The miracle of Hadhrat Umm Shuraik (May Allah be well pleased with her)

 

It is related in Khasaais-e-Kubra. Pg. No. 19 that Umm Shuraik’s husband had embraced Islam and had emigrated to the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam).  She says:  The relatives of my husband asked me whether I was following the same religion as my husband.  I declared on oath that I was following the same religion.  They said:  We will torture you. Thus, they mounted me on a dull camel, whose condition was worst than all others and took me.  They would feed me honey and bread and wouldn’t give a drop of water.  When the sun would be at its peak at noon, they would stop, pitch their tents and rest and would leave me out in the sun.  So much so that I began to take leave of my senses.  They put me through the same treatment for 3 days.  Then, they asked me to abandon the religion that I had embraced.  I couldn’t understand what they were saying, but I would gesture with my raised index finger (as a gesture of being a Muslim).  As was their custom, they left me out in the sun and went into their tents.  At that moment, my thirst was tormenting me.  Suddenly, I felt the coolness of a pail of water on my bosom and I saw that it had water in it.  I took a deep draught from it and it separated from me.  I watched it and it hung between the earth and the sky and I had no power to take it.  Then it came near me a second time.  Again, I drank deeply from it and again it became suspended between the earth and the sky.  When it came to me a third time, my thirst was quenched and I poured water over my head and clothes.

 

After some time, when they came out of their tents, they saw my (drenched) condition and asked me from where the water had come.  I answered:  From Allah Most High, which was sent specially for me.  On hearing this, they ran to check their waterskins and pails.  When they saw that all their stores of water were untouched, they believed in what I had told and declared:  We testify that your Lord is (now) our Lord and He is the One who has quenched your thirst in such a place and in such a dangerous condition.  He is the One who has revealed Islam.  Thus, all of them embraced Islam and emigrated to Madina.

 

This is true faith.  One look at the condition of the lady will show what ordeals she had to bear.  Thirst was instigated and she was left out under the hot noon sun.  Not for 1 day but for 3 consecutive days so much so that her senses were about to desert her, but even she gestures, she gestures about the oneness of Almighty Allah.  When faith is of such degree then that person is honorable before Almighty Allah and when a person is honorable, Almighty Allah expresses the uniqueness of that person which is called Karamah (Lit. Grace) and because of this, that person is distinguished.  Look at her carefully, it was a lady, but how powerful her courage was! There might be one among thousands of men of the later times who has that kind of courage.  In those times, every person was from the same cast.