The Importance of Being Truthful 

One of the scholars from Kuwait, Shaikh Falah Isma'eel, recently relayed a heart-warming story that may interest you. 

When Shaikh Isma'eel visited Holland, he was of course met by Muslims from Holland, and they told him, "if you had come two weeks ago, you would have seen it yourself. We prayed over this man [asking Allaah to have mercy on the deceased Muslim in what is called 'the funeral prayer'],"...and then they told him the following beautiful story. 

[What follows is not verbatim, but a summary, with some explanations so as to clarify some terms that may be new to non-Muslims.] 

Quote:

He was a 26-year-old Christian from Holland. One day, he changed his dress to thobes, a burnoose, grew a beard, and the people started calling him "the one who looks like Jesus." 

One day, he met some Muslims, and he said to them, "I love Jesus." And the Muslims told him, "We also love Jesus, and it is even a condition of Islam. We love Jesus and Moses."   

So this man tried imitating Jesus, helping others when he could, cutting their lawns and the like. After two years, he entered the mosque [the Muslims' place of worship] for the first time, and he was greeted with "ahlan" [which means welcome, and thus was not greeted with the greeting reserved for Muslims "as-salaamu 'alaykum" (which means: may peace and safety be upon you on the Day of Judgement)]. 

He said, "no; I want to be a Muslim." 

 

Then, the Muslims witnessed his testimony (pronounced "shahada") -  there is none deserving of worship except Allaah, and Muhammad is His servant and Messenger, and Jesus is His servant and Messenger - taught him the basics, and taught him how to pray. He began praying in congregation with them, not missing a single congregation. Then one day, he noticed that the other Muslims were arriving at the mosque after him, so he asked for a key to the mosque. And he was given one. 

The Muslims then observed that not only was he opening the mosque, but additionally he was routinely found in optional prayer whenever they entered the mosque for the dawn prayer. [They would enter and find him already engaged in the worship of Allaah.] 

 

Then one day, he told the Muslims how he decided to become Muslim. He said he had a dream about Jesus (the son of Mary), and Jesus said to him, "Be Muslim. Be Muslim. Be Muslim." He said, "I woke up, and a few days later, I had the same dream. This happened three times." 

[The shaikh interjected and said, this is success from Allaah.] 

So after having prayed for 20 days with the other Muslims, he died.

May Allaah have mercy on him. 

This is the mercy of Allaah, and Allaah saved him [from dying upon other than Islam]. 

This is Sidq (truthfulness); he truthfully loved Jesus, so he became Muslim. Allaah guided him to become Muslim, because he was truthful in his love for Jesus.

If one is truthful in his love for Jesus and his following Jesus, then this should lead him to the true religion of Jesus (Islam) and should lead him to following whom Jesus commanded to be followed after him - Muhammad, the seal of all Prophets. 

After all, the religion of all the Prophets was Islam, and their creed was the same, and their message was the same, and they confirmed each other. It is only the deviant who have distorted the message of the previous Prophets, and thus Allaah - from His infinite Mercy - has promised to preserve His last revelation (the Qur`an) from corruption so that those who truthfully want guidance may be guided.