Vanished. Taken without warning, gone without a trace. This was the bone-chilling prelude to the story that captured the nation, and the Internet, for the past week. We were riveted , shocked and deeply disturbed by the disappearance or abduction, of one of our own, an innocent hijabi girl, from campus, in broad daylight.
There was no evidence that this was an abduction, yet the majority believed it probably was…
The pleas of the husband… the distress of the father… the tearful statement of her mother… it was heart-wrenching… unbearable… how many sighs of Ya Allah sailed out of our hearts in grief… how many tears did we shed, how much dua did we make… the outpouring of support, both spoken and silent, was phenomenal. People the world over sent their blessings, and some even flew in to assist in the search… May Allah reward them all.
And the family labored on tirelessly… hoping for the best… but with each passing hour fearing the worst… our minds uncontrollably straying into forbidden territory and the horrible thoughts that lay there… and I’m sure many of us wondered… why… why did Allah let this happen? Why God? Why put this innocent little hijabi girl at the mercy of an evil tormentor? One person’s comments on the “Help Find Aisha Khan” facebook page echoed my own thoughts:
“When I first read about Aisha, I was compelled to think about her all the time. When I lay in my cosy bed, I thought of her remaining awake in a dirty place, am eating with my family where as she may have gone without food and water”
There may have been many who felt betrayed, angry and let down by God, questioning why… I have personally known people who have harboured such emotions in the event of difficulty… prodded along merrily by Shaitaan… and turning against Allah... a fatal error...
Alas… may Allah forgive us… who are we to judge Him? What right do we have to judge The Judge? He Himself states in the Quran that, “Allah is not unjust unto His subjects.” He is the All Knowing, He is the Most Wise… just because something doesn’t make sense to us at the time is no indication that Allah is unjust… and in fact, as of the latest information available on Dec. 22, 2011, we have all now seen that in fact Aisha was not abducted and has been found safe Alhamdulillah.
Sometimes though, things don't turn out the way we hope. Why do bad things happen to good people? Well, bad things happen to bad people too. But for the believers, this dunya, life and death itself, is a test. For a mu'min this dunya is likened to prison, and for the kaffir it is akin to paradise, according to hadeeth. All things considered, it makes for a pretty lousy paradise.
To some, Allah bestows wealth, because poverty would cause them to lose their iman; others Allah keeps poor, because wealth would ruin theirs. A person who gets diagnosed with cancer mourns, and is mourned by loved ones, yet through this Allah cleanses them, erases their sins, elevates the person's status, and lets them enter Jannah easily on account of their suffering. In fact, on the Day of Judgment, when a person sees the immense and unfathomed compensation given by Allah for the hardships he faced in dunya, and for the duas which were apparently not granted, a person will wish that none of his prayers were granted in this world. So we don't know much really. Only Allah knows. With our feeble minds we can never hope to grasp even a sliver of the wisdom of Allah.
Anyways, regarding the Kansas City disappearance, what happened, why it happened, where she is… I do not need to speculate on that here, there’s plenty of that going around already.
However, there was one other point which I couldn’t help but notice. The help and support was great. But I think sometimes, in the heat of the moment, we can lose our bearings a little bit. In particular, the following two excerpts bothered me greatly:
“encourage your places of worship to lead a mass prayer for her safe return…”
Tell the Pastors, Rabbis and other religious leaders to pray for her safe return?
Are you kidding me? As far as the community getting involved regardless of caste, color or creed, that’s wonderful. Everyone really came together and got behind this, which was amazing and touching, something for humanity to be proud of.
But asking them to pray for us? Do they have some other God or gods who can intervene and help us?? Allah is the Friend of the Believers. The Pastors are mushriks… associating Jesus with God… the Rabbis deny Prophet Muhammad… in fact, five times a day, we pray to Allah, at the end of Surah Fatihah,
“Ihdinnas Siraatal Mustaqeem, Siraatal Latheena Anamta Alaihim, Gayr al Magdoobi Alaihim, Wala Daaleen”
“Show us the Straight Path, the Path of those upon whom You showered Your blessings, and not of those upon whom was Your wrath (the Jews), nor the misguided ones (the Christians)”
How do we expect, with what mindset do we even think, that the supplications of the ones whom Allah has categorically labelled as deviant and deserving of His wrath can help or supplement us, or are more powerful than those of a believer and an Ummati of Rasullullah sallallahu alaihi wassallam? And what about the ‘other religious leaders’? Do we expect divine help from Hindu deities, Buddha and Sai Baba?
It is a sign of the weakness of our iman. Allah Himself states that, "I am with the expectations of My slave," (approximate meaning of a Hadeeth-Qudsi). Allah will do for us what we think He can do. Allah's help is related to the level of our conviction and iman. Half-hearted, doubt-filled duas go nowhere. Believers don't need the kuffar to plead to Allah on their behalf. "Wa kaffa billahi wakeela," Allah is enough for us. We just need the iman for it.
Let us keep our Imaan in check. Let us build our yaqeen in Allah such that we know in the depths of our hearts that Allah is sufficient for us… “And in Allah let the Believers put their trust,” (Surah Mujadilah)
Let us never, under any circumstances, turn to anyone else. All we need to do is ask Allah. “If Allah comes to your aid, none can overcome you,” (Al Quran). And if He doesn’t help us, none can provide us an ounce of aid. La Ilaha Illallah.
May Allah guide all of us, and may He make things easy for the Khan family in this difficult time. And may He grant us the ability to always rise to the need of the hour and to remain firm in our faith. Ameen ya Rabb.
ps - this article is not directed to any members of the Khan family. The two facebook quotes were not written by them, the first was by the person managing the FB page, and the second was from a commentator who probably wasn't related and was just following the story. The purpose of this article is not pass any judgement on anyone, but simply to serve as a reminder for us all. Judgement is reserved for Allah. Peace & duas.
Tags: Aisha Khan missing, aisha khan found
