Adeel Malik
A Muslim supermarket worker has been hailed a hero after he stepped in to rescue a baby from a house fire as reported by Metro.
Habeel Khan, 26, was on his rounds in Nottingham for Asda when he saw smoke billowing out of a house. He pulled up and saw a woman screaming that her baby was still in the house.
Without a second thought he ran into the home to get the seven-week-old baby. Habeel, who has been named colleague of the year, said:
‘It was a just a normal day at work for me. I was doing my deliveries in the Stapleford area and when I pulled up and looked over to where the customer’s house was I saw loads of smoke just gushing out of a house.
‘My natural instinct was to just run across to the house. I could see loads of smoke and lots of people panicking outside. ‘
I shouted “is everyone out of the house?” and that’s when a woman with two young children shouted “my baby; my baby’s still in the house”.
‘I don’t think she had realised until then and then she ran back into the house and I went with her.
‘She managed to pick up the baby from a room next to the kitchen where the fire had started, then we ran out.’
He stayed with the family until firefighters and paramedics arrived then went on with his rounds.
Speaking about his accolade from the Being Asda Awards 2019 he said:
‘I didn’t really think anything of it – I just thought I’d helped out, and had done a little good deed.I don’t think I have done anything heroic at all to be honest.
Thankfully everyone was okay in the end and the family are back in the house.’
Habeel’s manager Peter Smith said:
‘We know him as Smiler. He is always happy. ‘He is always doing the right thing by the customer. He is an absolute asset to the team and a credit to the company.’
Co-worker Claire Wilkes said:
‘Habeel doesn’t think he is a hero, but we certainly do – he’s amazing.’
Bernie Drummond added:
‘Habeel’s just great and everyone loves him here. He’s just our Habeel, our hero.’
Asda’s senior vice president of operations Anthony Hemmerdinger said:
‘What Habeel did was remarkable and it’s not something we would recommend that our colleagues do, however it’s clear that in this instance his instinct kicked in and he did a remarkable job.’
Allah said (Qur’an 5:32):
“And whoever saves one – it is as if he had saved mankind entirely.”
May Allah bless the brother. This is what all of us as Muslims ought to do, put our compassionate and merciful teachings of Islam into action when any need arises, for doing such selfless deeds will show to others what being a Muslim is truly about.
