The Boy and the Cookie

“…I knew him myself. I knew him, and I don’t say he was from the Children of Isra’il. No! He was from the sons of this land. I knew him personally.

He would weep intensely. He would weep intensely, and he would never have the Qur’an recited in his presence except that he would cry, and become humble and soft. He was an amazing, strange person.

He memorized the Qur’an when he was only twelve! However, he was older due to the Words of Allah and his knowledge of Allah, and I don’t place him higher in status than Allah would.

I tell you about him while I have placed a condition on myself that I don’t tell you other than what I saw with my own eyes. The second condition I placed on myself is that I don’t exaggerate in anything I say about him.

He memorized ‘Sahih Muslim’ with me in two weeks. He memorized ‘Sahih al-Bukhari’ with my third friend – we were three – in two weeks. Do you realize? I didn’t know that he had memorized al-Bukhari, and my friend didn’t know that he had memorized Muslim. He loved sincerity. He always loved as-Sirri as-Saqti. Do you know why as-Sirri as-Saqti in particular? Because as-Sirri as-Saqti used to pay a lot of attention to sincerity.

He was very good in school, and in fact excelled in it. He would only sleep between the time he got home from school until Dhuhr time. After ‘Asr, he would attend halaqahs. After Maghrib, he would attend the lessons of the scholars. After ‘Isha’ until eleven, he would study for school. From eleven – every single day – he would pray all night until Fajr.

I am not exaggerating! He is from our own sons, from our country!

Whenever he would read the Qur’an, he would cry. I would read that when some of the Salaf would read the Qur’an, they would pass out. I know the dispute among the scholars on this, but I have never seen this with my own eyes except from this youth. We would pray the Friday prayer, and the imam would recite: {“And the inhabitants of Hell called out to the inhabitants of Paradise ‘Give us a drop of water!’”} [al-A’raf; 50] And he fell down on his head, and we thought he had died.

We prayed one night at my house. I pretended that I was asleep in order to see what he would do. He came over and motioned with his hand over my eyes (to see if I was awake). He woke up at eleven, and I would sleep and wake up, sleep and wake up – and he would be standing in a rak’ah and I wouldn’t see him go down. He would then bow and I wouldn’t see him come up.

On a different night, he would read the Qur’an. When he got to this verse, in front of me: {“Indeed, it is Hell, taking away the skin of the head!”} [al-Ma’arij; 15-16] he cried and passed out. I woke him up, and he got up and made ablution and prayed. When he got to the verse: {“Indeed, it is Hell, taking away the skin of the head!”} he again cried and passed out. I woke him up, and when he got to it a third time, he recited it and passed out again and didn’t wake up until the call for Fajr prayer.

He would recite the entire Qur’an every three nights in secret while praying at night, and would do so every seven days openly during the day. I am not exaggerating, as he would do this in front of me. And by Allah, he would remember Allah in a single day more than 12,000 times! I counted them myself while sitting with him – 12,000 times! I would ask him: “Why?” He replied: “I don’t want Abu Hurayrah to have done more than me.” He had jealousy, jealousy when it came to worship!

He was only seventeen at the time, when he was at this level!

I didn’t know what to say about him! Whenever he would come across a text to memorize, I would say: “I challenge you to memorize this.” He would say: “Don’t challenge me!” I would try to fire him up, and say: “I challenge you!” The next day, he would come and recite the text to me as if it were just his name. If he made just three mistakes, he would not consider himself to have memorized it. Three mistakes!

This was a person who would repent! If only you knew his sin! I will tell you later what his sin was.

If we lost hope in a youth – we would give da’wah to someone and lose hope in him, we didn’t know, and I am speaking about myself and Allah Knows best about others  – he was someone whose supplication was answered in front of seventeen people who bear witness to this, in more than one incident. If we lost hope in a youth, we would tell him to go and give him da’wah. By Allah, after just two days, this person would be guided. He would walk with him for just two days. The first day, the second day, and he would then be praying in the first row! Whether he was a smoker, a drug user, etc., he would become upright right away by the Permission of Allah. This is blessing! Blessing!

One day, he would pray behind a scholar in the southern region who you know of who would elongate the prayer. So, he would elongate it, following the Sunnah. He would lead the people in prayer, and a man came and hit him on the back with a stick while he was bowing, in front of me. After the prayer, he looked at him and asked: “Why did you hit me?”

He replied: “You have whisperings! You make us pray too long!”

The imam replied: “You are healthy! You are healthy!”

The man replied: “How do you know I’m healthy?”

This youth then raised his hands to Allah – as soon as he raised his hands, my heart stopped – and said: “O Allah, take away his health until he knows its value and prays properly in front of You!” It was the ‘Asr prayer, and I swear by Allah that this man didn’t pray Maghrib with us. He was at home, laying in bed. After a few weeks, I saw him and said: “Fear Allah! The man is at home in bed! I ask you by Allah…” He said: “My brother, I didn’t mean to do this!” I said: “Ask Allah to cure him.” By Allah, the man prayed with us the next prayer!

In the Haram, he would wear thick glasses. I am telling you that this is a repenter from our times! I know him! He is my friend! I am greater than him in age, but he is greater than me. I don’t place him in status higher than where Allah has placed him.

They were in the Haram, and he was wearing glasses, and they bothered him. He said: “I can’t go to Palestine one day with glasses.” So, he went to the well of Zam Zam in front of the people – they were seventeen people – and he took off his glasses, took the Zam Zam water, said: “O Allah, make it a cure for my vision,” and drank it. He then said: “Allah is the Greatest!” and threw the glasses away in front of everyone! They wanted to test him, and they pointed to a clock that nobody could see, they asked him: “Can you tell us what time it is?” He said: “The time is such and such.” Exact! He would read the Qur’an…his vision was returned 100%!

Indeed, it is supplication! “…and if he asks Me, I will Give him.”

The incidents are many, but the time doesn’t permit me to tell them all.

You know, one day I asked him about his sin. When did I ask him? One day, he recited the verse: {“On the day when some faces will be brightened and some faces will be darkened…”} [Al ‘Imran; 106] By Allah, he cried to the point that my heart was as if it was being torn. I said to him: “The Messenger of Allah said: “The worst of people is he who is asked by Allah and is not responded to,” and I ask you by Allah: what makes you cry like this?” I want to cry like him, people! I want to feel the happiness he felt!

He said: “I committed a sin in my life.”

I asked him: “What is this sin?”

Do you know what his sin was? You will laugh at yourself. I will explain it to you. He said: “When I was in second grade, I went into a store and took a cookie and ate it, and the Fire is more deserving of a body that is nurtured on what is forbidden (i.e. because the cookie didn’t belong to him).”

He died. He died, may Allah have Mercy on him, when he was only twenty. He died because of a stray bullet that someone fired accidentally while playing with a weapon. A bullet was accidentally fired and entered the body of this youth, killing him. He died as a righteous person, and I assume him to be such.

He died, and that was it. It was all over.

However, his life didn’t die. And by Allah, were it not the fact that he asked me by Allah to not reveal his name, I would have revealed it…”

[May Allah reward my good friend Muhammad who showed me this clip, and make me, him, and all who read this story like this incredible youth.]