Feeling Worn Out Inside
Assalamu alaikum everyone, sorry this is gonna be long but I need to let this out somehow. I'm just venting here cause I have no one to talk to about all this, I'm completely alone. It's been like this my whole life honestly. I used to have friends here and there but after I had to leave my country I lost them all. Even the ones who came to the same place as me ended up moving to other cities, got married, and just moved on. I call them sometimes but it doesn't really help anything. I'm in the UK now, originally from Egypt. Life has been really heavy and there's never a break, not once. I can't go back to Egypt because of the military situation. My father was taken to prison unfairly two years ago just for speaking up against the government and exposing some corrupt ministers. They basically made him vanish, took him from us without any legal process, no lawyer, no court, nothing. On paper he's gone but he's still alive somewhere. They also cut off his pension which my mom and brother relied on. Now I have to support them financially until things change, if they ever do. And there's a real risk I'd be thrown in prison too if I go back, because I know things my father shared with me that no one else knows. My mom is getting old and exhausted dealing with this all by herself. My brother is two years younger than me and he leaves her alone all day, doesn't pray, goes out to parties, and lives his life like none of this hardship is happening. He gets angry when we try to advise him. I've tried everything with him but nothing gets through. I struggled with three addictions from age 18 to 25 and I beat all of them on my own with no support. I read books, exercised, fixed myself up. I made all these changes for them. I got a good degree, landed a software engineering job, learned martial arts, but now I'm injured and can't train which is really weighing on me. I carry all this while dealing with everything else. I really wish to get married but I'm scared. Who would want to step into this kind of life, all these burdens I carry, the mess with my family? What would I even say to her wali? "Salam, I can't go back to my country, haven't seen my family in years, my father's in prison, my brother is making life tough for my mom, and I can't do a thing about it. I'm powerless." Every time I speak to my mom on the phone she tells me how much she's suffering and it destroys me because I want to give her a better situation, I want to rescue her. She's gone through so much because of what happened to my father and my brother's choices. I'm actually tearing up writing this for the first time in years. It's the middle of the night, I can't sleep, and I just had to get this off my chest. What I've written here is nothing compared to what's really happening in my life. I just got through six months of being jobless with no money coming in because of visa problems, couldn't afford food or rent, but Allah got me through it, alhamdulillah. I left a bad habit 120 days ago, the last of those addictions I mentioned. Last year I was tested with zina, a woman offered herself to me and I turned her away. This year the same test came back. Three weeks after I quit that habit, the same woman moved into my building on the same floor and started flirting and trying to get close to me. I almost slipped but I pulled back at the last second and haven't spoken to her since. It feels like the tests never stop coming. Everyone else has moved forward with their lives, gotten married, built something steady, and wallahi I'm truly happy for them, there's not even a speck of envy in my heart. I just wish I could have a normal life. I wish to get married, have kids, build a family, show my mom and father their grandchildren, just live a normal life. But I don't quit, and I'll never quit no matter how dark it gets. That's just not how I am. I believe all these huge tests Allah is putting me through mean I'm meant for something big, I just don't see it yet. Please make dua for me brothers and sisters. I haven't been the best servant to Allah, but I'll always keep trying.