Nour prayed for days on end, staring at the ceiling. 

If you let me and my family live I will never be unkind. Please let us go back to the life we had. We will play less and we will work and study harder, all of us. I will help mum and dad more. I will serve You and spread goodness wherever I go. If you let me keep my legs, dear God, I will preach Your word to anyone who wants to listen. I will do everything you ask of all Your children. I will share food, I will shelter the poor, dress the naked, defend the helpless, I will build my talents only in the service of others. I don’t ask for any luxury, I will lead a frugal life, but please let mum, dad, our grandparents, my brothers and sisters live. I know it’s selfish to ask for protection of my loved ones when so many are in need, but I swear I will pay any price you ask of me. I will never be rude to my sisters again, I will never envy any of their qualities ever again, but please, God, let us live. If we are being punished, please give me a sign explaining what we did wrong and I swear I will make amends. Please keep me and my family on this earth to do Your work. Forgive me for my selfish requests, show me how to make up for it, but please let us live, it can’t be our time, we are all so young, we have much to give, dear God, let us stay here till we are all old, I will do only good and never ask for anything else, I swear. You are of course the greatest Decider, but please, not now, we are a very happy family, not now. Give me a sign and I will follow. 

Nour survived, her family survived, but she did not get to keep her legs. 

She asked her mum why God took her legs. Mum said God did no such thing. Pure evil took her legs, but she now had the greatest opportunity to deserve her place in heaven by living a life devoted to God, even without her legs.

Mum said there was no challenge and so no real reward in leading a good life if nothing ever works out very differently than you hoped or planned for. This was her test and if she passed the test eternal happiness would be hers, here on earth and beyond. 

Many people wondered why a legless girl could smile so often and be so kind to others, even when her stumps kept opening and took forever to heal up fully. As soon as she could move about in a wheelchair she read children’s stories to kids younger than her. Many of them with even worse injuries than hers.  

Later in life Nour became a very successful speech therapist and helped thousands of children overcome all sorts of speech impediments.  

‘I can’t walk, but I can make words walk’. 

Being very humble she never shared her personal slogan with anyone except for her husband, but she lived by it every day of her life.