That car in my parking is a dream that came true. A beautiful dream I dreamt as a teen- one day I would be a proud owner of that fancy car- Volkswagon Jetta. I struggled for it, I sweated it out. Worked two shifts at the hospital, ran a private clinic and never let my efficiency meter fall below a 100%. I love automobiles (just about anything on wheels for that matter) and when I lay eyes on that German beauty, I knew I wanted it. After 20 years of back-breaking dedication, it stands in my parking- a gleaming token of achievement.
Being a doctor, it is extremely important to maintain a social life, one that is mercifully devoid of lab-coats and needles. It was in one such social gathering that I met her, the person who was going to be my best friend from that very instant. The food was beyond excellent and the gathering was august. It started over a dinner-table debate, I vividly recall us having starkly opposite views on Stem Cell Research. We threw statistics and data in each others face all night, neither one showing signs of withdrawal. Every argument invited a counter-argument, every pro had a con. But as Fate was to have it, we were a match on that weird and unexplainable level.
That was a decade ago. Today, our hair is white and our teeth are perching precariously. But we're still the crazy doctors, still quarrelling over latest medical procedures and developments.
She punctured her car tyres today, drove them over shards of broken glass. She knocked on my door with that sheepish grin that always warned me of trouble. Well of course, she wanted my car!
I handed the keys over, literally placing the the love of my life in her surgical hands. I trusted her with it no doubt, but that car was very insignia of my life.
I walked out with her as she reversed my car and eased it out into the salty Californian air. It was one of those uplifting end-of-winter days; the sun bright and warm, the wind just about perfect and the last sheets of snow melting away. I couldn't help but smile wide and breathe deep. My house was on a cliff which provided me with the most breathtaking view of the Pacific Coast. I got lost in the ebb and flow, the foamy lather of the water as it lapped up the shore, the happy kids in bright swim-wear, the surfers and the divers...I had forgotten all about my friend and my car.
That's when I heard it. The sickening sound of tyres skidding over snow. Then a scream, a sound definitely that of my friend. The car had gone off-balance! It happened in a mili-second, my car ran right through the barricade and plummeted straight downhill. I watched it hurtling through space, my car and my best friend going down. And what lay at the foot? The Pacific.
Simple math. Chances of survival: Nil.
I could not take it. I knew I had to scream, but dear superior laryngeal nerve refused to depolarize my laryngeal muscles. I watched in slow motion as 20 years of my success and 10 years of my love fell into the shackles of destruction and death.
I shut my eyes in denial.
What I saw when I opened my eyes changed my life forever.
My car landed on flat ground with not more than some disfiguring indentation and shattered mirrors. My friend was knocked out cold and bruised, but alive.
It was a miracle, I knew in my heart it was a cheat-code from death itself. What else could have possibly pulled them out from the very clutches of destruction?
A wave of relief flooded me, almost in sync with the Pacific waters. I had never felt an emotion as strong as this. I was breathing faster and I was beyond myself with joy. I was only a second away from having it all taken away from me...and one second later, I knew it was all fine, the storm had passed. A dent here and a bruise there could be fixed...but no permanent damage had been done.
I had witnessed a miracle.
Now here's a little exercise:
Take that story and apply it to your life. The Jetta would be a good deed you have nurtured over a very long period of time.
That friend was a situation that compelled you to give up on that very deed.
The fall was God's fury in you.
But what made the car stop? If it was a punishment, why didn't it go through and through? What cushioned the blow?
Istighfaar.
In life, you mess up, you mess up real bad. Your car falls into a valley and all logic tells you its the last you will ever see of that beauty. A deed you were watering everyday begins to wither with time and you resign into hopelessness.
But then that 'fitrah' (conscience) in you that still holds good its covenant with God will scream in your head.
Acknowledge that you have been wrong, accept that you have royally screwed up and sinned, and THEN beg to be forgiven. Istighfaar.
In the moment you grasp the gravity of your sin and grovel for mercy in helplessness, God will look upon you with the highest level of affection: Rahem.
You are just an Istighfaar away from boundless Mercy. Do it now, save that car.
