Abu Dzar

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I want to share with you a story that touched my heart no matter how many times I heard of it. It is a story of Abu Dzar, one of the Prophet companion, loyal and trustworthy. You see, a man was convicted in killing a man unlawfully, out of rage. As the syariah system in Islam, a life taken must be paid with the ultimate price, the life of the killer himself.

But this killer had some unfinished agenda that he must resolve before being executed. So he asked the court to spare him for a while to do what he had to do as a final request. The court agreed but in one condition. Someone had to take his place and if he didn’t return, that person would be executed in his place instead. When he asked the gathering crowd to help him out, no one dared to heed to his cry for help, except Abu Dzar. Everyone was surprised and asked him not to do it, but he insisted.

The man went off and Abu Dzar was his guarantor. When the appointed day of execution came, the man did not return. Everyone was sad in knowing that a beloved Prophet’s companion was about to be executed in a place of not just a killer but a liar. But a promise is a promise, so everyone took their place, even Abu Dzar. Just in a nick of time, the man came back to everyone’s surprise. When asked by the people there, why did he returned when he was already safe from death, the man replied, I would not want it to be written in history that a Muslim lied and let his Muslim brother to die in his place. When Abu Dzar was asked why did he took the place of the killer, he replied, I don’t want it to be written in history, when a Muslim asked the help of his brothers, he was let down by them.

In witnessing the sincerity of what was happening in front of them, the sons of the slain one decided to use their right in syariah to spare the life of their father’s killer.

When asked by the people there why did they do it. They replied, we don’t want it to be written down in history that once upon a time, two Muslims had the chance to forgive his brother’s err but chose not to.

So my Muslim brothers, sisters and dear siblings of the human race. How do we want our actions to be written down in the pages of history?