Monday, December 11, 2006

How thirty people ate in the dark

Sheikh Abul Hasan Antaki (RA.) lived in Raye, a city in Khorassan. One day, it chanced that the Sheikh had more than thirty guests, while he did not have sufficient bread with him. He could not bake more bread, for, it was late at night. So, he broke the few loaves he had into small pieces and spread them over a piece of cloth, which he had laid before his guests. When they were going to start eating, the Sheikh put out the lamp. Everybody seemed to start eating and one could hear the sound of their chewing. After a while, the sound stopped and it was presumed that everybody had finished eating. The Sheikh then lighted the lamp and they saw that all the pieces were lying untouched; nobody had eaten anything. Because the food was little, everyone was thinking about his brothers next to him and wanted them to eat instead.
Source: "Fadhail-e-Sadaqaa: Part II" translated by Prof. Abdul Karim.

May Allah make us useful for each other in terms of pleasing Allah.

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