Beyond One's Ability

Beyond One’s Ability

It all happened one day, when my father had received a call on his cell-phone. It was a call from the oldest and most experienced saint living in our village. My father respected him a lot and always insisted him to pray a special ‘moonazat” in our village mosque after the ‘Zummah” prayer, the special prayer of noon of the Muslims, whenever there is any danger or disaster or accident in our family.

After the conversation with him over the phone my father told us that the wise man wanted to send a thirteen-year-old boy with his parents to the city for the treatment of his leg which seemed to be broken. My father had told the religious leader of our village that he must send the patient without any hesitation to him and he also assured him that he would do whatever needed for the treatment of the boy.

One fine day, the boy along with his parents arrived at our house. As it was Saturday, my father was free for all the day. After the breakfast my father took the boy along with his parents to the ‘Pangu Hospital” (the hospital for the physically retarded patients).He consulted the condition of the boys with the best consultants available there. The doctors had given many tests and investigations to see what had actually happened to the left leg of the boy before admitting him to the hospital for the treatment. To my father’s horrors, the doctors’ reports showed my father that the boy was not suffering from any orthopedic problems but he was suffering from life-threatening cancer.

Eventually, my father told the patient’s parents about the disastrous disease of their son and told them not to tell the boy about his real disease. The parents had broken into cries but well-managed themselves not to make their son understand about their disease. my father took them to ‘Ahsania Mission Cancer Hospital’ by the advice of the doctors of the ‘Pangu Hospital’ and immediately got the boy admitted there and at once consulted the best physicians and consultants to examine his health’s condition. To make the matter worse, the doctors of the cancer hospital also declared that the chance of the boy survival was zero.

The doctors and the consultants sat on a round table meeting on that day with my father to discuss what could be done to save this poor boy from his death-bed .The doctors came to the conclusion that though he could not be saved his pain could be reduced by giving him a special injection of cancer which would reduce his pains. He had to live in the hospital for the rest of his life and the injection was very costly. But father started to be hopeful that one day the boy might be cured if he would get the prescribed medicine.

My father was ready to bear all the expenses of the treatment with the aid of some rich friends to help the boy to survive. However, to his utter surprise, the authority of the hospital informed my father that they are willing to treat the boy free for the rest of his life. My father was so overjoyed that he thanked Alllah again and again and prayed for the goodwill of the hospital.

Nevertheless, the next day, the hospital authorities informed my father that the parents of the boy had taken him back to the village. My father was shocked and called them immediately but he could not understand the hyper-sentimental reasons behind their sudden decision.

It was then that my father told me that there are certain times when trying to help somebody does not prove successful because sometimes something really remains beyond one’s reach.