Thalaba Ibn AbdulRahman
Before reading this heart warming story which will most probably bring tears to your eyes first stop and honestly ask yourself a few questions. How often do you sin...im not talking about major or minor in particular just any type of sins? If its a major sin then yes hopefully you would have recognised it and some of us may even recognise when we commit minor sins too but the question is 'How does recognising these sins we commit left right and centre every single day of our lives affect us???' Do we stop upon recognition and feel remorse and turn to Allah for forgiveness? Or are we too busy to even recognise the sin let alone repent to Allah. Perhaps its the case of 'Oh yeah shouldnt have done that oh well life goes on'. Some of us may commit sins and not even think that they are worth thinking about as perhaps we didnt even mean to do them. Lets take a look at how one young Sahabah (companion of the prophet peace be upon him) felt when he committed a sin which im sure most of us but not all of you insha'Allah may not have recognised it as a sin and just felt embarrassed, and possibly utter 'Oh Astaghfirallah' without really paying attention in seeking Allahs forgiveness. Im not trying to have a go at anyone except maybe myself as Im one of those who is guilty of falling short in recognising my own sins and repenting sincerely to Allah. May Allah increase me and us all in recognising our sins, giving us the ability to repent sincerely and may He forgive us ameen.
Thalaba Ibn AbdulRahman
Thalaba Ibn AbdulRahman was a young man at the age of 16. He always ran errands (short trips taken to perform specified tasks) for the prophet pbuh. One day while walking though the city of Medina, he passed by a house with an open door. Out of curiosity he took a glance inside. In this glance, he saw a light curtain being blown away from a bathroom entrance were a woman was bathing. He immediately lowered his gaze. With an extreme feeling of guilt and hypocrisy his mind ran. Thinking to himself, “How could I be of the companions, one that is close to the prophet pbuh, one who runs his errands and be so horrible as to disrespect peoples privacy?”.. He feared that Allah would reveal to the prophet pbuh evidence of his hypocrisy. His guilt denied him to ever show his face to the prophet pbuh. So he ran away.
Days went by and the prophet kept asking the other companions if they had seen Thalaba. No one had seen him. With the prophet’s worry about Thalaba he sent a few of the companions to look for him everywhere, among them were Omar Ibn Al Khattab and Salman Al Farisiy. They looked everywhere in Medina, and on the out skirts of Madina, until they came about a set of mountains between Mecca and Medina where some nomads where herding sheep.
The companions asked the nomads if they had seen a young man with Thalaba’s characteristics. They told the companions about a weeping boy. He had been here for 40 days. He came down from the mountains once a day weeping and drank the milk they would offer him. Then he went back up the mountains weeping, crying, always asking for Allah for forgiveness, and saying words of repentance. So the companions waited until he came down and watched him. He had lost weight. His countenance reflected sorrow as he drank the milk that was mixed with his tears. The companions insisted that they take him back to the prophet pbuh but he refused and asked them if Allah had revealed verses saying he was a hypocrite. They told him that they had no knowledge of any such verses.
He was taken back to Medina where the prophet pbuh went to see him. He asked again if Allah had put him among the hypocrites or revealed that he was. The prophet pbuh assured him that there were no such verses. He laid out Thalaba’s tired, weak body and placed Thalaba’s head on his lap. He said, “Oh prophet of Allah remove the head of a sinner away from you.” The prophet pbuh comforted him until he told the prophet pbuh I feel as though ants are walking between my flesh and bones. The prophet told him it was death and his time had come. He witnessed while Thalaba’s head was on his lap, Thalaba proclaim “There is no god worthy of worship other than Allah, and that Mohamed pbuh is the messenger of Allah.” The prophet pbuh washed Thalaba and carried him to the grave. It is narrated that on their way to bury Thalaba, the prophet pbuh walked on his tippy toes as though he were in a crowd. When Omar asked about this, the prophet pbuh explained that he was being crowded with the angels.
