At the Door of Brother
https://www.al-islam.org/anecdotes-reflection-part-1-sayyid-ali-akbar-sadaaqat
https://www.al-islam.org/anecdotes-reflection-part-1-sayyid-ali-akbar-sadaaqat
Chap 14 Story # 3
At the door of brother is as at the door of Allah SWT - Imam Muhammad Baqir (AS) - English
More Generous than Hatim
Hatim Tai was questioned: “Have you come across any one more generous than yourself?” He replied: “Yes, I have.” He was asked: “Where?” He said: “I had been travelling in the desert when I came across a tent. Inside it there was an old lady while behind the tent a goat lay tied. When the old lady saw me she approached me and held the reins of my horse so that I could dismount. A little later, her son arrived and was immensely pleased to have me as their guest. The old lady said to him: “Commence the preparations to entertain our guest. Go and slaughter the goat and prepare some food.”'
The son said: “First I shall go and collect some firewood,” but the old lady said: “Going to the desert and bringing the firewood shall consume a lot of time due to which our guest would have to remain hungry for long, and this would be contrary to social etiquette.”
So the son, breaking the only two lances that he possessed, slaughtered the goat, prepared the food and presented it before me.
When I investigated about their condition, I realized that the goat had been their only possession and despite this, they had slaughtered it for me.
I said to the old lady: “Do you recognize me?” When she replied in the negative, I said: “I am Hatim Tai. You must come with me to my tribe so that I can entertain you and shower you with gifts and presents!”
The old lady said: “Neither do we seek any reward from our guests nor do we sell bread for money, and she refused to accept anything from me.” Witnessing this generosity, I realized that they were far more generous and munificent than me.
https://www.al-islam.org/anecdotes-reflection-part-3-sayyid-ali-akbar-sadaaqat/48-generosity
It is Forbidden to Hurt a Mu'min
Husain Ibn Abi al-A’laa narrates: I started out for Makkah in the company of twenty other persons. At every resting place, I would slaughter a goat, in order to provide the people with food. When I arrived in the presence of Imam Sadiq (a.s.), he said to me:
“O’ Husain! Woe be unto you that you hurt and cause inconvenience to the Mu'mineen.”
“I seek refuge in God from such an act,” I said.
He explained, “I have been informed that at every resting-place you used to slaughter a goat for your companions.”
“Yes, but By God, it was only for His happiness that I acted in this manner”.
The Imam (AS) continued, “Don’t you realize that amongst the group there were some, who desired to possess wealth so they too could perform good deeds like you, but not having the means, they have become upset.”
“I repent over my actions and resolve never to act in that way again,” I said.
The Imam (a.s.) advised, “A Mu'min, in the eyes of God, is more honourable than the angels, the mountains, the seven skies, the seven earths and everything that exists in them.”
http://www.al-islam.org/anecdotes-reflection-part-1-sayyid-ali-akbar-sadaaqat/12-harassment#3-it-forbidden-hurt-mumin
FINDERS KEEPERS
A wise woman who was traveling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream. The next day she met another traveler who was hungry, and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveler saw the precious stone & asked the woman to give it to him. She did so without hesitation. The traveler left, rejoicing his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime. But a few days later he came back to return the stone to the wise woman. “I’ve been thinking,” He said, “I know how valuable the stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious: Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me the stone.”
THE CLUB 99
Some time ago, there lived a King. This King should have been contented with his life, given all the riches and luxuries he had. However, this was not the case! The King always found himself wondering why he just never seemed content with his life. Sure, he had the attention of everyone wherever he went, attended fancy dinners and parties, but somehow, he still felt something was lacking and he couldn’t put his finger on it. One day, the King had woken up earlier than usual to stroll around his palace. He entered his huge living room and came to a stop when he heard someone happily singing away... following this singing... he saw that one of the servants was singing and had a very contented look on his face. This fascinated the King and he summoned this man to his chambers. The man entered the King’s chambers as ordered. The King asked why he was so happy? To this the man replied: “Your Majesty, I am nothing but a servant, but I make enough of a living to keep my wife and children happy. We don’t need too much, a roof over our heads and warm food to fill our tummy. My wife and children are my inspiration; they are content with whatever little I bring home. I am happy because my family is happy.”Hearing this, the King dismissed the servant and summoned his Personal Assistant to his chambers. The King related his personal anguish about his feelings and then related the story of the servant to his Personal Assistant, hoping that somehow, he will be able to come up with some reasoning that here was a King who could have anything he wished for at a snap of his fingers and yet was not contented, whereas, his servant, having so little was extremely contented. The Personal Assistant listened attentively and came to a conclusion. He said, “Your Majesty, I believe that the servant has not been made part of The 99 Club.” “The 99 Club? And what exactly is that?” the King inquired. To which the Assistant replied, “Your Majesty, to truly know what The 99 Club is, you will have to do the following... place 99 Gold coins in a bag and leave it at this servant’s doorstep, you will then understand what The 99 Club is.” That very same evening, the King arranged for 99 Gold coins to be placed in a bag at the servant’s doorstep. Although he was slightly hesitant and he thought he should have put 100 Gold coins into the bag, but since his assistant had advised him to put 99 that is what he did. The servant was just stepping out of his house when he saw a bag at his doorstep. Wondering about its contents, he took it into his house and opened the bag. When he opened the bag, he let out a great big shout of joy...Gold Coins... so many of them. He could hardly believe it. He called his wife to show her the coins. He then took the bag to a table and emptied it out and began to count the coins. Doing so, he realized that there were 99 coins and he thought it was an odd number so he counted again, and again and again only to come to the same conclusion... 99 Gold Coins. He began to wonder, what could have happened to that last one coin? For no one would leave 99 coins. He began to search his entire house, looked around his backyard for hours, not wanting to lose out on that one coin. Finally, exhausted, he decided that he was going to have to work harder than ever to make up for that one Gold coin to make his entire collection an even 100 Gold Coins. He got up the next morning, in an extremely horrible mood, shouting at the children and his wife for his delay, not realizing that he had spent most of the night conjuring ways of working hard so that he had enough money to buy himself that gold coin. He went to work as usual - but not in his usual best mood, singing happily - as he grumpily did his daily errands. Seeing the man’s attitude change so drastically, the King was puzzled. He promptly summoned his assistant to his chambers. The King related his thoughts about the servant and once again, his assistant listened. The King could not believe that the servant who until yesterday had been singing away and was happy and content with his life had taken a sudden change of attitude, even though he should have been happier after receiving the gold coins. To this the assistant replied “Ah! But your Majesty, the servant has now officially joined The 99 Club.” He explained: “The 99 Club is just a name given to those people who have everything but yet are never contented, therefore they are always working hard and striving for that extra one to round it out to 100! We have so much to be thankful for and we can live with very little in our lives, but the minute we are given something bigger and better, we want even more! We are not the same happy contented person we used to be, we want more and more and by wanting more and more we don’t realize the price we pay for it. We lose our sleep, our happiness; we hurt the people around us just as a price to pay for our growing needs and desires. That is what joining The 99 Club is all about.” Hearing this King decided that from that day onwards, he was going to start appreciating all the little things in life.
Striving for more is always good, but let’s not strive so hard and for so much that we loses all those near and dear to our hearts, we shouldn’t compromise our happiness for moments of luxuries!
Holy Prophet personally intervening his release
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