Bismil
Laahir Rahmaanir Raheem
Assalaamu
alaykum wa rahmatul Laahi wa barkaatuhu brothers and sisters in Islam. This is
an 11 minutes 6 seconds lecture video I watched on Robert Davila by Ustadh
Nouman Ali Khan that I typed almost word for word in order to spread this
inspirational story. May Allah azza wa jal help us to draw great lessons from
this and become better servants to Him. Aameen.
Story begins…
The
story of Robert Davila. You know who that is? No, you don’t because I do. Three
months ago, I gave khutbah in a Fourth Worth (can’t get the name right). I
haven’t been to that place for four or five years and they invited me for some
reason and I went and I gave khutbah there. My khutbah was about du’a. An
Egyptian fellow comes up to me; a young man came up to me afterwards he goes;
‘Allah fulfilled my du’a today.’ I said; ‘What’s your du’a?’ and he said; ‘My
du’a was that Nouman Ali Khan should meet Robert Davila.’ I was like…(he made a
funny face) ‘Are you Robert Davila?’ He goes; ‘No, I am not Robert Davila.
Robert Davila is my friend but I think Allah is fulfilling my du’a. I was like,
‘fire away, I want to know.’
Robert
Davila is a young man who lives in a town forty minutes pass Fourth Worth. He
was a farmer, young guy and he was hit with some form of genetic disorder that
kicked in later on in his life and he became paralysed from the neck down and
he lives in a nursing home. Most people in that nursing home are 90 years, 100
years; they are really really old people and there is his room where he’s
paralysed; he is the only thirty something year old; that is in the nursing
home. He’s been in that nursing home for the last ten years. His family got a
computer for him that is voice activated so he can give voice commands with the
headphone on and google stuff and search stuff, so he can surf the web and find
information. In his room; and by the way, staunch Christian family, the
minister comes and prays for him every week and things like that and his best
friend was in the bed next to him. They became best friends because they met in
the nursing home. He is also paralysed and he needed a new liver. A liver
transplant and they use to talk about God and things like that all the time.
They were good friends.
Finally,
his best friend got a call that there is a donor available for the liver. So he
is so excited and he says; ‘Robert, I’m going to miss you but I’m going. I’ve
got a donor.’ So they take his friend and he died in the course of the
operation. The sister of his dead friends gave one of the crucifixes of his
friend to him as a gift as a reminder of their friendship. They hanged that on
the side of his hospital bed.
Robert
Davila lives a pretty decent life and the nurses take care of him; he is a
happy guy and one day he goes to sleep then he sees a man in his dream. The man
says his name is Muhammad and he says pointing at the crucifix; ‘God did not
send messengers so they would worship the messengers. God sent messengers so
you could worship God and Jesus was just a man. He walked in the markets and he
ate food,’ and the dream stopped.
He
only knows that Jesus was just a man and a man named Muhammad said that to him.
He said but messengers came so people could worship God and not the messengers.
This is all he knows so he starts googling Muhammad. He finds Islam. He takes
shahada. When he takes shahada, he wants to learn about the Qur’an so he goes
on this chat sessions and he finds ‘somebody needs to teach me Qur’an.’ He
finds a brother in Egypt that he gets together with on skype to try to learn
Arabic. Learn the Arabic alphabets. Once he learnt the Arabic alphabets, he
learnt to recite the Qur’an. He memorized ten surahs on his hospital bed. Then
he said; ‘I’m beginning to memorize the Qur’an and learn about this Prophet but
I need to understand the Qur’an so he starts googling how to understand the
Qur’an and for some reason, he ends up on my videos and he starts watching my
stuffs and he watched almost everything. And then, here is the kicker…
In
the nursing home, there was an Egyptian fellow that used to come in and do some
repair works. The Egyptian fellow has his own awesome story. The guy had
basically lost faith. He wasn’t religious. The nearest Masjid to him was 50
miles away so he didn’t really go to Jum’a much anymore but he felt a spiritual
void so he started going to the church just to feel closer to Allah. Though he
is Muslim, he goes to the church just to feel closer to Allah.
He
is passing by Robert’s room one day and he hears; ‘Wal Asr! Innal insaana lafii
husir.’ So he walks into his room and says; ‘Robert, what are you listening
to?’ Robert says; ‘Nothing! That was me.’ And the guy was like; ‘You’re
Muslim?’ He says; ‘Yes, I became Muslim.’ And now this friend is in shock. How does
Allah guide someone in the middle of church town USA and in a nursing home
where the crucifix on the side of his bed where he doesn’t even have the
physical strength to move and the guy himself says; ‘I want to come back to
Allah.’ So he tells him about the friend he found online; Nouman Ali Khan. So
the Egyptian fellow starts watching my videos and then he says; ‘I wish I could
meet him one day,’ and he says; ‘Ok, I will pray for you.’
And
after 5 years, that Egyptian friend shows up in the same Masjid that I haven’t
been to in 4 years and after Jum’ah, he says; ‘I think Allah wants to fulfil my
friend and I’s du’a.’ So, I said; ‘I think He does. Let’s go.’ So I took a few
of us and we went and we met Brother Robert. We had a beautiful conversation with
him and in shaa Allah on Eid, we are going to go to his nursing home again.
