This story is, I believe, completely true, but I do not know how it ended. I am telling it only as an footnote to my last post.
Nine years ago when I was working for a homelessness charity in central London, I was key-worker to a young Muslim resident, aged 17, from a West African country. His parents, who were dead, had been Egyptian shopkeepers in a small town and during the civil war, militia arrived at the shop and told him, "We are going to kill your family, but if you are a brave boy and don't cry, you can come with us and be a soldier."
He was 13 years old.
He said they butchered his mother, father, and sisters in front of him, he did not cry, and for the next two years, until he was 15, he was an irregular soldier, killing, raping, using drugs, living in terror at what he was doing.
The most horrible thing he told me was that when they came across a pregnant woman, they would take bets on whether the child was a boy or a girl, and disembowel the woman to settle the matter.
He cried continually while telling this.
He escaped and made his way, a long way, to Zimbabwe, where he was cared for by Protestant missionaries who arranged and paid for him to come to London.
In London, he attended a secondary school in a South London suburb, where he passed his GCSEs while living rough on the streets. I telephoned his former head teacher who confirmed this.
When I knew him, he was still smoking cannabis, and perhaps sometimes crack cocaine. Without self-pity, he talked mainly about his feelings of remorse and guilt, and how he might atone to God for his wickedness.
He would not go to a mosque, so I spoke to a helpful mullah on his behalf, who said that God would accept his sorrow and penitence and forgive him. I did not need the mullah to tell me that, but he did. I am not sure he accepted the assurance.
Unfortunately the hostel closed and I never heard what happened to him, only that he had been given a flat.
I regularly pray for him and for so many of my clients (as we called them) from 2000-2005. In some ways they were the most penitent people, always trying and (like the rest of us) often failing to be the people they wanted to be.
And I cannot imagine them in Hell.
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6 comments:
Our Earthly pilgramidge,..no matter what we did or where we came from,..God'd Mercy is infinite,..Its the contrition that counts.
Mike Cliffson said...
Dear Christopher.
Islam is very inadequate on this one.
What Ive understood of what Ive been taught of the catholic postion is roughly:
Remorse takes you nearly there, but repentance is believing in God and shoving the whole thing, onself, one's sins, the whole caboodle, on his lap. The ONLY unforgivable thing is blasphemy against the holy spirit. I thought tha harsh, once, but that's it - NOTHING is unforgivable eexcept ONE freely refuses even the possibilty of God's Grace, Might and pardon. For want of a better word, awre certainly of what he'd done, in remorse did Judas hang himself, God send, how shall we ever know, he repented as he dangled.
The trouble for such main-stream muslims as Ive known, some of whom live in perpetual torture on this account, is their understanding that to be saved you have to EARN mercy ,redress the balance in equal measure, penny for penny, life for life, often well nigh impossible, or be "martyred" fighting or furthering Islam. If we can get tizwozzy about hell , imagine what it can be like for them.
Of course, he was not baptised but we have grounds to believe that Heaven is open to all. In addition, at the time of committing those atrocities he was under duress and also may not have fully recognised his acts as being mortally sinful.
Therefore, despite his deeds, his soul may be in better shape than we think. I will keep him in my prayers today and hope in God's mercy.
A very powerful post. I am reminded of the old saying, "There but for the Grace of God go I." None of us knows what monsters we might become in extreme circumstances. This is why the Divine Mercy chaplet is such an important prayer. All we can do is pray that God will have mercy on us and on the whole world.
Thank you all for your comments - I see we are of one mind about the Mercy of God. The Divine Mercy Chaplet is indeed highly important. I take some comfort from the fact that Saint Faustina seems to have suggested that, ultimately, no soul will be lost.
Happy Advent and God bless!
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