True Story…

There was once a man who was an enemy to Islam. He had three famous questions that no person could answer. No Islamic scholar in Baghdad could answer his three questions thus he made fun of Islam in public. He constantly ridiculed Islam and the Muslims. One day a small boy, who’s age was 10, came along and heard the man yelling and screaming at Muslims in the street. He was challenging people openly to answer the three questions. The boy stood quietly and watched. He then decided that he would challenge the man. He walked up and told the man, “I will accept your challenge”.
The man laughed at the boy and ridiculed the Muslims even more by saying, “A ten year old boy challenges me. Is this all you people have to offer?”
But the boy patiently reiterated his stance. He would challenge the man, and with Allah`s help and guidance, he would put this to an end. The man finally accepted.
The entire city gathered around a small “hill” where open addresses were usually made. The man climbed to the top, and in a loud voice asked his first question.
“What is your God doing right now?”
The small boy thought for a little while and then told the man to climb down the hill and to allow him to go up in order to address the question.
The man says “What? You want me to come down?”
The boy says, “Yes. I need to reply, right?”
The man made his way down and the small boy, age 10, with his little feet made his way up.
This small child`s reply was “Oh Allah Almighty! You be my witness in front of all these people. You have just willed that a Kafir be brought down to a low level, and that a Muslim be brought to a high level!”
The crowd cheered and screamed “Takbir”….”Allah-hu-akbar!!!”
The man was humiliated, but he boldly asked his Second question… “What existed before your God?”
The small child thought and thought.
Then he asked the man to count backwards. “Count from 10 backwards.”
The man counted…”10, 9 ,8 , 7 , 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1,0″
The boy asked, “What comes before 0 ?”
The man: “I don`t know…nothing.”
The boy: “Exactly. Nothing was before Allah, for He is eternal and absolute.”
The crowd cheered again….”Takbir!”….”Allah-hu-akbar!!!!”
The man, now completely frustrated, asked his final question. “In which direction is your Allah facing?”
The boy thought and thought.
He then asked for a candle. A candle was brought to him. The blessed child handed it to the man and asked him to light it.
The man did so and remarked, “What is this supposed to prove?”
The young boy asked, “In which direction is light from the candle going?”
The man responded, “It is going in all directions.”
The boy: “You have answered your own question. Allah is in all directions. He is everywhere. There is no where that He cannot be found.
“The crowd cheered again….”Takbir!”….”Allah-hu-akbar!!!”
The man was so impressed and so moved by the boy`s knowledge and spirituality, that he embraced Islam and became a student of the young boy.
So ended the debate.
Who was the young boy?
The young boy was one of our best scholars, Imam Abu Hanîfa (Rehmatulla Alayh).

Ibn Umar (رضي الله عنه) reports the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) placed his hand on his shoulder and said:

كُنْ فِي الدُّنْيَا كَأَنَّكَ غَرِيبٌ، أَوْ عَابِرُ سَبِيلٍ

“Be in the world as if you are a stranger or a wayfarer.”

[Sahih Bukhari, Volume 8, Book 76, Number 425]

Thereafter, Ibn Umar used to say: “When the night comes, do not wait for the day, and when the day comes, do not wait for the night. Take from your health for your sickness, and take from your life for your death.”

The meaning of “stranger” in this hadîth is that of a person living as a foreigner in a foreign land. Here, Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ ) likens the proper state of a pious believer to a foreigner who has no home to repair to and whose whole life is spent on the road, never staying in any place for a long time, a stranger who is just passing through.

The hadîth says that the believer in the world is like a traveler in a foreign country This simile is rich in meaning. There are at least three ways in which it can be understood

About this hadîth, Ibn Battâl observes:

“A foreigner does not much enjoy the company of other people. He generally feels alienated from them, since he rarely happens upon a person he knows. He is a person in a weak position who needs to remain wary. The same goes for a wayfarer. Allah’s Messenger compared the believers to them to show their asceticism, taking from the world only their basic needs.”

[Ibn Hajar al-Asqalânî, Fath al-Bârî (11/234)]

Ibn Battâl touches upon one of the meanings that is communicated by this hadîth in its comparing a believer to a stranger in a foreign land. This is the lower than normal desire such a person has for socializing with others in the locality and the discomfort that person feels in their company.

There is, though, another meaning expressed by this simile. A stranger who is determined to return to his own country rarely becomes attached to anything in the foreign country where he or she is staying. That person’s heart is too fully attached to his or her homeland.

The same can be said for a believer whose heart does not become attached to anything in the world and who longs for the Hereafter which is the permanent abode and to which is the final return.

We can find a third meaning as well. A stranger is not tainted by the bad conduct that comes from mixing with people and socializing with them. Likewise, a true believer is not distracted from the Creator. Such a person rarely harbors in his heart any envy, rancor, or hypocrisy. A true believer is not one to dispute with others, nor slander them nor expose their faults.

The hadîth also depicts the idea of spiritual advancement and progress. It follows the simile of a stranger with mention of a wayfarer, and a wayfarer is even less attached to the lands that he or she passes through than the stranger or foreign resident.

The way that strangeness is used in this particular hadith is a tangible one; it is the idea of being separated from one’s nation and people and dwelling among others. It does not depict the idea that the believer is regarded as odd or strange by others.

That is another meaning of “stranger” where a person is regarded by the majority to be strange or odd on account of his or her righteousness, adherence to what is best, and avoidance of sin. This is the idea of being in either partial or total nonconformity with one’s surroundings, of doing one thing while everyone else is doing another. They are worlds apart. This other understanding of strangeness describes the believers at the end of time and is the meaning of the estrangement found in the hadîth:

“Islam began strange, and it will become strange again just like it was at the beginning, so blessed are the strangers.”

[Sahîh Muslim (1/131)]