A story that I really love...

I am not an angry God person, never have been. I figure everything happens for some unexplainable reason. The tale of the khider is one of my favorites. It goes as follows; please forgive me if I am wrong in the details, because I am doing this from memory.

Moses asks the khider (a man whose will and actions are intimately connected with Allah’s will) to travel with him and is told yes; under the condition that he will not question the khider’s actions. The journey starts and the first thing they encounter is a young boy. The khider kills him. Moses struggles to understand, and they come to the next place where the khider stops in a village full of people who are rude and unwelcoming to re-build a stone wall on the edge of the village. Moses of course questions why the khider would rebuild the wall for the people of a town who had shown them no hospitality or kindness whatsoever. So, now Moses is obviously finding it hard to keep from questioning, but he has to keep the agreement to continue to travel with the khider. Next the khider and Moses stop at a dock and talk to some poor fishermen. When the men leave the khider sinks the boat. Moses is really taken aback by this and has to ask about why. So the khider proceeds to tell him from the beginning the reasons for his actions. The khider tells Moses the boy’s parents were righteous people, and if he had grown he would have caused them much pain and tested their faith. He rebuilt the wall to protect the treasure of orphans from the greedy people of the town who would surly take it if they found it in the wall. And, finally he sank the boats of the poor fishermen because that day the king's army would come and collect all the boats in that village but would leave this one because it was damaged, but the fishermen would repair it easily. So, the khider leaves to continue his journeys without Moses.

So, what do I take from the tale of the khider?

Well, it tells me that not all things we think of as right or fair are in God’s plan. There is a reason for even the things that seem horrible and wrong. I don’t think it lessons or grief about bad things that happen to us, but it certainly gives us the assurance that everything happens for a reason. And, even Moses was unable to understand the good behind the things the khider did… So I would guess that probably means we are going to have a hard time seeing them too! So, the next time you are screaming "why"… Think of the khider.