A Pure Home… and a Rare Upbringing
In a home guarded by faith, adorned by obedience and kept company by the recitation of the Qur’an, lived Maryam, daughter of Dr. Samir ‘Abd al-Raziq, professor of information systems at the Faculty of Computers, Mansoura University, and the apple of his eye. He had long wished to be called by her name, and so the dearest of his names to him was: Abu Maryam.
As for her mother, a virtuous doctor of pharmacy, she shared with her husband in building a home upon piety. So Maryam grew up with a good upbringing and lofty character, a memoriser of the Book of Allah, inclined to full covering and longing to wear the niqab. Everyone who knew her sensed in her the manners of the Qur’an and the modesty of believing women.
Maryam was fifteen years old, yet in her maturity and her faith she surpassed many who were older than her. So we consider her, and we do not vouch for anyone’s purity before Allah.
The Great Trial
In a moment that shakes the hearts, her father was praying Maghrib in the mosque, when the message of destiny knocked at the door…
Maryam had fallen from the fourth floor!
She was taken to the Emergency Hospital in Mansoura in a critical condition. She entered a struggle with wounds and multiple fractures, yet her tongue remained full of praise. Whenever she regained consciousness they would ask her, “How are you doing?” and she would reply steadfastly: “Praise be to Allah.”
And the Qur’an did not leave her lips, as though she were closing with it a pure life, unlike other lives…
A Journey of Steadfastness and Patience
Seventy-two days in the hospital…
Abu Maryam spent every night at her side, and her mother stayed with her by day…
Eyes that did not sleep, hearts that did not cease supplicating, patient faces hoping for reward, and a deep trust that Allah chooses what is good for His servants, even when His wisdom is hidden.
Then the appointed time came…
Maryam departed.
Graces at the Farewell
But even at the moment of farewell… Allah sent messages of tranquillity and glad tidings of His good pleasure.
The procedures for the burial permit, which usually exhaust the patient’s family, were eased wondrously, as though a hand from heaven were smoothing the way.
The police, the prosecution, the hospital… everything was made easy in a way that makes you feel that Maryam was awaited there, where pure souls are honoured.
The ambulance left the hospital in Mansoura carrying her body with the call to the Maghrib prayer…
Her father’s colleagues stopped to pray along the road without choosing any particular mosque, and the imam recited:
“O you who have believed, persevere and endure and remain stationed and fear Allah that you may be successful” (Al ‘Imran 3:200).
Is this a coincidence? Or is it a divine message, patting the patient hearts?
Then… they reached Mit Marga Salsil, the village near Mansoura where Maryam grew up, with the call to the ‘Isha’ prayer. The great mosque of the village had no room for a single foot, and the imam of that mosque, tens of kilometres away, repeated the very same verse…
“O you who have believed, persevere and endure and remain stationed and fear Allah that you may be successful” (Al ‘Imran 3:200).
Yes… it is the message of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, to the people of faith.
Lessons Not to Be Forgotten
- A good ending cannot be bought; it is planted in believing homes.
- Whoever lives upon obedience dies upon its light, is borne to the grave upon its fragrance, and is raised upon its hope.
- Allah, Mighty and Majestic, sends His messages to His servants to make them steadfast, and to show them that the trial was not a punishment, but a choosing.
- Hope does not lie in medicine, nor in devices, nor in the skill of doctors alone, however advanced their knowledge; these are only means, which avail nothing except by the permission of the Lord of means.
- Whoever attaches his heart to Allah alone lives at peace, and sees from his Lord what astonishes him in moments of pain and of farewell, and in every situation in which he needs steadfastness.
- O youth of the Ummah, do not delay repentance until heads turn grey and bodies grow weak, for death does not know ages. Whoever says, “I will repent when I am older,” has no covenant that he will grow older, nor any promise that he will repent if he does… So race to good deeds, and hasten to the Lord of the earth and the heavens.
O Allah, make Maryam an intercessor for her parents, strengthen their hearts, raise their ranks, and make what has befallen them an elevation for them in this world and the Hereafter. Gather Maryam with the Mothers of the Believers, and join her parents and her sister to her among the righteous.