A Story of Brotherhood

Anonymous

"And the believers, men and women, are friends one of another...It is these on whom Allah will have mercy." (The Holy Qur’an, 9 [Al-Taubah]:71)

""Whoever relieves a calamity that has struck a believer in this world, Allah will relieve for him one of the calamities of the day of Judgement, and whoever makes things easy for a person in trouble, Allah will make his matters easy in this life and in the hereafter, and whoever shields the faults of a Muslim, Allah will shield his faults in this world and the hereafter, and Allah will help and support his servant as long as he is helping and supporting his brother"" (Sahih Muslim)

I attended school in Pakistan and received a scholarship which I used to pay for my room and board. I lived in a hostel with about 12 other Ahmadi students. During a conversation, we learned that two of our Ahmadi students were contemplating withdrawing from school. Being concerned about our brothers, we inquired as to why they were considering leaving the school. They informed us that their parents could no longer financially afford to pay for them to attend school.

The rest of us were very concerned about our friends and the financial burden placed on their parents. We met and devised a plan that would keep our friends in school, that is, by simply changing the place we all ate each day. Instead of eating at the convenient costly cafeteria located inside of our building, we could all eat at the small inexpensive food vendor across campus and have enough money to purchase food for our other two fellow students.

We discussed our money saving plan with our Ahmadi brothers and they agreed to our solution. Each day we all walked together laughing and talking as we journeyed to the small food vendor across campus.

Because we all made a sacrifice, both of our brothers in faith were able to stay in school and complete their studies. After finishing school, they both moved to the West and have been living in Europe and North America. We occasionally get a chance to meet each other at Jalsas and talk about our careers and family.