The
nurses were pretty shocked; ‘You are all here to meet Robert?’ Yes! ‘Why do you
want to meet him?’ He is an inspiration. ‘Ok. Let me check if you can see him.’
They had to call the administrator and all the staff and eventually let us in.
Robert is in shock and then I meet Bro Robert and we were talking and I was
like; ‘Hey Robert! I heard you’ve memorised some Surahs.’ He says; ‘Yes.’ Ok,
recite one for me so he recited suratul Asr. Not one of us was not crying. We
were just in tears. When somebody turns to Allah, don’t worry about the means,
guidance will come, balance will come.
I
want to tell you some more about Robert because young guys are here. Young guys
that play basketball. Young guys that are healthy. Young guys that have
ambitions. I told you what his paralysis is, from where to where? Neck down. He
has a special wheel chair that has to hold pretty much every part of his body
in place. He can just sit in a wheel chair. It holds his neck and every other
part of his body in place because he has no control over his limbs and he has
to have a special van where the wheel chair locks in so that if it goes through
a bumper or whatever, he doesn’t receive the shock. So he made a request that
he wants to go to the Friday prayer. They didn’t have the special van. They put
him in a regular van and so he went in a regular van and a few bumps and his
spine got even more hurt. He went to Jum’a. He came back in excruciating pain and
they said; ‘I’m sorry Robert but you are no longer able to sit in your wheel
chair. You are going to have to stay in your bed for the next six months at
least. If we see recovery, then you can get back up again. I met him in that
span. He’s already been in bed for three months already and the reason he was
in that bed was that he went to Jum’a prayer.
And he told me about the Jum’a
prayer. He said that; ‘I’ve never felt more peace in my life than I was in that
Masjid. And you know what I’m going to do brother Nouman, when I can sit on my
wheel chair again? I’m going to go to Jum’a. I’m going to go to the Masjid
because I have never felt like that before.’ Here is someone who has nothing
but control over his mouth and eyes and he says I only find peace in the Masjid
and here we are.
These Masaajid; I don’t care what ideology, what school of
thought, what they are talking about in the Masjid, what fitna is there, I
don’t care; it is still Allah’s house. Just go to pray. Don’t go there to talk
to people, go to talk to Allah. Just go to talk to Allah. You are just going
for you and Allah; that is it. Other things will come but you are not going for
them. You are just going there to find peace. You will become different people.
If Allah can guide Robert Davila, Allah can guide everybody. And then he said;
‘You know sometimes I wonder why Allah put me in this position and then I say
to myself; ‘what?’ Am I kidding? Allah has given me so much. I am so grateful
for what He gave me and if this is the way He was going to bring me to Islam,
it’s all worth it.’
You
have men (can’t get the right word) that lose a little bit of health and they
say; ‘Why is Allah doing this to me?’ And this man; if you were thinking;
nowadays the atheist are arguing because of suffering there is no God. If one
man was in a position to say; ‘I don’t believe in God. If there was a God why
would I be in this position?’ It would be Robert Davila. That guy would say; ‘I
don’t believe in God. If there was one, why would I be in this mess?’ And yet
he is in this position and I’ve never seen a face with more nur; never. I’ve
never seen a face that has more contentment on it. He is so satisfied with
life. He is so happy. He is just happy. The last 7 or 8 khutbahs I have given
are actually based each on one sentence that he said in his conversation
because that is profound. He is a teacher to me. I can’t say I’m his teacher.
He is my sheikh. Somebody says; ‘Who’s your sheikh?’ I say; ‘Robert Davila.’
The End…
The
guidance is all around us. You don’t have to get worried about what is not
there, there is plenty there. You know what Allah did for the people of the
cave? You know he even guided them in where to sleep? You know he even guided
them on where to turn? As the sun was coming, they turned away from it and as
the sun came from the other side they turned the other way. Allah will guide
you in your sleep when you make du’a to him. Even guide you in your sleep.
Every toss and turn will be guided by Allah. Can you imagine? We shouldn’t be
sceptical in Allah’s guidance. We shouldn’t worry about; ‘How am I going to
find balance?’ No, that is Allah’s job to guide you. Your job is to talk to
him. Your job is to get sincere. That is the message I have for you. That is
how we are going to find balance. Honestly! Once you become sincere to Allah,
Allah will open doors. Allah will give you friends, Allah will give you
teachers, Allah will give you access to resources; all of which are going to
bring you closer and closer to Him and to the truth and make life better for
the people around you. This is really the gist of what I wanted to share with
you.
And this is what I believed was worth
typing and sharing with everyone who cannot watch the video on youtube. To the
pondering mind…a real life story. This could be our point of change for the
better. Don’t read and forget. Thinnnnnnnnnnk and Reflect!!! May Allah azza wa
jal accept from me and from you and from all else. Aameen. Love for the solely
for His sake always.
Story by: Ustadh Nouman Ali Khan
Check this video and many others on youtube
Check Robert Davila on youtube and facebook
Jazaakumul Laahu khair
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