Malik Ibn Dinar

the following story is written using my words but is a non-fiction (real) story from my Islamic Heritage.
I have written it to my friend, who was facing a dillema with overpowering strings of the devil...
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i just have this nice story that i must tell u perchance it helps u in ur trial between sin and good and being weak:

Malik ibn Dinar was a well known and so much respected Imam and scholar. while in prayer, a certain "aaya" would always make him cry that people started to wonder what was wrong with him and one day got the courage to ask him what was with him and this aaya..so he told him his story..

he said, u know this man sitting here infront of you, who is talking to you, whom you pray behind each and every day..do u know what he was before now??? he was so corrupted that people kept away from him on purpose..he would get drunk that his smell was so foul..he used bad language..he comitted every sin u can and can't imagine...People were repelled by his behaviour that no one wanted anytthing to do with him. so at the end, he grew so lonely..

but one day came, when like all men on earth, he wanted to get married and settle down...no one decent woman would have him with his kind of history...he tried to sober up but couldn't..at the end he married from a prostitute..his heart was devoid of love and he couldn't love this women who is his wife..So, he went back to his sinful life..But, his life began too take a different toll when he had a daughter..with each growing day, this little girl became a centre piece in his life..he started to love her..

But not even that stopped him from drinking, although now it was less than before. After about 3 years, his daughter, so innocently, asked his to stop drinking as it bothered her to see him in that state and smell his ugly foulness. So, he tried for the sake of his daughter until he managed to stop it all together one day.

A while after that, Allah claimed his so much beloved daughter, and the man was devastated. He didn't know what to do or where to go. He abandoned his wife. To take away the pain, he started cursing and using his bad language again...to flee away from pain he went back to his drinking habits...he got worse than he was before..especially now that he didn't want anything..except his daughter...

One day he had a life-turning strange dream:
He dreamt that he was being chased by a huge ugly dragon who spit fire...the more he tried to run away the bigger and faster the dragon got...when he got so tired and was going to give up the running he saw a faint glimpse of an old man very far away..that gave him hope..perhaps that old man can save him..re-energized he started running towards that old man and away from the monestor..
"help me, please, give me directions to flee away from the scary dragon"
"there, go there, behind the mountain" said the old man..
so, the man started to run towrds that direction, behind the mountain ...
and there he finds the surprise...so many young boys and girls..all shouting his name to come to them...they can save him...he was filled with awe at their innocent breathtaking view...but the surprise came when he saw his daughter! she was there, among them, waiting for him...he hurried to her and took her in his arms..she started to comfort him..when he calmed down he asked him about what he saw..the dragon and the old man..

the dragon, she told him, was his evil work...he was so careless about it that it started to grow bigger and bigger...stronger and stronger..till it became so powerful that it could kill him..

and the old man, she said, was his good deeds...they were so little, that they came in the form of that fragile, old man...who barely could've saved him..
then, she recited the following verse from surat "al-hadid" -the iron-:

"Has not the Time arrived for the Believers that their hearts in all humility should engage in the remembrance of Allah and of the Truth which has been revealed (to them), and that they should not become like those to whom was given Revelation aforetime, but long ages passed over them and their hearts grew hard? For many among them are rebellious transgressors. "
and in another translation:
"Is not the time ripe for the hearts of those who believe to submit to Allah's reminder and to the truth which is revealed, that they become not as those who received the scripture of old but the term was prolonged for them and so their hearts were hardened, and many of them are evil-livers." Al Hadid-16)
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the dream ended with a promise from the father that from that moment he will be a reformed man, a man who will keep the dragon at bay, who will make the old man become young and powerfull..the moment he woke up, he was totally changed...he became the Imam whom everyone knew only as a respected man, the Malik ibn Dinar that we all know..
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that is the story of Malik ibn Dinar, and i think we all have a Malik inside of us...to me the stroy gives me strength against evil...

think about it..anything against the straight path is so easy to be taken..any deviation from the path can be easily undertaken..i think about it in terms of a going up the hill versus going down..how easy it is to fall and keep falling because it is with the gravity, in other words, with the flow..people around us have tremendous effect on how we behave...i might be a person who prays on time because it is a habit i got into coz of my house, i can be, without even feeling it changed by the people in my office. if they don't pray on time, or even not at all, I will eventually become like them...I might say we are all in the same boat..if they will go to hell, well, the heck with it, at least I'll have company!!!
from another stand point, going down is so easy..think of entropy...everything in the universe LIKES to deteriorate, to crumble down, to fade away...unless we PROACTIVELY WORK TO KEEP THINGS UP...to rebuild ourselves..and to keep ourselves on the right track..

if it helps: remember that Satan has packed a deal with Allah...to make all humans deviate from the right path until the last day...EXCEPT those who have strong faith....Take it as a challenge, to DEFEAT Satan at his own game..i luv this thinking..the challenge:)