Umm Bander walked out of the ICU door, her hands exhausted by IV drips, leaning with one hand on what remained of her breath, and holding her faith in God with the other. Behind her, her lifelong companion Khalid remained on the sickbed, battling a pain known only to God. No sooner had her feet touched the door of life again, than another door opened... Through it came her son Muhammad, not to the home that awaited him, but to the home from which no one returns.

Oh God...

What heart can survive death once, only to taste at the same moment another death that will dwell in its chest for the rest of its life?

And what kind of mother is this who yesterday was wrestling with pain on her bed, only to find herself today wrestling with separation over her son's coffin?

It was as if Muhammad Al-Saudi's heart could not bear to witness all this, as if his pulse could not keep up with his parents' pain, so he chose to precede them to a greater mercy, to a place with no pain or separation.

Here, a sacred hadith reverberates in the heavens, pouring tranquility into the heart of every afflicted one:

God says to His angels: 'Did you take the child of My servant?'

They say: 'Yes.'

He says: 'Did you take the fruit of his heart?'

They say: 'Yes.'

He says: 'Then what did My servant say?'

They say: 'He praised You and said, "We belong to God and to Him we return."'

Then God says: 'Build for My servant a house in Paradise, and call it the House of Praise.'

Oh Umm Bander...

Indeed the eye weeps and the heart grieves, but the believer's consolation is that this loss is not hidden from God's knowledge, and your tears are heard, your patience is recorded, and your praise is raised to heaven.

Muhammad has not disappeared...

He has only gone ahead.

He has gone ahead to a mercy broader than this world, to a home with no pain, no separation, no fear.

He is absent from your sight, but he is present with a Lord with whom no trust is lost.

And he is absent from your embrace, but he is in an embrace of mercy that never ends.

And he is absent from your voice, but he hears the greetings of angels, trusting in God.

And there will come a day when this separation will stand ashamed before the reunion, and all this sorrow will melt in a single moment, when God gathers the people of faith in a home where no illness enters, death does not knock at its doors, and no mother's sigh, father's moan, or mourner's cry is heard in its corridors.

So, O Lord...

If affliction has knocked at their house from every door, then open for them from the doors of Your kindness what hope cannot reach.

And if the earth has become too narrow for them, leaving no room for their tears, then open for them the vastness of heaven.

And build for them the House of Praise, make their patience a path to it, and make their reunion with Muhammad in it an unending joy.

And make Muhammad the first to welcome his parents at the gates of Paradise, just as he lived in their hearts in this world.

{Indeed, the patient will be given their reward without account.}