The Power of the Basmallah

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

There was once a highway robber.  He lived in a small village, and was noted for his brutality.  Two or three months before he died, he got married, also by force.  When he died and they did not bury him in the cemetery, but alone, away from the Muslims.  At night, the villagers heard sighs or moans of torture coming from his grave.  It was so loud that it was heard throughout the village.  There was always heat coming from his grave.  Nothing grew on it, and the sand was so hot that no one could put their hand on it. 

Months after that man died, his wife gave birth to a baby boy.  She raised him alone because she was shunned by the village.  As a single mother, it was a great struggle.  She wanted him to learn the Qur’an, but no madaris in the area would accept him because of who his father was.  Finally, an old shaykh decided to take them in, and teach him the Qur’an.  He was an orphan; she was a widow; none of them deserved to be punished for the actions of the deceased. 

The day he said, for the first time, “Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim”, the sounds in the cemetery stopped.  The actions of the son expiated the sins of the father, and alleviated his punishment in the grave.  This is despite the fact he was born after the father died.