By Shannon Abulnasr
Have you ever had someone enter your life in one form or another that served a purpose that you may not have known until later on in life?
When contemplating life events you go through, you will discover that people served purposes that you didn’t realise at that time.
Sometimes the person was placed there to be a friend in a time of trouble, or a teacher when you needed guidance, or even an enemy to teach you a lesson.
We never really know do we, until later on, right?
Allah places people in our lives at specific times to suit a specific reason, and removes them from our lives at specific times. The lesson to take from this is that we should always be grateful for everyone that crosses our path, because we never know what we will gain, learn, or benefit from that person... even the bad ones. Say “Alhamdulilah” because each person was sent for a purpose.
We just have to learn to understand the roles they played in our lives at those times to grow intellectually, emotionally, socially, and even spiritually. I’m sure if you contemplate about people you have encountered in the past and present, you may awaken your mind and spirit to their purpose and make use of it!
Let’s look at some examples I’ve experienced, and experiences of some other people, and maybe you can relate to some of them.
A Hindu Room-mate
At one point in my life, I needed a place to stay, and a friend that was a Hindu from India, offered to let me stay with them until I was able to get my own place.
During my stay with them, I was always asking questions about things that they did in regards to their faith, and one day they asked me what I believed in.
I explained that I didn’t have a religion, but explained my beliefs, and that person told me that I was a Muslim. Subhan Allah. I had never heard of Islam, or Muslims before having this room-mate.
This conversation led me to meet some Muslims and eventually learn more about Islam, and take my shahadah .... so, Alhamdulilah for this person entering my life!
Three Truck Drivers
Lynne was hitch-hiking and got a ride with a truck driver. When they stopped the truck for a pit stop, he sent her to get them some coffee. When she returned the driver had ran off and left her, stealing everything she owned that was in her bags. All she had left were the clothes on her back.
With no money, or phone, etc. she began to panic and she sat down and cried. As the day went on, another truck driver stopped and he was carrying chickens. The chickens were escaping from the truck and he saw she was down on her luck and told her that she could earn some money by helping him catch them. Desperate with no other options, she helped out.
Later a third driver stopped and offered her a lift. She took his offer and while traveling over a few days, she became really sick, and the man cared for her. By the time she reached Chicago, she felt like she wanted to just die and her misery be over with. The driver asked her for her clothes, so she gave them to him so that he could wash them. He returned with a bag full of new clothes that he bought her. He gave her the clothes and some cash. She told him that she couldn’t repay him, and he just told her to “pay it forward” when she was able to, by helping another needy person later on as repayment.
In her words, she explained that she believes that the first driver was put in her life to teach her not to trust people blindly, and the second was a sign to her that her prayers would be answered, and the third gave her a sense of hope in mankind, and that there were still good people out there and to never lose hope.
A Spouse
Katherine had married a Muslim man while she was a Christian. A few months after marriage, she met his family, and they were talking to her about Islam. It triggered her to learn more about it, because her husband never talked to her about religion.
After contemplating Islam, she later converted, and intensely studied over the next 6 months. The more she learned and implemented Islam in her life, her husband became more and more distant. She began to realise that her husband was not a practicing Muslim. She looked to him for support in her learning but was faced with opposition instead. He was encouraging her to not implement Islam into her life to remain at his level which he was comfortable with. She refused and eventually they ended in a divorce because as she learned about her rights as a wife, she realised that her husband was not giving her rights to her.
When Katherine looked to remarry, she was armed with the knowledge of marriage in Islam, and her rights, and knew what kind of man to look for that would help her grow in her Islam.
Looking back she realizes that maybe her first husband was put in her life to have Islam introduced to her to expose what Islam really was, and wasn’t, and what a good Muslim husband was and wasn’t. It made her strong, and knowledgeable knowing what to look for in a new spouse. She remarried, and has been happily married to a practicing Muslim for over 10 years now. Alhamdulilah for the first husband, because even though he wasn’t meant for her, if it were not for him, she wouldn’t have learned about Islam, and resulted in her finding her soul mate!
Did you ever consider that you have been sent to someone else for a purpose, and not them being placed in your life for your benefit? It happens. Allah has ways of putting people in our lives, and putting us in the lives of others because He is the master of planners.
Even when He removes a person from our live, we must say “Alhamdulilah” because there is most definitely a reason for it that we can’t comprehend at that moment. We will never really know for sure what roles people play in our lives, but Allah knows. Nothing on this Earth happens without His will.
{Say: “Nothing will happen to us except what Allah has decreed for us: He is our protector”: and on Allah let the Believers put their trust.} (9:51)
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