Sheikh Muhmmad ibn Ghazali رحمهم الله
July 25, 2008 at 7:35 pm (General)
A story today in the khutbah at Masjid Al-Falah in Oakville, Ontario of the burying of Sheikh Muhammad Al-Ghazali (رحمهم الله) of Saudi Arabia, one of the great recent scholars of our time (I filled in some words to make it readable):
The sheikh would travel all over the world to teach Muslims the religion. Six years ago, he was giving a lecture in a conference in Madinah, and while doing so, he suddenly collapsed. The people thought he had fainted, but when they checked him, they announced that he had passed away right there. SubhanAllah, while teaching the people about the religion of Allah (سبحانه وتعالى).
So, that same day, they eventually cleaned his body, shrouded him and took him to Jannat-al-Baqi in Madinah (where many famous Sahabah and Muslims are buried). They brought his body to the caretaker, a half-blind man, who complained and told them there was no space left in the graveyard. After 15 minutes of arguing with him, constantly telling him that they had the body of a great scholar, they gave up and started to leave with his body.
As they started to leave, the man called them back. Bewildered, they asked him what he wanted. Surprisingly, he said that he had a space. He told them to dig there, and continually asked them to check the dirt for bones as they were digging to make sure they weren’t digging through another grave.
SubhanAllah, they managed to dig the proper height required in the Shariah for a grave (just above the height of a man), and the grave was empty, it was empty and not intruding on anyone else’s grave, just the perfect size and depth.
As they buried the body of Sheikh Muhammad (رحمهم الله), the half-blind caretaker said…. who is this man? They said, we told you…. it’s a great scholar of our time.
He said… he must be a very great man, because on the left of his grave is the grave of Imam Maalik (رحمهم الله), and on the right is the grave of Ibrahim, the son of Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه و سلم).
May Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) grant us a husn-ul-khaatimah (a good end), and make us amongst the companions of the righteous in Jannah-ul-Firdaws.
