In Quest Of Knowledge (PART 2)

PART 2: A Tearful Goodbye

My mother’s heart melted, and tears began to flow from her eyes, and she replied, in great emotion, “No, my child, that is not the case. What you ask for is, actually the very answer to my fondest dreams and prayers about you. Little do you know how often I have kept awake nights, beseeching Allah Almighty to bestow on my beloved son the richest of learning about His noble Prophet, on whom be peace. I have prayed to Him again and again, lifting up the tattered forepart of my shirt in humble supplication, to grant you that learning of light of which may illumine the path of His creatures for so long as the world endures. If I have looked worried, my darling son, it is not for what appears to you to be the reason. It is because I have nothing at all to give you for your expenses. There aren’t even any food grains in the house for preparing something for you to eat on the way, nor any money with which to meet your needs”. And so saying, she broke down utterly and shed profuse tears.

However, with all this display of emotion, she was made of sterner stuff and had great inner strength, and was a person who could be both soft or determined and cheerfully make any sacrifices for the Faith. She soon collected herself, and went on to add:

“Very well, my son. Have no fears. He in Whose Path you are venturing forth will Himself make due provision for you and look to all your needs. It is He Who, in His inscrutable ways, fulfils the needs of His faithful servants in manners we humans cannot even think of ”.

Then she handed to me two Yemeni sheets, and said,
“Go now, my son. I consign you to the care of Him Who has given you to me as a trust from Him. I feel sure that He will not let you go waste”. Then she again patted me on the head, embraced me and, after wiping off her tears, raised both her hands heavenward, and prayed as follows:

“Dear Almighty God, I am sending out my only son, my own flesh and blood, in Your Path, to acquire learning about Your beloved Prophet (p.b.u.h). Dear God, just as You have granted my humble prayers in bestowing on him a yearning for knowledge, in the same way be his Protector and Provider and Guardian. Hold him by Your unseen Hand, and hasten the day when my fondest hopes and aspirations about him shall have borne fruit and when my heart will be filled with joy on seeing him return laden with the wealth of knowledge”.

Then with another kindly pat on my back she bade me farewell, praying once again that I might, by the Grace of God, shine like a sun on the horizon of knowledge, and recited the following Quranic verse:

‘Allah is the best Protector and He is (at the same time) the most Merciful of all mercy-givers’ [xii:64]

And then she bade me final goodbye and thus, with my mother’s prayers as my only stock of capital and my hands empty of any worldly pelf, I set forth, trusting solely in God.