upset when he saw the state I was in. He visited me again a few days
later when I was a bit better. He had a book with him. He told me he
hadn't finished reading it and that would give it to me when he had,
but he wanted to read the part he had already finished to me."
"When I said I would like to hear it, he read me that part. The
book explained that Allah has created everything for a specific pur-
pose, and that there is good even in things that look bad at first sight.
It said that people who believe in Allah and trust in Him should act in
the knowledge that there is very definitely a blessing in everything."
"It gave a lot of examples of this. One of these was about being
ill. What it said affected me very much. As it said in the book, even
the simplest of illnesses, like flu, show how powerless people actually
are. Flu is caused by a tiny virus that can't be seen with the naked
eye. But this tiny virus robs a person of his strength and makes him
have to go to bed. He reaches a point where he can't walk or even
talk. A person can't do anything except lie down and wait to get bet-
ter."
"You're right," agreed Tawfiq. "When that happens all you can
do is take your medicine and wait to get better."
Rashad went on talking:
"When we become ill we realize what a great blessing health is.
When a person is in good health and can walk, run and play with
no difficulty he should think about illness and be grateful to Allah.
When you get up in the morning, being able to walk, run and do
whatever you want whenever you want without anybody's help is a
great gift from Allah. As it said in the book, by creating illness Allah
made people think and notice this."
"Yes, what you're saying is quite right," nodded Tawfiq.
Rashad continued with his explanation: "When I started thinking
like that I wasn't unhappy any more. I'm very pleased because I'm
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