Real bankruptcy
I was tired of working at the military communication office. I wanted to join the troops. I went to search for Agha Mehdi. I told him that I had no interest in the duty I had been assigned at the communication office. Then I started to justify what I had just told him. I spent 10 minutes trying to explain that if I were to be assigned somewhere else, I could be more fruitful. Whilst I spoke, he didn’t say a single word and just listened to me.
When I finished, he asked “How much Qur’an do you recite every day?” I said “There you go. We are so occupied at the communication office that we don’t have a single minute for reciting the Quran.” He then asked me how much Nahj al Balagha I read per day. “We don’t have time to study” I replied. He continued to ask these kinds of questions, all of which were related to spirituality. I continued to answer in the same way. Finally, he said angrily, “You unfortunate guy! Just say that you have become bankrupt!”. I was taken aback. “Why bankrupt??” “You came here to the warfront with a basic faith. You didn’t have more spiritual reserves. You used it all up and you have nothing left now. Neither do you read, nor do you recite the Qur’an, nor read Nahjul Balagha. So don’t say that you can’t work at the communication office. Simply say you have become bankrupt. The spiritual capital that you had brought with you has run out, but you haven’t added anything to it. You say that you do not have the time, why don’t you make time for it? Close yourself off for an hour every day no matter what, even if the enemy comes. You just do what you need to do.” He then went on to say “Anyone who joins an organization and over time does not add to his potentials, he becomes intellectually bankrupt.” He made me understand what I should be going after. I was convinced, and from the very next day, I began to work on the instructions that Agha Mehdi had given me.
This was a story from the life of Shahid… Mahdi Bakeri. A young leader who served the people for Allah’s sake, and finally gave his life away, for Allah’s sake.
