Following is a small inspiring biography of a dear friend in sha Allah martyred in Sham...
Abu Saad al Pakistani RH
The first time I met Abu Saad was when i was injured & lying in the hospital ...As the hadith mentions the virtues of visiting the sick, i saw a brother who I'd never seen before coming to visit me...I knew almost all the English speaking muhjreen in my group and knew this was a brother I've never seen before ...I could see his very fair face smiling at me whilst sitting near my bed in the hospital making me realise that the bro came to visit me just for the sake of Allah (as v consider ), brought a lot f happiness to me...This was the beginning of my friendship with Abu Saad...
Abu Saad was apparently a bit shy and i realised that from the first time i met him.He did not speak much and kept smiling... The more I talked to him the more we got close to each other...We both being originally able to speak the Urdu language used to have a lot of laughs together discussing our previous lifestyles and backgrounds. Through spending lot of time with him, I came to learn a lot abt him...
He came to Sham already trained from Afghan Pakistan areas and had good contacts through his family amonsgt the mujahidin of Waziristan... Even though being only around 18 , he already had a background in Jihad there. He would often joke about his childhood while he wasn't very practicing that his elder brothers would be chased by cops, making the young Abu Saad run with his brothers and fight the unislamic paki cops since his childhood ... Despite knowing the Mujahideen there and having good chances for waging jihad in Afghan, Abu Saad left for Bilad al Sham, seeing the virtues of it in the Prophetic narrations and seeing the dire need for Muslims to defend their brothers and sisters here. He was offered marriage in Pakistan if he would just wud stay there and do jihad there. But apparently he refused and desired martyrdom and defence of his Muslim family in Sham more than marriage there. Before arriving to Sham, He would almost daily ask his contact in Pakistan about the way being arranged for him to travel to Syria. And after lot of persistence and patience, Allah swt opened for him the way to Syria and he finally enetered the blessed land.
He had an extraordinary desire for battles and being on the front lines. It was rare to see him not taking part in any of the battles. Whenever the emir called for men for any kind of military work, Abu Saad was almost everytime the first one to join in. You could realise that he did not hope or wanted a long life, he came here to be at the front rows in the fight and be chosen as a martyr... He kept asking the local syrian mujhideen about battles in his non arab accent? "Fee marakah, mataa marakah ya zalamaai" ?
If anytime the preparation for the battle would delay and the battle would delay you would see abu saad being restless for being in the front line...he would often complain abt the delay in battles and not being allowed the first rows for not knowing proper arabic and when he was reminded to fear Allah and be patient or perhaps he may loose his other rewards he would immediately keep quite and u could see it required so much efforts for him to do that. But for Allah's sake you could see he would control himself. It was apparent that his desire to be in jannah and get out of this prison of dunya was very strong ...
When the infighting started in Syria he quickly chose a group which was away from spilling the blood f muslims and joined them...He used to make his brothers always laugh and joke around when the bros wernt in battle. But as soon as you see him watching a serious islamic clip or leaving off for battle you could see how he suddenly became a different person. ...He would cover his mouth with his turban and constantly involve himself in zikr of Allah swt..You could realise this when he at times would be so involved in the remembrance of Allah that he wudn't even reply to the brothers except through nodding...
He was one of the few brothers I know who rarely missed his home country and when some locals used to praise the Muhjireen in general about the sacrifices they made he would say "my life here is so much better than back home...Whatever I sacrificed I have better here".... His father didnt know he was in jihad and kind f boycotted him and his brothers due to their strong islamic stance from long befire, and his mother had passed away few years ago, so the most missed thing for usually any Muhajir, his parents wernt there for him to b missed...
I knew he almost never had money except through the gifts or small amounts f salary our jihadi group would sometimes give.... As soon as we got salary you would realise his generosity was off another level, he used to give or buy gifts and things from that very little money he had for the brothers around him so much that it wud leave him almost no money for even using Internet. Whenever he had money and we went to a shop to buy somthing, he would insist to pay and make sure he paid for it.
He once got me to wear an expensive new army jacket which i assume he bought from a local shop me and him had visited frequently. He quickly told me me how nice it looks on me and had me keep it saying he has another jacket...I kept the gift and in a couple f days somehow lost it...he doubted that i lost the jacket, but to not to embarass me he never asked me directly if i lost it, i expected him to be a bit disappointed for it and perhaps admonish me as a normal person may as i knew he spent a lot from his limited resources to buy that jacket. But then after a few days, when he was kind f sure that i lost the jacket, I saw him coming to me with another new army jacket and telling me to keep it!. This generosity and manners i really found amazing... he has a lot more to be told abt his generosity, but i would just mention 1 more incident abt him in sha Allah ..He once got a very good quality cap in spoils of war and he saw i didnt get the same he looked at me not having the same cap and immediately gave me his good cap and took my inferior one...
May Allah swt reward him and accept him amongst the shuhadaa ..Regarding his helping character to his brothers; Whenever a bro needed some physical work at his house or hard work in the warehouse, everyone wud ask abu saad for help as the brothers knew he wudnt refuse. He would clean, fix and work in brothers houses for hours and hours without complaints and return back all dirty himself...Infact he was so helpful that at times brothers used to have to take appointments from him so that he wud clean their houses or fix stuff or do somthing for them... I dont remember the number of times he picked me up from places i needed a ride or dropped me back off even if it was in late night with whatever he had. Many a times there would be brothers required for loading and unloading stuff from charities and arranging them in packets or cartons for hours and a lot f brothers would hesitste to readily accept this work as it was hard physical work and would take hours, but you would see Abu Saad always be volunteering and ready...
We could keep mentioning Abu Saads virtues as he had so many more but to keep things short, Iv skipped a lot...
Abu Saad was always worried abt his niyyah and kept talking to his close friends only privately about various instances where he could be in riya in how to counter it. You could notice so many times he wouldn't be in the normal happy mode and when having a convo with him and would express his concerns about riya coming in his actions or how he wanted to be in the front line...
Finally about his shahada in sha Allah, as reported, Abu Saaad was having food and the brothers in a nearby frontline required immediate reinforcements, so he left his food and got ready to leave for battle, the brothers around him told him to finish his food and leave....On this he replied, il finish it in Jannah in sha Allah....The same battle he was chosen as martyr in sha Allah...
We hope he did complete his food in jannah and is enjoying his provisions there now...
May Allah swt accept him and unite us in Jannah al firdaus al a3la