A journey to eternity...have you packed?

Have You Packed?
Salaam Alaikum!!!
I know you think you are young, but are you prepared for your final Destination?The Hereafter….
Have you packed your suitcase?
His cheeks were worn with neat beard and sunken,
a handsome young man with skin spotless and hugged his bones,
that didn’t stop him though. You could never catch him not reading the Quran and doing Azkar (celebration of Allah’s names).always vigil in his room, bowing, prostrating and raising his hands in prayers until the call for Fajr and the leave for Masjid.
That was the way he was from dawn till sunset and back again; boredom was for others and as for me I craved nothing more than fashion, night clubs and going to parties with babes. I treated myself all the time to videos until those trips to the video cd’s shops became my trademark. As they use to say ’’when something becomes a habit people tends to distinguish you by it.’’I was negligent in responsibilities as a Muslim and laziness characterized my Salah.One night, I turned the video off after a marathon three hours of watching. The Adhan softly rose in that quiet night, I slipped peacefully into my blanket, his voice carried from his room; Yes! I answered, would you like anything Ihsan? I asked; with a sharp needle, he popped my plans. Don’t sleep before you pray Fajr! He said….Aha ha…there’s still an hour before Fajr, that was the first call, insha Allah I will go to Masjid.with those pinches of his, he called me closer to his room and he was like that even before the fierce sickness shook his spirit and shut him in bed. Hassan! Can you come and sit beside me? He asked.I could never refuse any of his requests; you could touch the purity and sincerity.Yes! Ihsan? ...please sit here; ok I’m sitting, what’s on your mind? With the sweetest mono voice, he began reciting “Every soul shall taste death and you will merely be repaid your earnings on resurrection Day”. He stopped thoughtfully, and then he asked, do you believe Death? Of course I do. Do you believe that you shall be responsible for whatever you do, regardless of how small or large? I do! But Allah is forgiving, most merciful and I’ve got a long life waiting for me …Stop it HASSAN!!!Arent you afraid of death and its abruptness? Look at Jamal, he was younger than you but he died in a car accident, so did so and so. Death is age-blind and your age is just numbers, could not be a measure of when you shall die. The darkness of the room filled my skin with fear. I’m scared of the dark and now you made me scared of death, how am I supposed to sleep now?Ihsan! i thought you promised you will go with us on vacation during summer break,impact!his voice broke and his heart quivered. I might be on a long trip this year Hassan, but somewhere else, just may be.All of our lives are in Allah’s Hands and we all belong to HIM. My eyes welled and tears slipped down both cheeks, I pondered my brother’s grizzly sickness, how the Doctor had informed my father privately that there was not much hope that Ihsan was going to outlive the disease. He wasn’t told though, who hinted him? Was it that he could sense the truth? What are you thinking about Hassan? His voice was sharp.Do you think I am just saying this because am sick? Uh-uh? Infact I may live longer than people who are not sick. And you Hassan, how long are you going to live? Twenty years, may be? Forty? then what? Through the dark he reached for my hand and squeezed gently. There’s no difference between us, we’re all going to leave this world to live and dwell in Al-jannah or Agonize in Hell. Listen to the words of Allah saying “Anyone who is pushed away from the fire and shown into Al-jannah will have triumphed”. I left my brother’s room dazed, his words ringing my ears. May Allah guide you Hassan; don’t forget your solat-ul-Fajr.Eight O’clock in the morning, pounding on my door .i don’t usually wake up at this time, crying, confusion.Oh Allah! What happened?Ihsan’s condition became critical after Fajr; they took him immediately to the hospital.Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi rajiun; there wasn’t going to be any trips this summer. It was written that I would spend the holiday at home. After an eternity……..it was one ‘O’clock in the afternoon, mother called the hospital, Yes! You can come and see him now. Dad’s voice had changed, mother could sense something had gone deathly wrong.We left immediately, where was that avenue I used to travel and thought was so long? Why was it so short now? So very short, where was the cherished crowd and traffic that would give me a chance to gaze here and there, left and right? Everyone, just move out of our way. Mother was shaking her head in her hands, crying as she made Dua for Ihsan.We arrived at the hospital’s