Staying Strong Through Hardships

Assalamu alaykum,

My name is Yashar H. Naman. I’m from Kristiansand, Norway. I’m a 27-year-old man.

First of all, I would like to thank you very much for the amazing work you are doing. May Allah bless you and the work you are doing, and strengthen your iman!

I would like to share with you my story.

On 28^th Dec. 2014, I was involved in a swimming accident in Bali, Indonesia. It resulted in me having a fracture in the fifth cervical vertebra.

The fracture also injured the spinal cord with partial paresis in my arms, fingers and complete paralysis of both my legs. This is C5 complete spinal cord injury AIS grade A.

After initial treatment in Bali Indonesia with fixation of the fracture, I was evacuated/transferred to Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore for further follow up before I was transferred back home to Oslo for follow-up.

I was admitted to Sunnaas Rehabilitation hospital in Oslo Norway from Feb. 12 to Nov. 11 of 2015. I received intense occupational and physiotherapy.
I’ve been slowly gaining some more mobility in my upper body. Even though I have a complete injury, I can feel that I can move the inner muscles of my hips, thighs and legs all the way down to my toes.

Currently, I have sensation and movement down to the heart level.

I have right now been discharged to my own adapted apartment in my hometown of Kristiansand in southern Norway.

I studied International Marketing at the BI Norwegian Business School in Oslo Norway and Shanghai China.
I graduated in Shanghai and was recruited by a Swedish cosmetic company in Shanghai.
Prior to the accident, I was working in sales management in Jakarta Indonesia.

It’s insane to experience that one day you can travel around the world, your agenda filled with different things to do and your life is basically a great Hollywood movie, and the next day you lose control over your entire body—you’re not even able to move your body one centimeter without assistance.

Long story short, before the accident, I guess I knew that everything is within Allah’s control, and now I understand that everything is within Allah’s absolute control.

I am very grateful that Allah brought me back from death and gave me an opportunity to get closer to Him before leaving this world.
I can never forget when the wave hit me, something inside the water, apparently an object which was sucked into the water from the beach by the big wave, the object hit me back in my head. I lost control over my body except for my head within milliseconds.
My brain received such a shock that it wasn’t until my last breath went out that I realized I couldn’t swim myself out of the water; I simply couldn’t move except for my head.
That’s when I realized that my time was out, I started thinking… for 25 years, I had a good run.
I immediately started to recite and repeat the shahada (testimony of faith): La Illaha Illa Allah Muhammadun Rasul Allah (There is no deity worthy of worship except the One and Only God Allah, and Muhammad is His Final Messenger)… and I was looking for the angel who would take my soul.

The angel never showed up.  Instead, I was pulled out of the water by my brother who was also inside the water.
When this happened, I was filled with uncertainties. But, I was 100% certain about one thing, which is the visit from the angel who would take my soul. This didn’t happen, and it turned out to be the beginning of a painful chapter in my life.
I lost consciousness shortly after I was pulled out to the beach. I was operated on in Bali to stabilize the bone structure in my neck. Shortly after that, I was evacuated to a hospital in Singapore, after being denied by a hospital in Tokyo and Sydney, because the surgeons were worried that my lungs that were heavily impacted by the injury couldn’t handle the high altitude and flying time to reach Tokyo and Sydney.
After approximately 30 days in Singapore, I was flown back home to a rehabilitation hospital in Oslo.

I was almost depressed for the full year after the accident, but with the help of Allah Almighty and the amount of support I received and still receiving from my family, I would say that -alhamduliAllah (praise to Allah)- I handled the psychological part of the test I am in right now pretty well.

I know that I must have faith in Allah and pray to Him to regain the control over my body, but despite knowing that, from time to time, it can still be really tough to have hope in that better days are coming.

Sitting in a wheelchair and not being able to feel my hands, makes me a really vulnerable target for shaytaan (The Devil, Evil Whisperer).

I would like to ask you if you could please pray for me, and if it’s not too much to ask, may I ask you also to use your channels to ask our brothers and sisters around the world to kindly pray for me to regain control over my body.

And, if there is any known treatment within the Islamic medicine for spinal cord injuries, I would appreciate people sharing with me their help, advice and recommendations on that.

Thank you very much, this means a lot to me!

And I thank you again very much for the wonderful work you guys are doing, may Allah bless you and the work you are doing!

As-salamu alaykum!