Assalamu Alaikum brothers and sisters! hope and pray that you are in the best of Iman and health! i'd like to thank you for being such beautiful stars; you have always supported me and encouraged me to chase my dreams. Friends like you are a blessing i can never show thanks for. But...thank you. You mean so much to me. My life would not be the same without your presence (physically or digitally!) <3
Last time i wrote my marriage experience.. but now i'd like to share another story, but it is different.
Three years ago, on 22 January 2010, my sister Maryam left this world. She was less than a year younger than me. i was fifteen and she was fourteen. She would have turned fifteen nine days later.
The reason i share this story is not to gain sympathy... but because death is a mercy, a blessing and a reminder... and mercies, blessings and reminders should be shared. Out of love for my brothers and sisters, i'd like to humbly share my experience. But first, i humbly request you to recite a Surah Al-Fatihah for all our brothers and sisters who have left this world, especially those who were oppressed. Al-Fatihah.
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The plane landed in Germany. It was night time. Friday. About 19:30. Winter. As soon as the plane arrived at the terminal, before the seatbelt sign had been switched off, an announcement was made. They called the name of my dad and my name, saying 'that is father and son traveling together, please come forward'. We were rushed off the plane before anyone else. Rushed through passport control. i've never been through an airport that quickly!
Then, a lady who was speaking anxiously to my father, told us that our taxi was here. The taxi driver seemed really nice. He was an older gentleman. He walked quickly to his taxi with us following him. He drove like crazy. i had no idea why all this was happening. Why had we been rushed off the plane like that? Why was he driving so so speedily? Of course, this did stir a feeling of excitement within me! It is kinda cool being driven at 100 mph on a dark motorway at night lol!
We had come to see my sister Miryam who had been in hospital for a few days now. My mother had left for Germany with Miryam and my little baby brother Hamza to visit my grandmother (my mum's mother). During this time, we had found out through telephone, that Miryam had been taken sick in hospital. However, this didn't strike me as strange. Because all her life she had been in and out of hospital. When she was just 2 years old she had had open heart surgery. After that things deteriorated. No one really knew why. She had a weak body. She was in a wheelchair. She couldn't communicate in the 'normal' way. But my parents understood her. They had had a new house knocked down and built up especially for her needs. She was still their daughter. Every person is unique, right? My parents didn't love her any less because of her disabilities.
Anyway, because i had always seen her in and out of hospital, it was saddening that she was in hospital in Germany now... but it didn't seem like a big deal. i remember the days when i was a primary school kid, every day my mum would pick me up and take me to the hospital to see Miryam, as she had to live there for quite some time during her infant years. Some months, i believe. My mum would sleep over beside her daughter's bed many nights, looking after her, caring for her, loving her. A mother's love...
So now we arrived at the hospital - the taxi took us straight there. We went to the reception, and my dad found out where we needed to go. We walked really quickly in the cold dark Winter night, from one wing of the hospital to the wing Miryam was in. Then, and this i remember as vividly as it was yesterday, we came to the entrance of the building. There was my mother, wearing her plain black veil and Abaya as she always does, her brother (my uncle) beside her. Her face was red, and i could tell that it was because she had been crying. It seemed that my uncle had been crying too. Hearts completely open...
She smiled at me from the depths of my heart, and said:
'She has gone. She has gone to a better place'
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