There was a very famous highwayman at his time.
He was in love with a girl and he used to sneak into her house to watch her for a while ...
At night, he used to attack caravans with pilgrims towards Hajj and stole their properties, fortunes and belongings.
He was so famous that many caravans changed their direction to avoid his region.
One night, he climbed the wall of his loved girl’s house and sneaked into it.
As he walked around the house, he realized that someone was praying Qiyam a-Layl (Dawn Prayer).
Someone stood before Allah, praying at night, alone, reciting His words: "Perhaps the time has not come for the faithful to humble their hearts to the remembrance of Allah and to the revealed truth" (57:16)
And those words shook him.
He felt those words in his heart and he was touched inside.
He began to think about those words and forgot why he had entered that house.
And the only answer in his tongue, spontaneously, was "Surely my Lord, this time has come."
And in that moment, he changed. Then he left the house, wandering aimlessly, contemplating his life, contemplating his past, his behavior, his reputation, his future and his relationship with Allah.
He ended up stopping in a place where there was a group of people who got together and lit a fire. They were travelers, outsiders.
He asked for permission to join them and ended up sitting with them.
And they were discussing whether they should spend the night there or continue their journey.
One of them said: "We should stay here because there is a famous thief in that region. That is his region and if we continue to travel, he may appear and then we will be in danger. So, we will spend the night here, and in the morning we will leave".
He was the thief they mentioned.
It made him think, "What have I done to make people so afraid of me? What kind of disgrace have I become for humans, for humanity, so that people don't feel safe about their lives and their properties because of me? "
All of this made him question his life, question his lifestyle. So he made a decision: he was going to change because it was his responsibility.
"It is not someone else's responsibility to change me and lead me on the right path. It is my own initiative and if I do not take it, then it will never happen. And I will face these consequences on the Day of Judgment."
That was exactly what he did ...
And he became one of the most famous scholars, one of the most famous worshipers of Allah in the history of Islam.
This is the story of Fudayl ibn Iyad.