Allah's Dealings with The Pious, Story of a Pious Lady.

[Abu Hafsat]

As-Salaam alaikum,

A Saint states: "Once I was making a circuit of the Holy Ka'aba when I happened to see a girl who carrying a very small child on her shoulder. She was exclaiming: 'O Munificent Lord! Munificent Lord! the past! ( that is how gracious was the Lord to her in the blessed past). I asked her 'What was it that passed between you and the Almighty Allah'. She said:

"Once I was traveling on a boat in the company of a group of merchants. A windstorm blew with such intensity that the boat sank and everybody was annihilated. I and this

 child were stranded on a board; while a negro lay stranded on another board. No one except the three of us had survived. At the first light of dawn and rowing the water with

his hands he approached my plank. When his board adjoined mine he came over to my board and tried to seduce me. I remonstrated with him, "Fear the Lord! Dost thou not

know in what peril we are! It seems impossible to escape this calamity even with fervent prayers to the Lord; on the contrary you wish that we should commit sin under such

circumstances."  He said: 'Never mind, I swear by Allah I shall commit this act with you.' Now this child was sleeping in my lap. I quietly pinched the child, as a result of which the

child instantly began to cry. I said to the negro, ''Alright, wait till I put the child to sleep. Then whatever the fate ordains for me will come to pass."

The negro grabbed the child and flung him into the sea. I entreated the Mighty Lord, 'O Thou Who art Mighty and intervenes even between a man, and his heart's desires, Please

save me from this negro with all Your Divine Might and Authority. Lord, You are without doubt Omnipotent.' By my Lord, I had hardly finished saying this prayer when  a mammoth

animal with open jaws raised its head from the sea and having devoured the negro went under water. The Magnificent Lord saved me from the negro by His Divine Power and

Authority; he indeed is Omnipotent; He is Pure; He is Magnificent. Afterwards the sea-waves lashed at me till the board was washed to the shore of an island, I landed there and

thought to myself that I would eat grass and drink water till the Magnificent ;Lord afforded me some succour, because it is through Him alone that better conditions may prevail.

 

I lived on this island for four days. On the fifth day I espied a boat going to the sea. I mounted a hillock and made signs in the direction of this boat. I waved my covering cloth

briskly. Three men from the boat came to me on a small barge.. I boarded the barge and went to the boat with them. And lo! one of the men on the boat was holding this child of mine

whom the negro had flung into the sea. Upon seeing the child I fell over him and kissed and hugged him. I told them, 'This is my child, my darling.' The boatmen said, ''You are out of

your mind, you are mad.'' I said: ''I am not mad nor have I lost my senses. My tale (story) is a strange one.'' Then I narrated to them all that had happened to me. After hearing my story

all of them hung their heads in amazement and said: ''You have told us a stunning tale and now it is our turn to tell you a similar story which will astonish you. We were travelling merilly

on this boat. The air was favourable. Presently an animal swam to the surface; it was carrying this child on its back. The moment this animal appeared on the surface we heard a

super-natural voice: ''If you did not pick up this child from the back of the animal and keep him with you, your boat would be sunk.'' One of us rose and picked up the child from the

back of the animal. The animal then went under the water. Your tale and ours, both are very strange, and all of us take a vow that henceforth the Magnificent Lord shall not find us

sinning. Later they all offered penitence. How Magnificent is the Pure Lord! How Considerate! The Most Benificent! And the Pure One who comes to the aid of the afflicted at the time

of distress.

SOURCE: ''The Spectacle of Death, Inclding Glimpses of Life Beyond the Grave", by

                  Khawaja Muhammad Islam (April, 1976).