...And spend on others out of what We have provided for you as sustenance, ere there come a time when death approaches any of you, and he then says, "O my Sustainer! If only Thou wouldst grant me a delay for a short while, so that I could give in charity and be among the righteous!". But never does God grant a delay to a human being when his term has come; and God is fully aware of all that you do. 63:10-11
Spend in the name of God
Charity in the way of Allah is a proof of our sincerity in religion and devotion to Allah. Throughout the history of human kind there are countless examples of charity where humans have excelled, and set for us a precedence to follow. I am showcasing a few stories here from the vast literature available at our disposal.
Example 1: Watering the plants
Abu Aqil Ansari was one of those companions of the Prophet ﷺ who had the smallest of means but was extremely large hearted. When the call was made for preparations for the expedition of Tabuk, just like all Muslims, he also wanted to contribute. Unfortunately, he did not have anything of value in the house. But he wanted to participate, and couldn't live with himself if he could not.
He decided to earn some money to give in charity. He found that the owner of a nearby orchard, a Jew by religion, wanted his date plants watered. Abu Aqil offered his services and a deal was struck for one date for every large bucket of water. He worked all night long using the heavy bucket to water each and every plant and was among the last companions to reach the masjid bringing charity. He went to the Prophet ﷺ and said: 'O Allah's Messengerﷺ! This is a Sa' of dates. I spent the night bringing water and earned two Sa' of dates as compensation. I kept one Sa' (for my family) and brought you the other Sa'.'
Looking at a handful of dates in blistered and bloody hands (due to hard work), the some people started to mock Aqil saying "Allah and His Messenger ﷺ are not in need of this charity. What benefit would this Sa' of yours bring? Allah does not need the Sa' of Abu Aqil."
This hurt Abu Aqil but he bore it patiently. The Prophet ﷺ was moved by is noble and selfless action and took the dates by his own hands and distributed them over the piles of charity (that the others had brought). His sadaqah may seemed little, but his sincerity and effort caused it to weight more than the mountain of Uhud.
It is also on this occasion that Allah revealed the verses:
الَّذِينَ يَلْمِزُونَ الْمُطَّوِّعِينَ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ فِي الصَّدَقَاتِ وَالَّذِينَ لاَ يَجِدُونَ إِلاَّ جُهْدَهُمْ فَيَسْخَرُونَ مِنْهُمْ سَخِرَ اللّهُ مِنْهُمْ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ
"[It is these hypocrites] who find fault with such of the believers as give for the sake of God more than they are duty-bound to give, as well as with, such as find nothing [to give] beyond [the meagre fruits of] their toil, and who scoff at them [all]. God will cause their scoffing to rebound on themselves. and grievous suffering awaits them" [Quran - 9:79]
Example 2: The Halwa
Al-Rabi ibn Khuthaym, a pious tabi'ee, a student of Abdullah ibn Masʽud was known for his asceticism, silence, and scrupulousness in religious observance. He had dug a grave in his house, and used each day to sleep therein so that by this expedient he might remember death unceasingly. He would say "Were the remembrance of death to leave my heart for a single hour, it would become corrupted."
Once his wife said to him that she wished that she could prepare something for him to eat, a delicacy, so that she may feel a sense of fulfillment since their entire married life he had never asked her to prepare anything special, not had ever complained about anything. He relented and told her about his favorite sweetmeat, a halwa made of dates and butter. The wife was extremely happy about it and worked extra hard to make it absolutely delicious with an assortment of nuts.
As soon as she served a fragrant, delicious, piping hot halwa to him a mentally ill person knocked at their door. His unkempt appearance, drooling and groaning was evidence of his disconnect with the world. Rabi took the bowl and sat down next to the man and started feeding him little by little until the man had eaten all of the halwa.
His wife, witnessing the whole scene protested that in their entire married life, Rabi had never desired any delicacy, and yet he ended up not eating anything out of it. What she felt was worst is that he fed it to someone who was absolutely unaware of what he was eating, whether it was a specially prepared delicacy or anything ordinary. Rabi wept upon hearing this and said, "O my beloved wife, he may not be aware of what he was eating, but my Lord and God is most certainly aware. Is it not enough for you and me that my Beloved Lord would be pleased that we gave the thing that we loved to one of His creation who is unwell and not taken care of ?"
Example 3: The Water Fountain
Al-Bayhaqi mentions that once his teacher, Al-Hakim, developed sores on his face. We tried to find all kinds of cures and medicines but after more than a year of treatment, the sores had turned worse. Then our teacher requested Abu Uthman al-Sabuni, another famous and pious scholar to make a special supplication during the Friday sermon. The supplication and prayer was done and lots of people participated.
The following Friday, al-Sabuni got a note from the audience. It was from a woman who had written that the previous week when she had gone home she, feeling bad, continued praying for al-Hakim till the wee hours of the night till she fell asleep. She had then been blessed with a vision of the Prophet ﷺ in her dream. She was asked to convey the message to Al-Hakim to make arrangements for ordinary people to have access to drinking water.
When Al-Hakim came to know, he immediately had a sabil constructed right on the road outside his house. Once it was prepared and cleaned, he got it filled with the sweetest water and had ice placed in it for extra cooling and refreshing purposes.
Hardly a week had passed after this that his sores started healing and not long after he was completely healed. His face turned even more handsome and radiant than before and he lived on several years after that.
No comments:
Post a Comment