A short story on trusting God and being patient
Let
me share a short story that I heard from a shaykh.
There
was a king who had a very wise man as his most trusted minister. The minister
had a positive attitude on everything believing that there is always something
better (khayr) at the end of all
troubles that we go through.
One
day the king lost his finger in an accident, which made him very sad. When he
complained to his minister the latter advised the king to be patient and told
him that ‘maybe there is some khayr in
this trouble that you faced; be patient.’ The king was very irritated by the comment
of his minister and put him into prison. When the minister was led to the
prison, he said, ‘May be there is some good that is in store for me.’
Within
few days, the king, accompanied by his retinue, went on a hunting trip. In the thick
of the forest, he got separated from his guards and others that accompanied him.
He soon found him surrounded by a group of bandits who were mushriqs (idolaters). They were into
human sacrifice that required them to slaughter a perfect human being without
any physical imperfection in front of their idol. The captured king was brought
to the slaughter place for their ritual slaughter. But when they noticed that
the king was missing a finger, deemed, thus, physically imperfect, they set him
free. The king found his way back to his castle and pondered about what had
just happened. Had he not lost the finger, he would have been slaughtered by
the idolaters. Thanks Allah that he lost that finger, thus enabling him to
escape from death in the hands of the idolaters. He quickly remembered the wise
sayings of his trusted minister. He was repentant and released him from prison.
He then asked his minister, “I can surely understand the wisdom in your saying about
my lost finger. But I don’t understand why you said that it was good for you
when you were imprisoned?”
The
wise minister said, “O king! If I were not put in the prison, I would have been
with you in your hunting trip and would have been captured with you. Seeing
that you are physically imperfect those bandits would have slaughtered me
instead. That is why my imprisonment, which appeared to be apparently bad was, in
reality, a very good thing for me, as it was for you when you had lost your
finger. Allah had a better plan for both of us! Thanks to Allah for saving us
both.”
It
is difficult to see the future in the midst of immediate troubles that we often
face. But we should never lose hope in Allah that He has stored something
better for us. As we face troubles in our world that is seemingly becoming more
hostile, may Allah put enough patience in this community of ours. Amin.
[Interested readers may like to read my book - Devotional Stories, pub. A.S. Noordeen, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - for many such stories.]
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