By Heesha Shee, New Age Islam
05 May 2018
Hasan was born in a
family of landless labourers in a remote village. He was the fourth and
last child of his parents. You might think that being the youngest; he
would have been doted upon by his family. But no! He was born with just
little stumps for hands, you see, and so was considered a worthless
good-for-nothing.
Hasan studied till
primary school and then dropped out. No matter how much he studied, his
parents thought, no one would ever give him a job because of his
physical condition, and so what was the use of spending money on his
education?
As you can imagine,
Hasan was very unhappy. He had hardly turned 13 when he made a major
decision. He ran away from home! He got into a train, which took him to a
big city, a thousand miles or so away. He hadn’t seen a city before.
Almost everything there was new for him.
The day Hasan arrived
in the city he was spotted by the owner of an eatery near the railway
station. The kind-hearted man called him over and offered him some food.
He sat with Hasan while the boy ate. In a short while, Hasan, who
instinctively trusted him, had told him many things about himself,
including why he had run away from home.
“You stay with me,
dear,” the man said to Hasan, his heart filled with overwhelming love
for the child. “You are like my own son. You can help me in the eatery. I
won’t be able to pay you anything, but you’ll get food and a place to
sleep.”
Hasan gratefully accepted the man’s kind offer.
A decade passed and
Hasan had grown into a confident young man. He was deeply spiritual,
with firm faith in, and love for, God. His very presence radiated
positivity. He had a wonderful, innocent-sort of sense of humour. People
who came to the eatery loved chatting with him. Seeing how cheerful he
was despite his physical condition made them feel that there was still
hope for the world, and for themselves, too. If he could be happy, they
could, too.
In due course, Hasan
got married and became the father of three children—two girls and a boy.
He continued staying in the city, while his wife and children lived in
his parents-in-law’s village.
When Sameer, Hasan’s
son, turned six it was discovered that he had blood cancer. You can’t
imagine how shaken Hasan and his wife were when they learnt this.
Hasan arranged for his
wife and Sameer to come over to a cancer hospital in the city for the
boy’s treatment. They put up in a tiny, over-priced room in a hostel
near the hospital. The doctors informed Hasan that the treatment might
take many months and that even then there was no guarantee that Sameer
would get alright. They also said that the treatment would be quite
costly.
Somebody else in
Hasan’s place might have lost all hope, but not Hasan! His faith in God
kept him firmly together. He knew God was supporting him all along, and
would continue to do so.
Hasan realised that he
needed to work in order to meet the expenses of Sameer’s treatment. He
knew it would be difficult for him to get a job but he certainly did not
want to beg.
Hasan may not have
been very ‘educated’ by the standards of the world but he was remarkably
intelligent and very enterprising. Do you know what he did? On the
suggestion of his wife, he went to a wholesale market and bought a
bagful of pens of different colours and sizes and began selling them at
traffic signals near the hospital. In a few days’ time, he was earning a
fairly decent sum, enough to cover a substantial portion of Sameer’s
expenses. Meanwhile, the doctors agreed to subsidize Sameer’s treatment.
It’s been four months
since Sameer was admitted to the hospital. Hasan and his wife are still
waiting for the day when he might be discharged. When Hasan isn’t out
selling pens on the streets, he’s sitting by Sameer’s side or taking him
from one department of the hospital to another, for this or that
check-up or helping his wife wash clothes or cook their meal. And if he
isn’t doing any of these, he’s busy helping new patients and those
accompanying them in different ways: showing them around the hospital,
taking them to the doctors, getting medicines for them, accompanying
them to the blood-bank, and so on. Helping others makes gives him great
joy and makes his life meaningful, Hasan says.
Hasan doesn’t know how
long more Sameer’s treatment might continue. If Sameer is cured, he has
wants him to go back to the village and study and become a teacher. And
as for himself, he wants to dedicate the rest of his life to promoting
public awareness about child cancer and its prevention. He dreams of
cycling around the country (yes, he rides a bicycle, and with great
confidence, despite his condition!) for this purpose because doesn’t
want other people to go through what Sameer has, if it can be helped.
If there’s still hope
for the world, it must have something to do with the fact that there are
still good people like Hasan around, who, refusing to being overwhelmed
by what seem like impossible hurdles, turn them into a means for hope
and joy for others.
(This story is inspired by the life of a real person whom I have been blessed to know)
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism
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