(Mother of Nawaab Qaisar Saheb [rahimahullah] – Part Two)
For a long period of time, the mother of Nawaab ‘Ishrat ‘Ali Khan Qaisar Saheb (rahimahullah) suffered from various serious sicknesses and ailments. However, despite the different types of sicknesses she was tested with, she remained extremely tolerant and patient. Whenever she would experience an angina attack, despite the excruciating pain, she would engage in the zikr of Allah Ta‘ala.
Eight years before her demise, when her shin bone had broken, the doctors advised that she will have to undergo an operation. However, she refused and said, “I am (happy and) prepared to live the rest of my life with a broken shin, but I am not at all prepared to expose my body in front of a (male) doctor.”
She had a female servant who spent thirty years in her company and would go with her wherever she went. Her character was such that she would feed her servant the very same food that she herself would eat and she would give her the very same clothing which she would wear. On one occasion, this servant was admitted into hospital and remained there for a few days due to a heart ailment. Despite her disability, she went on three occasions to visit her in the hospital on a wheelchair.
She was very punctual on performing her Tahajjud Salaah. A few days before her demise, as she completed making her wudhu at the time of Tahajjud, she collapsed and seriously injured her head. Even in this condition, when she was made to lay on her bed thereafter, she pined to perform two rakaats of Tahajjud Salaah. However, because of the heavy impact of her fall, she suffered a severe brain hemorrhage and fell unconscious for two and a half days.
During this state of unconsciousness, once while people were reciting Kalimah Tayyibah and Kalimah Shahaadah at her bedside, she raised her index finger. This was the very last action that she had carried out before passing away.
She would regularly request a senior and pious ‘Aalim, Moulana Faqeer Muhammad (rahimahullah), to make du‘aa for her to be blessed with the sweetness of imaan, a good death and for the pangs of death to be made easy. Furthermore, throughout her life, her desire was that she be blessed with a death on the day of Jumu‘ah. Allah Ta‘ala answered this du‘aa and fulfilled her desire by taking her soul away at the time of the azaan of the Jumu‘ah Salaah. She left this temporary abode on 25th Muharram 1406 A.H. at the age of ninety-three. The great saint, Doctor Abdul Hayy ‘Aarifi (rahimahullah) lead her janaazah salaah and she was buried before sunset of that very day.
(Mithaali Khawaateen pgs. 299-303)
Lessons:
1. Despite the permission granted by sharee‘ah for a woman to expose her satr (only to the extent of necessity) to a non-mahram male doctor for the purpose of treatment, the level of imaan and hayaa of Nawaab Saheb’s (rahimahullah) mother was such that she refused to undergo the operation and rather chose to remain in that condition for the remaining eight years of her life. What a vast difference between this and the sad state of today, where a woman does not hesitate to even expose herself to a male beautician or make-up artist (which is obviously haraam)!
2. Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) has encouraged that a person should feed his slave similar food to that which he eats and give him clothes that are similar to the clothes that he himself wears. (Saheeh Bukhaari #30 and Mirqaat vol. 6, pg. 515) Nawaab Saheb’s (rahimahullah) mother practiced on this to the highest level by feeding and clothing her servant exactly the same as she ate and wore. The least that we can do is treat them with kindness and dignity (as explained here) and share with them a little from the delicacies and treats that they see us enjoying (as explained here).
3. Every believer desires, aspires and even makes du‘aa to be blessed with a good death. However, this desire needs to be supported with good actions and a pious life. Nawaab Saheb’s (rahimahullah) mother spent her life in the worship and obedience of Allah Ta‘ala and was thus rewarded with a blessed death and an enviable end. She was a living example of the saying “as you live, so will you die.”