowing in obeisance as was the protocol, he impudently went up to the throne. The king was deeply offended and said, “What brings you to the court of the great king? 

And Khizr replied, “Oh, I’m just passing through this motel,”  You can imagine how angry the king was to hear his palace called a motel.

He said, “How dare you say that!” 

And Khizr said, “Well, who sat on that throne before you?”

The king answered, “My father.”

Khizr said, “And before him?”

“His father,” said the king.

“And before him?”

“His father.”

And Khizr replied, “And you mean to tell me that this isn’t a motel with people constantly coming and going all the time?”

Suddenly a revelation came to him. He realized that all he had invested himself in, his persona of grandeur and wealth and power, was ephemeral; it was trifling in the grand scheme of things. He was just passing through a motel. The words of Khizr went straight into his heart, like a barb. He was compelled to leave his crown and his throne and live as a wandering dervish. 

Subhanallah. This is whats happened when Allah gives His guidance. In a seconds, the vile man can change as a pure soul. Guidance to the truth is in the hand of Allaah alone and no human being has any share in that including our Prophets, as Allaah said to His Messenger SAW:

Verily, you (O Muhammad) guide not whom you like, but Allaah guides whom He wills. And He knows best those who are the guided [al-Qasas 28:56]

But in His Wisdom, Allaah has created us with the ability to choose, and He has sent down to us guidance and the Criterion. So whoever obeys Allaah and His Messenger will enter Paradise and whoever disobeys Allaah and His Messenger will enter Hell, as Allaah says:

Verily, proofs have come to you from your Lord, so whosoever sees, will do so for (the good of) his ownself, and whosoever blinds himself, will do so to his own harm, and I (Muhammad) am not a watcher over you ‌[al-Anaam 6:104]

The choice is yours, the paths were in front of you, the right path or the left path, the light or the darkness. Open up your mind and choose the path that won't make you regret on a day there's no Protector except Allah. One more thing is Allah always has a right to take back His guidance if we're astray and neglected. So keep improve ourself, never cursed person that you felt like they're such an evil, might be one day if Allah gives his guidances that 'evil' person become much more better than you and Allah could also make vice versa towards you. But yes it is our duty to promotes good deeds and prevent bad deeds in anyway that we could. Make du'a for all mankind, may Allah gives us all His guidance.

Allahualam..