In this story is an admonition for whoever has a heart or lends an ear while he is a witness. Let us therefore reflect and contemplate over this true story while seeking out whatever meanings and shades of ikhlaas are contained within it.
Suhayb (radiallaahu ‘anhu) reports that Allah’s Messenger (salallahu ‘alaiyhi wasallam) said: ‘Amongst the people who were before you was a king who had a magician in his service. When the magician grew old, he said to the king: “I am getting old so appoint a young man to whom I can teach magic.” The king sent him a young man to be taught the art of magic. In the youth’s way to the magician there was a monk to whom he used to stop by and listen. He was so pleased with the speech of the monk that every time he set off to see the magician he would stop by the monk on the way. This would make him late and so the monk told him: “When you are afraid of the magician say: ‘My family kept me’ and when you are afraid of your family say: ‘The magician kept me.’” This matter continued for a while. Once, on his way he came across a beast which had blocked the passage of the people. The young man said to himself: “Now I can see whether the magician is better or the monk.” So he picked up a stone and said: “O Allah! If the conduct of the monk is more pleasing to You than that of the magician then bring about the death of this beast so that the people may pass.” Then he hit the beast with the stone and killed it, enabling the people to pass.
The youth told the monk of this incident and the monk said to him: “My son this day you have taken over me and I perceive that you will be put to trial. If you are put to trial then do not direct the people to me.”
The young man began curing people suffering from blindness at birth, leprosy and all other diseases. This news reached a courier of the king who had became blind and so he went to the young man with many presents and said: “All this will be yours if you cure me.” The young man said to him: “I do not cure anyone, it is Allah alone who cures. If you declare your faith in Allah, I will pray for you and He will grant you your health.” The man declared his faith in Allah and Allah the Exalted cured him. He then went to the royal court and sat there. The king questioned him: “Who has restored your sight?” He said: “My Lord!” The king said to him: “Do you have a Lord besides me?” The courtier replied: “My Lord and your Lord is Allah.” The king ordered the man to be arrested and tortured until he disclosed the name of the young man. The young man was brought before the king who said to him: “My son, you have reached such skill in your magic that you can cure people with blindness, leprosy and whatever else.” The young man replied: “It is not me who heals but it is Allah the Exalted who heals.” He was then taken and tortured until he disclosed the whereabouts of the monk. Then the monk was brought in front of the king and ordered to revoke his religion, but he refused. The king sent for a saw which was place in the middle of the monk’s head and he was sawn in half. Then the king’s courtier and called for and he also was asked to recant from his religion. He too refused and the saw was placed in the middle of his head and he was sawn in half.
Then the young man was brought forward and was asked to denounce his religion. He refused to do so. The king entrusted the young man to his men and told them: “Take him to such and such a mountain. When you reach the top and he still refuses to turn back from his religion, throw him off it.” They took him to the top of the mountain and the young man supplicated: “O Allah! Suffice me against them in whatever you way You will.” The mountain began to shake and the men fell off it. The young man came walking to the king who said to him: “What have your companions done?” He said: “Allah delivered me from them.” He was then given to another group of companions who were ordered to take him in a small boat to the sea and if he refused to return from his religion, to throw him into the sea. They took him along with them and he supplicated: O Allah! Suffice me against them in whatever way You will.” The boat sank and the young man again walked back to the king and said to him: “You will not be able to kill me until you do what I command you.” The king enquired: “What is that?” The young man answered: “Assemble the people in an open space and hang me from the trunk of a palm tree. Then take an arrow from my quiver and place it in the middle of the bow and say: ‘In the name of Allah, the Lord of this young man’, and shoot the arrow at me. If you do this you will be able to kill me.”
The people were made to assemble accordingly and the young man was hung from the trunk of a palm tree. The king took an arrow from his quiver and placing it in the middle of the bow said: “In the name of Allah, the Lord of this young man” and shot it. The arrow struck the boy in the temple who raised his hand to his temple and then died. Seeing this the people said: “We believe in the Lord of this young man.” The king was told: “Look! What you apprehanded has happened. The people declared their faith in the Lord of this young man.”
The king ordered trenches to be dug on both sides of the road and when they were ready, fire was lit in them. It was then announced that any person refusing to denounce his faith would be thrown into the trenches. This took place and a woman came forward accompanied by her baby boy. Se hesitated to be thrown into the fire and the boy said to her: “O Mother! Be firm and show patience as you are indeed upon the truth.”‘38
Look at how Allah responded to the sincere supplications and how the rules and laws of the creation were replaced and altered on account of ikhlaas to Allah, the Exalted. The young man fell into great danger when they took him to the top of the mountain in order to throw him off it. He then called upon Allah with extreme sincerity: ‘O Allah! Suffice me against them in whatever way you will.’ So the mountain shook, his captors fell off it and he came back walking to the king. Ikhlaas has been the cause of his safety from death and he was capable, by the grace of Allah the Sublime, to kill the enemies of Allah by his ikhlaas. Then they took him out to sea in a boat to rid themselves of this sincere (servant) – as they saw ikhlaas to be the secret of his strength – by throwing him into the sea. He again called upon Allah with the sincerity of a servant to his Lord: ‘O Allah! Suffice me against them in whatever way you will.’ The boat capsized with them and they were drowned. He again came back to the king, walking.
This is the ikhlaas by which Allah granted safety to this young man from great danger and by this ikhlaas the end of the enemies of Allah, the Blessed and Exalted was decided.
Then look at how this boy’s ikhlaas grew stronger when he sold his soul for Allah to become a martyr. He sacrificed himself so that the word of ikhlaas would be uttered and expressed all over the earth, that actions may be performed by it and that people may say: ‘We believe in the Lord of the young man.’
He had already said to the king: ‘You will not be able to kill me until you do what I command you.’ The king enquired: ‘What is that?’ The young man answered: ‘Assemble the people in an open space and hang me from the trunk of a palm tree. Then take an arrow from my quiver and place it in the middle of the bow and said: “In the name of Allah, the Lord of this young man” and shoot the arrow at me. If you do this, you will be able to kill me.’ And what was the result of this ikhlaas? The people’s faith in the Lord of the young man. No sooner had this young man died, the people began to say: ‘We believe in the Lord of the young man.’
This is the fruit of the young man’s ikhlaas. A complete mountain of faith by which they remained firm and steadfast in the face of being burnt. What Allah caused the baby boy to say when his mother was hesitant to jump into the fire was also from the fruits of ikhlaas: ‘O Mother! Be firm and show patience as you are indeed upon the truth.’
This baby boy spoke yesterday and yet the mouths of mankind today are closed, not mumbling anything – except upon whom Allah has shown mercy – and how few they are.
‘So is there one who will take admonition?’
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Footnotes:
38. Reported by Muslim.
39. Suraah al-Qamar (54):32
*The Book of Sincerity by Hussayn al-’Awa’ishah
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