Guest Author - Serkan Tufan


I was listening to a radio talk by a young men about his life story. This men, in his 30’s now, had to work at a craftsmen workplace since he was a little kid. He gained extraordinary talents and become a wanted artist at the age of 18 in the country he lives as a Muslim. He had all the money and fame. He did not know what to do with this life, then he started drinking, having a party life, and gambling. He got married and had a beautiful son. One day, a religious man and his wife came and said: We would like to welcome you to the neighborhood, here are some books that might be interesting. He looks at one of them: “Death and beyond” by Imam Gazhali. The books have been left in a corner, untouched….He never remembered them…

When his son was 4 years old, he saw this amazing dream, in which he was having a traffic accident and dying. He was shocked and that night, he was for the first time in her life, woken up by the call to prayer (athan – ezan) that is announced from mosques in the very early morning, he felt he had to pray morning prayer. He, as much as he know and remember from childhood, prayed. This waking up situation lasted about 5 consecutive days, while he was waking up at 8 am every day, he was waking up at 5 am that whole week with the beautiful sound of athan. In the sixth night, he unfortunately drank a lot and he missed , so he could not wake up for the call for prayer as he passed out. He was feeling horrible that day and had not driven his car, nor he had used any transportation because of his fear. But he had to travel with a truck to another city for his job that day, and he finds a chauffeur to drive him and two other friends. They barely fit into the truck which had 3 person capacity. Unfortunately, what he feared has happened as the chauffeur could not make wild turn and the truck got upside down. He was thrown in a hole in the land, until a couple of men tried to help him by pulling his legs and arms and trying to carry him, unfortunately, he had severely injured backbones and a no-healing paralyzed situation. After months of treatment, while he was thinking he could maybe walk again, the doctor harshly announced that he needed him out because no other progress is possible. His world turned upside down and that moment he could not bare it anymore, he committed suicide taking all the sleep medicines he had. At the exact moment, his 4 year old jumps into the room and gives her a fathers day present. That makes him immediately throw everything out, and decide to bare the life for him and his wife.
After some time, he tells his wife that he will not be able to walk again, they cry together for hours. His wife never leaves him, taking good care of him along with his mom. After he stay home frustrated and depressed, he becomes really aggressive and hostile to everyone, he cannot accept the fact that this happened to him. Starts thinking about death again…He then decides to find a job, and sells bread in a little bakery. While he has lots of time to think and read, he starts thinking about reading books, and his wife gives these books that the religious man and his wife gave to him. He looks at the cover: “Death and beyond” by Imam Gazhali. Starts reading immediately. Finds everything he was looking for, the answers and the remedies to all of his pains. As he becomes God-conscious, he starts living his life with much happiness, learning about Allah, Islam, and what these offer him, he decides that the only thing that might cure our material and spiritual illnesses is learning about our God and the meaning of life.
Then he finds out that the house they rented is for sale, he wanted to buy, but with what money? He , out of nowhere is called by the bank and they let him know that he accumulated that much money and retirement because of his dues that are paid for years….He never know about this and becomes extremely happy. He , while buying the apartment, figures out that upstairs is also sold with this offer. So he owns and lives in one, rents another. He was blessed with incredible bounties, that all came after this accident. He says at one point, “with the incredible pains and sufferings I had, I am so glad to have this accident, it gave me everything in life, a totally different perspective, meaning of life, introduced me to my religion, helped me pray regularly, become a beautiful loving person who I am now, look at all the things and bounties in life, my beautiful family and being able to thank Allah. I never had that much treasure before”, he says.

I was incredibly impressed by his story he tells in the radio. I thought how Allah intends everything an outlet to take us to the right path. How disasters in life becomes examination and might be a way to reach higher levels of humanity and servanthood. It is incredible. I think this was also the wife’s examination, and she successfully passed that. He now even thinks that I am so happy that even if I die, I have two houses which will be enough for my family to survive.

Please write your thoughts in the forum about this….