Obviously God alone chooses the path for each person, but today while searching for Muslim redditors for /r/wisconsinMuslims and /r/arkansasMuslims I stumbled across something of a sad story entirely by accident. I just figured I'd tell it here, as a sad ballad, to make each of us reflect, be even more charitable to visitors and seekers after truth in the future, and recognise the sorrow it holds.
MB95, a 22-year old man in Arkansas, posted in /r/islam in 2017 and explained that he suffered from depression and anxiety, but noted "...The reason I'd like to see an imam is that I feel that there is a possibility that Islam could help me. I was once a christian when I was a child but gave it up in my early teens. Now I see that there are no clear cut answers to really anything in life. So here I am again, wondering about the existence of god, or Allah. I have been exposed previously to Islam and I like it far more than Christianity...". He was not ignored, ten people responded and I am not blaming them for their efforts - but obviously they were not enough, as we'll see.
He posted again after meeting the imam, and his account of what happened was "He was very open, stating that while he believes Islam to be the right path, it does not have to be the one I choose. It is my choice, after all. So now I seek a little more help. I watched the people praying during the final prayer of the day and I wanted to join, but I did not know how. Can I do it on my own? I do not need to be at a mosque, right? And am I supposed to speak a prayer in Arabic only? I have been told about dua, and I am still unsure what to make of it." Again, a few users offered their advice to pray salat in Arabic and dua in English.
It seems no Muslim ever followed up with him, he continued making hundreds of posts on Reddit, but based on the upvotes and number of friendly comments he received in other subreddits seemed to find the most camraderie amongst gamers and he later joined r/traaaaaaannnnnnnnnns where he was congratulated on deciding to explore trans-sexuality. By the end of the year, he was taking steroids to transition to becoming a woman hoping it would end his depression, anxiety and religious emptiness.
The issue of course, is that transexuals have a shockingly high suicide rate - over 40% will attempt to kill themselves. I was reading his post from 2017 hoping I could urge him back to consider helping me with the creation of /r/arkansasMuslims as a project to engage him in exploring Islam and walk away from the turmoils he continued to face - but of course, when I checked his activity I saw that he's not been seen in the last six months since posting that he's cut off contact with his family. I sent a message into the ether, but let's be honest...I don't expect he's alive to see it. الرب اعطى والرب اخذ فليكن
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