When fate intervenes...

“He’s lying still and the doctors are doing their best to save him. The swelling on the face has subsided, Alhamdulillah. A fine wire has been put through his skull and placed near the blood clot in his head. This is to measure the magnitude of the concussion and to monitor the blood clot. If it gets more serious than this then a surgery is needed. “ She tried real hard to hold back the tears as she spoke and at times I had to give her time to compose herself and find the right words to say. I just wished I was there to hold her and tell her everything was going to be alright, InsyaAllah. This is indeed a test on her ‘iman’.

She is my closest cousin sister and the only female cousin I have on my mother’s side. A very humble person though she has high qualification and comes from a prominent family. They met when they were studying in London and even when he first courted her I was among the first to know . We were so close that we shared almost everything . Then they came back one summer and they got engaged, if I’m not mistaken. The following year they got married but they had to go back to London immediately as her husband was doing his professional course in Accountancy. Soon afterwards we got news she was expecting and later the baby was born in London…

It was only last weekend my uncle had the ‘khenduri doa selamat’ for both my cousins who were due to leave for Mecca to perform their Haj. Her brother left the very next day and when the accident happened he was already in Madinah and most probably nobody told him about it. They planned to go together but his sister couldn’t get an earlier date.

My cousin’s husband, Shariman, was working with Sime Darby when he decided to quit his job in pursuit of another in Jeddah. His plan was to go there first and later to have his wife and children join him. They spoke of living in Jeddah and it would be very convenient to go for Umrah and even perform the Haj later. But things turned out otherwise when one day we heard he came back after staying there for 6 months or so only. Perhaps the long distance from the family was not a very good idea after all despite the good pay and what not…

So he came back to Malaysia and 2 months later he got a job offer in Johor Bharu. He has been travelling back and forth between KL and JB quite frequently until the time of the fateful accident. I was told by my cousin that he came to KL that Wednesday to attend a meeting and pushed off to JB as early as 2 a.m. trying to beat the heavy traffic jam as he entered the town. He must be sleepy and hit a timber lorry in the back. One of the logs penetrated the windscreen but it didn’t hit him directly on the head. However, the massive impact must have caused the concussion on his head . But God is great as his life has been spared. Until now he has not regained full consciousness but according to my cousin there has been good progress. My cousin and I speak on the phone as much as we can so that she could update me of his condition.

In the light of this event, I have been reflecting on the turnout of events in our lives. For instance, my cousin has even got her date to leave for Mecca, which is 16 November but Allah has his plans which no one knows. She has cancelled her trip since and has taken it in good spirit and with much patience.

I just read a book entitled ‘Don’t be Sad’. Somewhere in the book it says something like this; we can’t say ‘had it been like this, then things would turn out differently.” This is because things are meant to be the way they are for reasons known only to Him. It doesn’t mean if my cousin managed to get an earlier date whereby she could go with her brother, the accident wouldn’t have taken place. It is not as simple as that as events in our lives have been pre-destined…

Tidak ada sesuatu kesusahan (atau bencana) yang ditimpakan di bumi dan tidak juga yang menimpa diri kamu, melainkan telah sedia ada di dalam kitab (pengetahuan Kami) sebelum Kami menjadikannya.
(Surah Al-Hadid:22)