Prayers

What Prayers Can Do !

Sarjo Trawalley, Boston

In October 2008, my wife was expecting our fourth child. I was at work when I received a call from the hospital telling me that the blood test of my wife showed that our unborn daughter had Down syndrome. We were called to the hospital to discuss our options with the doctor. The doctor explained to us the seriousness of the situation and advised us that we needed to make a decision whether to abort the pregnancy. She said that we had a window of only about a week to abort. She explained that if we decided not to abort the pregnancy, our child would be dependent on others for her entire life. She offered to abort the pregnancy on that same day.

My wife asked me what to do. I said, “We need to contact our spiritual leader, our dear Khalifah, to seek his advice.” The doctor said, “Your spiritual leader has nothing to do with the decision about your child.” I retorted, “Yes, he does.” I explained to her, “We are Ahmadi Muslims. We seek God's guidance on everything we want to do in our life. The Khalifah is a successor to God's prophet so we seek his advice in important matters such as this one.” The doctor asked, “Where does your Khalifah live?” Having learned that Huzoor (may Allah be his helper) lived in London, she explained that we did not have enough time to consult someone in another country. I insisted that we still had one week to decide. The doctor then said that she wanted to do another test and that we would know the result of that test in a week at which time we would see her again. She gave us her business card with her direct line and cell phone number and said that she could explain to the Khalifah how serious the matter was.

Later that day, I faxed a letter to our beloved Huzoor explaining everything and also attached a scanned copy of the doctor’s business card. The next day, I called Huzur’s Private Secretary inquiring whether my fax had been received. He said that there were more than 500 faxes at the fax machine that had not yet been sorted. He suggested that if I could fax it again he would give it to Huzoor. He also mentioned that Huzoor was to travel to Germany the next day. I sent the fax again and called him. He confirmed that he had received the fax and promised to give it to Huzoor after Zuhr Prayer.

When a couple of days passed and I did not hear from Huzoor’s office, I felt discouraged. I contemplated as to what we would do when we see the doctor in a few days. The sixth day, as I was en route to my home from work, I received a call from the in charge of English Correspondence in London. She said that she had a letter for me from Huzoor. She said what she was about to tell me were Huzoor’s own words. Huzoor had said, “Your unborn child is as healthy as other children. Do not abort this pregnancy if you are a true Ahmadi.” She said she would fax the letter to me. I rushed back to my work to collect the fax. As the fax landed in my hands, I felt extremely elated and joyous and said to myself that there was nothing as powerful as a sincere prayer. I realized that Huzoor’s prayer had been accepted. I wanted to reach home as soon as possible to share this blessed news with my wife.

The next morning, at our appointment, the doctor smiled and said that she had good news for us. She said that the test results showed that the baby was fine and there was nothing wrong. I said to the doctor, “See what the power of prayer can do.” I told her that we had already known that our child was fine, before coming to the appointment, and that our dear Khalifah had informed us about the child’s condition. The doctor then started asking questions about Huzoor and our faith.

By the Grace of Allah, our daughter, Bintou, is well and thriving and is a living sign of the acceptance of prayer of our beloved Khalifah. Alhamdulillah.