main entrance, one man was moaning, another was involved in an accident and the third’s eye were iced, you couldn’t tell if he was alive or dead.We slipped stairs to Ihsan’s floor, he was in intensive care. The Nurse approached us; let me take you to him. As we walked down the aisles, the Nurse went on expressing how wonderful a young man Ihsan was. She re-assured mother some what that Ihsan’s condition had gotten better than what it was in the morning. Sorry! No more than one visitor at a time. This was the intensive care unit, through the small window in the door and past the flurry of white robes; I caught my brother’s eyes. Mother was standing beside him, after two minutes, mother came out unable to control her crying. You may enter and say salaam to him on condition! That you do not speak too long, they told me; two minutes should be enough.How are you? You were fine last night brother! What happened? We held hands, he squeezed harmlessly; I’m doing fine! Alhamdulillah even now, Alhamdulillah….but! your hands are so cold. I sat on his bedside and rested my fingers on his knee; he jerked it away.sorry!!!Did I hurt you? No; it is just that I remembered Allah’s words “One leg will be wrapped to the other (in death shroud)’’Hassan pray for me; he said. I may be meeting the first day of the Hereafter very soon. It is a long journey and I haven’t prepared enough good Deeds in my suitcase. A tear escaped my eye and ran down my cheek at his words, I cried and he joined me.The room blurred away and left us two brothers to cry together, rivulets of tears splashed down on my brother’s palm which I held with both hands. Dad was now becoming more worried about me. I’ve never cried like that before.At home and upstairs in my room; I watched the sun passes away with a sorrowful day. Silence mingled in our corridors, a cousin came into my room, another. The visitors were many and all the voices down stairs stirred together. Only one thing was clear at that point…..Ihsan had died.I stopped distinguish who came and who went; I couldn’t remember what they said.OH! Allah where was I? What was going on? I couldn’t cry anymore. Later that week they told me what happened. Dad had taken my hand to say good bye to my brother for the last time, I had kissed Ihsan’s head. I remembered only one thing, seeing him spread on that bed, the bed that he was going to die on. I remembered the verse he recited “One leg will be wrapped to the other leg (in Death shroud)” and I knew too well the truth of the next verse “The drive on that day will be to your lord (Allah)”.I tiptoed into his room that night, staring at the cabinet and boxes of his Quran and books of Hadith, fiqh, stock with cds and all that Islamic. I treasured who it was that had shared my mother’s womb with me.Ihsan was my twin brother, I remembered who had prayed for my guidance and also had shed so many tears, for so many long nights, telling me about death and the day of Accountability. May Allah save us all (Amin)Tonight is Ihsan’s first night that he shall spend in his tomb. OH! Allah have mercy on him and illumines his grave. This was his Quran, his prayer mat; I remembered my brother and cried over all days that I had lost. I prayed to Allah to keep him firm in his grave as he always liked to mention in his supplication. At that moment; I stopped I asked myself; what if it was I who had died? Where would I be moving to? Fear pressed me and tears began all over again.Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar………Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar……….The first Adhan rose softly from the masjid, how beautiful it’s sound this time. I felt calm and relaxed as I repeated the Muadhin’s call. I put on my slippers and go to the masjid for Fajr.i prayed as if it was my last prayer; a farewell prayer just like Ihsan had done yesterday. It had been his last Fajr, now and insha Allah for the rest of my life, if I wake in the morning, I do not count being alive by evening and in the evening, I do not count being alive by morning.We are all going on Ihsan’s journey what have we prepared for it?“And whatever good you do, be sure Allah knows it”Q2:197. “Whosoever does a good deed, it is for his own self” Q45:15.There is charity in enjoining good there is charity in forbidding evil.Narrated by Abu Hurairah (R.A) that the messenger of Allah (SAW) said “Iman has over seventy branches, the uppermost of which is the declaration; none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and the least of which is the removal of harmful object from the road; and modesty is a branch of Iman” Sahih Bukhari and MuslimNot exactly from a brother’s pen but a story we could not pass up._________________
Indeed the battle between truth and falsehood is as old as man himself.