A dear friend living in Germany sent me this morale-boosting message, and I wanted to share it with you. My friend "Abu Muhammad" says: "A beautiful and touching situation I wanted to share with you, Dr. Eyad. I received a message on WhatsApp about a German Muslim man who passed away (the owner of the attached photo), and there was no one Muslim in his family besides him to pray over him and bury him in Muslim cemeteries... there was no Muslim except his wife. So I agreed with three of my friends to go. On the way, I felt some distress: 'Will only a small number of men pray over a deceased Muslim? How will the burial ceremony be with such a small number?' We arrived at the cemetery, and what an amazing scene it was! About 70 Muslim men gathered together without knowing each other and without knowing anything about the man except that he was a Muslim with no family to bury him, so they all came out of solidarity for him! The invitation to attend the funeral had spread on social media, WhatsApp, groups, and statuses. We began the prayer and burial ceremonies. Meanwhile, there were about 7 or 8 people from the deceased's family, who were not Muslims, standing far from us, watching this scene of how we pray over their dead and then take charge of his burial, without them participating in any of that! Then, moments later, I heard some Takbirs (cries of 'God is Great').... What is this? What happened for them to say Takbir?! My friend came to me and asked: 'Did you see what happened?' 'No.... what happened?' He said: The brother of the deceased, it seems that the scene of solidarity among Muslims, their mercy toward their German brother, and attending the funeral and participating in his burial despite not knowing him affected him deeply. So he approached one of the brothers and asked him: 'How do I become a Muslim?' So he taught him the Shahada (testimony of faith) and the man converted to Islam by the grace of God Almighty. The brothers shouted Takbir out of joy for him. Truly, by God, whoever lives in those countries, all the false masks fall from his eyes! Imagine a man spending his life in a society for 60 or 70 years, and when the moment of death and burial comes, he finds no more than 7 or 8 people around him! Imagine the catastrophic life these people live, which the corrupters try to make a role model for us, exerting every effort to adapt our societies to them and their culture and thought! This situation made me feel the pride of Islam and the beauty of its Sharia and teachings. By God, we are immersed in blessings we do not feel because we have simply become accustomed to them, so we think they are a given and normal matter, even though they are not at all, and the general public of other societies is deprived of them. Praise be to God for the blessing of Islam, and it is sufficient as a blessing... and may God grant us life and death in the lands of Muslims.... and I ask Him, Glory be to Him, to have mercy on the German Muslim brother, to keep his brother who converted to Islam firm, and to gather us all in the highest Paradise.'
Abu Muhammad's message ended. And I say, honorable ones: one of us continues to discover the wisdom of the great legislation! Look at how our Prophet, peace be upon him, urged us to pray over the deceased and attend his burial, and told us of the great reward for it. We may overlook that among the effects of this is the manifestation of the unity of Muslims, their mercy, and their sympathy in front of others who have been deprived of all this, making it an eloquent call to them. So praise be to God for the blessing of Islam and that is enough. --------------------------------------