This is a rather personal story, but I wanted to share it so that others will make dua for my grandmother and so that it may be an inspiration for others…

One day, my father came into the house solemnly and went very quietly to my mother. A few minutes later, my mother was crying with my father was trying to comfort her. I found out that my maternal grandmother passed away.

My grandmother…had passed away.

As I thought of her life, I reflected on how much it had changed all those around her. Before I was born, my grandmother was once sleeping and suddenly woke up. She saw the time and thought she missed Asr. She was so suddenly shocked that she suffered her first stroke only because she thought she missed a prayer. A few years later, she fell very severely, became paralyzed from the neck down and was unable to utter any words.

Except for two words… Alhamdulillah and Al-Amin.

People would always tell me about miracles, but this was a personal one. She couldn’t say anything but these two words and they were only praising Allah and His Prophet. The amazing thing is that this wasn’t for only a year or two, but for twelve years. Imagine if you had nothing but good coming out of your mouth for more than 4,380 days…

When I was younger and would visit her in Bangladesh, I always felt a special affinity to her and while others would be in the living room or shopping, I would sit beside her bed and play on my own with her beside me. She couldn’t move, nor talk (except when she needed something and would then say the two phrases), but I felt a special peace when I sat beside her bed.

Once, I went to a relative’s house and as they had no television or computers, they humored us in the old way – they gave us clay and taught us how to make special objects. To this day, I still remember how to make a clay rose and I remember when I successfully made my first one. I triumphantly presented it to my grandmother and she put on the widest smile on her face. And it is this wide smile that is etched in my mind and heart after all these years…

It was times like these when she would broadly smile that I would feel very happy. When our vacation in Bangladesh was over, everybody was weeping (which in itself is amazing because of the amount of love they had for us even though we’ve been with them for such a short time), but nobody’s sadness was greater than my grandmother – she cried all day and night and I felt tremendous guilt washing over me for leaving her in such a state. We went to the airport, very sad and crushed, but were told by the officials that our flight was canceled until the next day. We rushed home, ecstatic, and the first thing I did when we reached home was to dash to my grandmother’s side. She was still crying but when she looked up and saw me, she smiled a smile that I have never seen before; it was the most genuine and heartfelt smile I had ever seen…

For her last 12 years, she never said anything other than Alhamdulillah and Al-Amin, except once. It may seem like a fiction romance story, but I assure you, it’s real and was witnessed by others. When my father came to propose for my mother, all the men were in the living room while my mother was with my grandmother. She was feeling very sad because my grandmother was ailing and didn’t want to leave her in such a state. To her surprise, my grandmother uttered her only words (other than the usual ones) in more than a decade: “Marry him for he is a good man and will be perfect for you.” My mother screamed in shock, and others ran to the room to see what happened. When begged to say more, my grandmother simply said, “Alhamdulillah.”

And it was in such a state that I, her grandson, as well as many others ever saw her. Even though she lost her power of movement and speech, she would never complain and would only spend her days and nights praising Allah and His Messenger. May Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) forgive all her past sins, shower her with Mercy, and give her Jannatul Firdaus. Ameen…