There was a man named Abu Bakr Al Anshari. He was also known as Qadi Al Maristani.
He was known as a very pious man of Makkah. He was known for his taqwa; he was a man who tried to always distance himself from Allah’s anger.
A Lost Pearl Necklace
He said:
“One day I was in the street of Makkah. I was hungry and I was looking for some food. I found a bag with a very expensive pearl necklace in it.”
The necklace didn’t belong to him, so he tied it up, took it home in case the owner comes, and he went back out in the street looking for his food.
Later on, he heard a man calling out that he had lost a pearl necklace, and he was offering a reward, a large reward for whosoever would find it for him.
So, Abu Bakr came to the man and said:
“Look, I’ve found the necklace, but you need to describe it to me, so I can know whether this is yours or not.”
When the man described it perfectly, he gave it to him. The man was trying to pay him the reward, but Abu Bakr was refusing. He said to the man:
“I didn’t do anything for this, I didn’t earn it, I’m giving you back what belongs to you, therefore I do not feel right taking sustenance because of it.”
Looking for a Better Living
Later on, Abu Bakr said that he realized that he couldn’t find his sustenance and work in Makkah, so he decided to get on a ship and go somewhere else as Allah says, “If you can’t make it somewhere, the earth is big, go somewhere else.”
Suddenly, a big storm came and crushed the ship. And many people on that ship died. He said:
“I was fortunately able to grab a piece of driftwood, and the wind blew me, and blew me, and blew me to an island.”
When he got to that island, he looked for the people. He couldn’t find them, so he saw that there was a Masjid. He went in and he sat down and began to recite the Quran beautifully.
The people of this island started to hear this beautiful-melodious recitation of the Quran. They went to see who it was, and they found Abu Bakr in the Masjid, reciting. And they said to him:
“You know how to recite the Quran beautifully, will you teach us and our children how to do this? And we will pay you and give you a place to live.”
He agreed and they started to pay him, and he had a home, and he did this for a while.
Then, one day, he was sitting in the Masjid reading some of the pages of the Quran, they had lying around in the Masjid. And the people said to him:
“Teach us and our children how to read and write, and we will increase your salary and pay you even more.”
So they began to increase his salary, paid him even more, and he stayed with them for a while.
Allah is the Best Planner
Then, came a time where he decided, “I’ve been here long enough, want to move on to the next position in life. Move on somewhere else.”
The people realized that he was going to leave, and they didn’t want him to leave. So they said:
“We have to keep him here.” So they devised a very good plan to keep him among them. They said:
“If we get him married, he’s going nowhere.”
So, there was a girl, who was known as one of the most beautiful, pious, from the most pious family. A girl that had recently been orphaned. So, they tried to get him married to her and he refused, then again they argued back and forth until he agreed to marry.
The nikah was arranged, and the bride was brought in. the bride’s necklace caught Abu Bakr’s attention, he dropped his head and began to cry.
When they asked him why he cried, he said:
“The reason is because I’ve recognized the necklace that she’s wearing. I found this necklace in the street of Makkah one day, and I gave it to a man.”
They said:
“Her father was the owner of this necklace. And we used to hear him talking about this man that he met in Makkah, who was one of the most pious and righteous Muslims he had ever come across in his life; we used to hear him openly making dua to Allah, for you to be married to his daughter. And here you are.”
And he got married to her, he got children, and he became very affluent.
Trust in Allah’s Plan
You see, when Abu Bakr Al Anshari was being tossed about on that driftwood in the ocean, I’m sure he couldn’t understand the plan of Allah. He didn’t realize what was happening.
Little did he know that even though he had a plan, Allah also had another plan to answer that father’s dua. And Abu Bakr was doing nothing but being led towards that destination by Allah.
So Abu Bakr had a plan and Allah had a plan. And maybe Abu Bakr just hadn’t seen it. But, it came to be just the way it was meant to be.
You see, that’s how life is sometimes. Sometimes it doesn’t look like it’s going right, but Allah has a plan.