A disabled Ukrainian converted to Islam after taking shelter in a mosque during the Russian attack.
We cannot be sure when Hidayat (guidance) will come, considering that hidayah is something that can come anywhere, anytime, and to anyone. In this case, hidayah came to a man with a disability from Ukraine during the darkest period of his time when Russian forces attacked Ukraine.
He is Voronko Urko, a Ukrainian citizen who was determined to convert to Islam on August 20.
As TRT World reported, Urko was forced to lose his home and be separated from his wife and two daughters before converting to Islam. Urko then took refuge in a mosque in the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine.
Urko shared that he was left alone when volunteers separated and took his family somewhere on March 8. Usually, Urko continued, when there was an attack, he and his family went to a shelter. However, Urko, who was left alone on the 9th floor of a building, began to despair of living without gas, light, or water.
That’s when help came to him through an Imam named Muhammad Ali, who offered him a place in a mosque in Kharkiv.
According to Imam Muhammad Ali, Urko called and asked the Imam for help when the situation became unbearable. And then, Imam invited Urko to stay in the mosque, and they became ‘brothers’.
After living in the mosque for a while, Voronko Urko was given hidayah to embrace Islam and become a Muslim on August 20, 2022.
The story of this disabled man from Ukraine reminds us never to give up and be patient when trials come repeatedly to us because Allah definitely has the best plan for all of us. Let’s pray for Urko to be reunited with his family again.
