Story Of A Gangster With Tattoos All Over His Body. ️

The Gangster with Tattoos All Over His Body

Because sometimes you come and you meet a non-Muslim. Once it happened — you know, I was young, I was a teenager and I was trying to learn my deen. And I remember going there and there was a gangster from Thailand who had tattoos all over his body. And I was thinking سُبْحَانَ اللّٰه — subhanAllah — what is this guy going to do in three days?

And he was still a non-Muslim. And he didn't speak English. So there was somebody speaking Urdu and someone translating for him in German. You know, this guy — he's so far. How is he going to come close to Allah? How is it going to happen?

And you know, I still remember — I'll never forget the image. On the third day, in the darkness of the night, I'm snoring away in my peaceful sleep, and I just wake up. Sometimes in the middle of the night you wake up. And I see everybody's asleep — except this guy, standing in Salah, with all his tattoos. He had converted to Islam one day before. Standing in Salah the whole night until Fajr. And I'm just hearing his sobs and his cries.

The Path to Allah Is Never Too Long

The path to Allah is not long. It is just one word. One moment of genuine istighfar, of genuine repentance. And Allah is closer to us than our jugular vein.

"And We have already created man and know what his soul whispers to him, and We are closer to him than his jugular vein."