Whenever a meeting of debauchery was held in Basra in which...
Whenever a meeting of debauchery was held in Basra in which young people and wealthy men gathered, Sha’wana was invited to delight them. She sang and danced to move in those polluted people pleasure and joy. With Sha’wana, there was a group of women and young girls. One day while Sha’wana was going with her friends to a meeting of the same meetings of her, she heard painful weeping and loud crying coming from one of the houses. She was asto nished. She asked, “What is the matter?
What is that crying for?” She sent one of her friends to see what the matter was. Her friend went but she did not come back. She sent another one to that house but she did not come back too. She sent a third woman to see what the matter was and she insisted on her to come back and not to let her wait too long.
She went and after sometime she came back and said, “O my lady, this crying was of the sinful and dissolute people.” Sha’wana said, “It would be better that I my self go and see what is there.” She approached that meeting and saw a preacher preaching the people and talking to them about the hereafter and rec iting through his speech this Qur’anic verse, “When it shall come into their sight from a distant place, they shall hear its (hell) vehement raging and roaring.
And when they are cast into a narrow place in it, bound, they shall there call out for destruction.” Qur'an, 25:13 When she heard this verse and knew its meaning with her Heart and soul, she cried and said, “O preacher! I am one of the sinful women. I am polluted with sins and now I feel shy and regretful. Will my repentance be accepted by Allah the Creator?” The preacher said, “Yes, your sins can be forgiven even if they are as much as the sins of Sha’wana!” She said, “Woe unto me!
I am Sha’wana. My sins have become so much that I have become as an example to sinful people. O preacher, since now I give up sins and become abstinent and I will never attend the meetings of debauchery.” The preacher said, “Allah is the most Merciful of the Merciful oneseven to you.” Thus Sha’wana repented in a real repentance and became one of the real worshippers until her body, which had grown out of (the monies of) sins, melted, her Heart suffered and crying and weeping pained her too much.