Courage of conviction; faith stronger than death
Tonight's story is about something that takes more courage than fighting a giant or crossing a sea. It is about a boy, not much older than you, who stood before a king and the entire world, and chose faith over life itself. This is the story of the People of the Ditch, and it is a story about the most powerful kind of bravery there is.
Long ago, there lived a king who wanted to be worshipped. He declared himself divine, demanded that his people bow to him, and employed a sorcerer to awe and terrify the masses into obedience. The sorcerer was old and skilled, and the king trusted him completely.
But the sorcerer was growing old, and he told the king, "I am aging. Send me a young boy so that I may teach him my sorcery, so your power will continue after I am gone." The king chose a clever boy from the town and sent him to learn from the sorcerer.
The boy would walk every day from his home to the sorcerer's dwelling. And on his path, he passed by the home of a monk, a simple man of faith who worshipped Allah alone in secret. The boy, curious by nature, stopped one day to listen to the monk. The monk spoke of one God, the Creator of all things, who was infinitely greater than any king. The boy's heart recognized the truth immediately, the way clean water recognizes a clear glass.
Now the boy was learning two things at once: sorcery from the sorcerer, and faith from the monk. And every day, the truth of the monk's teaching grew stronger in his heart while the sorcerer's tricks seemed emptier.
One day, a great beast blocked the road, preventing people from passing. The boy saw an opportunity to test where true power lay. He picked up a stone and said: "O Allah, if the affair of the monk is more beloved to You than the affair of the sorcerer, then kill this beast so that the people may pass." He threw the stone, and the beast fell dead.
The boy went to the monk and told him what had happened. The monk said, "My son, today you are better than me. You have reached a level where you will be tested. And when you are tested, do not reveal where I am."
The boy began to heal the sick in the name of Allah. He cured the blind, healed the leper, and treated diseases that no medicine could touch. Word spread quickly. One of the king's courtiers, who had been blind, came to the boy and was healed. When he returned to the king with his sight restored, the king demanded to know who had healed him.
The courtier said, "My Lord did." The king flew into a rage: "Do you have a lord other than me?" Under pressure, the courtier revealed the boy. Under pressure, the boy revealed the monk. The king had the monk brought before him and ordered him to renounce his faith. The monk refused. The king had him killed.
The courtier was brought before the king and given the same choice. He refused. He too was killed.
Then the king turned to the boy. But the boy was different. Every attempt to kill him failed. The king sent soldiers to throw him from a mountaintop, but an earthquake shook the mountain and only the soldiers fell. He sent soldiers to drown him in the sea, but a storm capsized the boat and only the soldiers perished. Each time, the boy returned safely.
Finally, the boy said to the king: "You will not be able to kill me until you do as I say." The king, desperate, asked what he meant. The boy said: "Gather the people in one place. Tie me to the trunk of a tree. Then take an arrow from my quiver, place it in the bow, and say, 'In the name of Allah, the Lord of the boy.' Then shoot."
The king did exactly as the boy instructed. He gathered the entire city. He tied the boy to a tree. He took the arrow, placed it in the bow, and said, "In the name of Allah, the Lord of the boy." And he shot.
The arrow struck the boy in his temple, and the boy placed his hand on the wound and died.
But something the king had not anticipated happened. The entire city, every single person gathered there, saw what happened. They heard the king himself say, "In the name of Allah, the Lord of the boy." They saw that only by invoking Allah could the boy be harmed. And in that moment, they all declared: "We believe in the Lord of the boy! We believe in the Lord of the boy!"
The boy had sacrificed his life, but in doing so, he had saved the faith of an entire city. His death was the seed from which a forest of faith grew.
The king was furious beyond measure. He ordered great trenches, ditches, to be dug and filled with fire. Then he gave his people a choice: renounce your faith or be thrown into the flames. One by one, the believers chose the fire over betraying Allah.
The Quran describes this in Surah Al-Buruj: "Destroyed were the people of the ditch, of the fire full of fuel, when they sat by it, and they were witnesses to what they were doing to the believers. And they resented them only because they believed in Allah, the Almighty, the Praiseworthy."
Among those who approached the fire was a woman carrying her baby. She hesitated at the edge, and the baby, by the miracle of Allah, spoke and said: "Be patient, mother, for you are upon the truth." And she stepped forward.
The believers who died in those flames were not defeated. The Quran honors them eternally. Their persecutors are the ones who are cursed. The believers are promised "gardens beneath which rivers flow. That is the great attainment."
In the Shia tradition, the story of Ashab al-Ukhdud is one of the most powerful parallels to Karbala. Imam Husayn (AS) and his companions at Karbala made the same choice: faith over life, principle over survival. When Imam Husayn (AS) was given the choice between pledging allegiance to a tyrant or facing death, he chose death with dignity over life with dishonor.
Imam Husayn (AS) said: "Death with dignity is better than a life of humiliation." The boy in tonight's story understood this truth instinctively. His sacrifice was not a defeat; it was the greatest victory, because it saved the faith of an entire people.
Imam Sadiq (AS) said: "Every day is Ashura, and every land is Karbala." This means that the choice between truth and convenience, between faith and comfort, comes to every person in every generation. You may never face a literal fire, but you will face moments where standing for what is right costs you something, a friendship, popularity, comfort. In those moments, remember the boy, and choose truth.
"Wa ma naqamu minhum illa an yu'minu billahil-Azizil-Hamid" "And they resented them only because they believed in Allah, the Almighty, the Praiseworthy." -- Al-Buruj (85:8)