I received this in a forwarded email, found it quite moving, and so I share it here with you all. May its message penetrate our hearts, and may Allah 
bless us with His nearness without such trials as the brother suffered.
~~~
This is something that is very personal and important to me. I hope
that you will learn and benefit from it. Let me begin by saying
"Bismillah", in the name of Allah. When I first started University
(I am male in my early twenties) I had met another Muslim brother.
We had become good friends, but this friendship was not like any
other ordinary friendship, I would have done anything for him, he
was like my real brother. During our last year of University, this
brother of mine announced that he was engaged and that he was to be
married after he graduates this year and finds himself a job. I was
glad for him and so was he. He talked non stop about getting
married, I was sort of getting jealous of him, because the brother
had it made for him, finishing school, getting married and
especially coming from a wealthy family.
One day this brother was to meet me at the coffee shop. He showed up,
but astonishingly he wasn't smiling and wasn't talking about his
fianc?e. I asked him what was wrong, he asked if we could talk
somewhere privately and we did. Finally I knew why he was upset. He
had told me that he found out that he had a brain tumor which was
malignant, which meant it had become cancerous. When he told me the
news, his voice was quivering and tears were streaming down his
cheeks.
I had never seen him like this before. I tried keeping in my tears
and I tried not to show that I was hurt also. I was burning up
inside and things were racing through my mind. I kept thinking, how
could this have happened? A man who had everything made and had
everything perfect. I kept it inside because I did not want him to
see me upset.
I saw this brother slowly go down. He had to drop out of school at
his last year because he began to lose his memory and he started to
repeat himself over again. He did not have a chance at school
without his memory. This brother was intelligent, but after, he
became lost.
He was told that his fiance?s family and her parents did not want
their daughter to marry him, because he had no job and
basically no future. This was hard for him, I remember he would cry to me about
her and how he cared for her and how hopeless he felt.
Later, the brother had problems writing and his right eyesight was
fading. The tumor was on the left side of his brain so it affected
everything on his right. Because of his memory loss, the brother
soon forgot suras and he even forgot how to pray. A year later, his
right arm was paralyzed and his eyesight was taken away from him. It
was the hardest thing for me to see. The brother I loved so much as
going through so much. I began coming over everyday helping him
recite suras.
When I was recited sura Fatiha to him and he was slowly repeating
after me, I looked at him and I thought, this was the same brother
who was so intelligent and was
to finish school. This was the same
brother who came from such a wealthy family. This was the same
brother who talked for days about getting married and raising a
family. This was the same brother who had everything. But now he can
barely remember what I said to him ten minutes ago, he can't get
married, and now he is struggling to read Qur'an, he was not much of
a practicing Muslim so it was harder for him to recite the Qur'an.
This man was now turning towards Allah, he dropped EVERYTHING and
turned towards Allah. Allah gave him everything, and he could take
everything away just as easily.
A month ago, I had received a call saying that the brother passed
away and that his janaza is today. I washed his body with a couple
of other brothers and I saw his lifeless body. He was buried and
after that I returned home. The next day, I sat down wondering to
myself about the power of Allah. My brother's death made me realize
that we forget what our purpose of being here is for: To serve
Allah. You could have everything, but do you have anything that is
important? I spent six years knowing this brother, and caring for
him. I never once shed a tear when he was alive and not even when he
passed away. But the day after his death, I did cry because I
thought about the power of Allah. I thought about my brother. We
always say that we will return to Allah, but we never really believe
it. If we did, then we would struggle to read the Qur'an and pray to
Allah like my brother did.
My brother had his eyesight taken away from him, his arm was
paralyzed and his memory was lost, but he still got up every morning
and he insisted and I repeat, insisted on reciting the Qur'an. But
we are able, but we still do not struggle to read the Qur'an. We do
not really believe that we will return to Allah, or else we would
struggle for Allah.
My brother had love for materialistic objects, but when death
approached him, those things were no use to him because he knew
those things were not going to lead him to Jannah (Paradise) without
his Iman. Allah can give and take things easily whenever and
wherever. I love my brother and I pray that Allah will accept him,
and I humbly request that prayer be made for him. I do pray that you
have a true belief of Allah and our return to Him because if you do
have this fear, you will struggle for your Islam to the best of your
ability before you can say it is too late. May we all be rightly
guided. Ameen
your brother in Islam,
~~~
