A Fabulous Narration about Taqwa...

Toubah and Pardon

by Nisaar Y. Nadiadwala (Notes) on Wednesday, July 13, 2011 at 6:01pm i have heard this narration from Shaikh Zafrul Hasan Madni who quoted from Sahih Abu Dawood..My Madni scholar and close friend Shaikh Abdul Basit confirmed the Hadith to be Sahih....Hadith no. is 4379 from Sahih Abu Dawood..... It was a dark morning in Madina. A woman was returning after offering fajr salah. Suddenly a man srpung upon her and raped her.. the woman screamed for help.. A man heard her cry and ran to help her. But the rapist fled. The man who came for her help chased the rapist to catch him. Mean while a group of Muslims, upon hearing the cry of the woman, too reached there. They heard from her about the incident and they too ran in the search of the rapist. But an unusal thing happened. Instead of catching the rapist they caught the man who was looking for the rapist. The man plead that he was too like them trying to locate the hidden rapist. So they brought him to the woman for verification. The poor woman had not seen her rapist but out of shock she exclaimed " Yes this is the man! " It was dark when the incident took place but the woman testified that this was the man. The man pleaded that he was not but the peoplr insisted that criminals always refuse to accept their crime. The matter was presented before the Messenger of Allah. He asked the man if he had committed the crime he pleaded again .. the woman was firm that the same man was the rapist. The man had only one hope , Allah. There was no revelation from Allah to announce his innocence. The Prophet ordered death penalty for the rapist. Stone to death. The man was taken to the place of rajm.. all prepration were made for the death penalty. A pit was dug and stones were collected. The crowd waited for the order to stone... and suddenly a man tearing the crowd came forward shouting " Leave him ! Leave him ! " he ran towards the man and stopped the death penalty. " I am the guilty... Leave this man and punish me in his place !" he insisted. The people were shocked. They inquired from the person if he was really speaking the truth and knew the consequences of his statement. He said "I fear Allah " The matter was again taken to the Prophet (pbuh). He heard the man who plead guilty. The man said " I committed the crime and got away with it. The woman could not recognise me .. the people could not catch me .. even the Prophet (pbuh) did not know that I was the guilty.. But Allah knew it.. I wondered why did Allah not uncover my crime ?.. Then I caused another crime.. letting another man to be punished to death for my crime.. my heart pinched me...I said to my self " I can escape from the punishment in this world but will I be able to deceive Allah or hide my crime from Him?" My taqwa grew stronger... I surrendered my self to the jury.please leave that man because he is innocent and punish me instead for my crime.. " The Prophet (pbuh) ordered the innocent man to be freed and then.. he ordered that.. this man should also be freed and not punished ! ! ! The people were shocked as my readers too may be feeling the shock. The Prophet (pbuh) said " This man has repented in such a manner that Allah has forgave him...." His taqwa did not allow an innocent man to be punished for his crime and so he surrendered in spite of knowing that death awaited him. Moral of the Narration? The man who was innocent put his trust in Allah and Allah assures , Allah will find out ways for him .who fears Allah.. Surah Talaq ch 65 verse 3.

The man who was guilty repented so severly and surrendered out of fear of Allah, ready to die in this world so that he may escape the punishment of Allah on the day of Qiyamah..Allah accepted his apology and as He declares in Surah Baqarah,verse 284.. Allah forgives whom ever He wills and Punishes whom ever He wills... But did my readers consider this ? The name of the man who committed the crime, the woman who suffered and the innocent who was arrested by mistake..are not narrated in any book by any narrator.They remain un named... Though many people were present during the preparation of rajm and when the real guilty surrendered.. Yet no one narrated their names. The honour of a Muslim is very precious. If only today, even after 1400 years, we can revive that honour..... Author: Nisaar Nadiadwala speaks and writes on socio-religious issues from Islamic perspective. He can be reached at nisaar_yusuf@yahoo.com