Rania Awaad – A Car Wreck With A Drunk Driver Was The Answer To Her Dua
AI: Summary ©
The speaker describes a woman who experienced a difficult childhood, including alcoholism and a family crisis. She talks about her father's actions, including not praying and drinking, and how she eventually becomes a praying woman. She also describes a woman who refuses to pray and becomes a praying woman again.
AI: Summary ©
And this woman's conference, and there's a sister
that I would meet year after year after
year after year, and her story was always
very similar.
It was always, please, Dr. Anya, make dua
for me.
I'm trying to raise my children Muslim and
to pray, but I don't have any support
from my husband.
He doesn't pray, and he's not interested in
trying.
And on top of it all, it seemed
like every year was getting worse and worse.
He was kind of spiraling into difficult habits,
in this case, it was literally alcoholism.
And she said to me, how do you
convince children to pray and to keep up
that fard that Allah has asked us to
when there's literally not just someone not praying,
but openly sinning in front of us?
I kept giving her advice and saying the
thing I would hear my teacher say very
often, never, ever, ever downplay the power of
dua when you think you've tried everything you
can possibly try.
Then one year, in one of the conferences,
a sister came up, and she said, Dr.
Anya, and you don't recognize me?
And she's like, I'm so-and-so.
And I'm like, so-and-so?
Wallahi, I truly, truly could not recognize her.
And she said, oh, I have to tell
you I need dua, and I thought I'm
going to hear the same story that I've
been hearing for many years.
And she said, but this time it had
to do with her daughter.
And I said, Khair.
And she got in a terrible car wreck.
Oh, subhanAllah.
And she said, oh, no, no, no.
She's okay now.
I said, okay, alhamdulillah.
But you have to understand, that is a
good thing.
And I said, how could a car wreck
possibly be a good thing?
And then she said, when that happened, the
person who had hit her was a drunk
driver.
And for whatever reason, it snapped.
Her husband, who had been in this alcoholic
stupor for so long, snapped him out of
it.
And when you know somebody who's been drinking
for a long time, you can't just sort
of cold turkey very easily.
You cannot.
SubhanAllah, it takes time.
But this man, cold turkey.
And then she points over there where the
masjid was.
And she goes, he's there.
And I was like, he's there?
This man who refused to pray, who refused
to everything.
And we would say counseling, refused counseling.
My imam, talked to an imam, refused the
imam.
Wouldn't even step foot in the masjid.
Was literally in the muslimah.
And she said, he cold turkey, stopped the
alcohol, got clean, got better, started praying.
And he was now fully involved in this
family.
After years and years and years and years
of her complaints.
And she said, you always said the power
of dua.
And I thought, la ilaha illallah.
I mean, sometimes, not always do you hear
the full ending of a story, necessarily.
But this was amazing.
Look at the story of the sister.
You know what she said to me?
She said, I'm making dua that my husband
would finally come back to Islam and stop
the sin that he was doing.
I didn't expect that the one who responds
would respond with a wreck, car wreck from
my daughter.
She didn't expect that was going to be
the circle of response.
But Allah chooses to do things the way
He chooses.
And so even when you feel like a
person, you're going to give up on them,
don't.
Because Allah doesn't give up on us.
Even if you've given up on yourself about
something, don't.
Because Ar-Raheem has not given up on
you.
And even if you feel like your sins
are mountains, there is nothing mountainous to Allah
azza wa jal.