hassana elkoussi
Junior Member
Tremendous Generosity
'Abdullah bin Jafar (RA), who was famous for his generosity, one day passed by a garden. He saw a slave gathering dates in it. He witnessed that the son of the owner came to him with two loaves of bread, after which the slave sat down to eat. A dog approached the slave, and it was wagging its tail. The slave threw one of the two loaves of bread in the direction of the dog; it came in a hurry and ate it, but it continued to wag its tail. And so the slave threw to it the second loaf fo bread as well, after which he stood and continued to work!
'Abdullah bin Ja'far was amazed at what he saw from the slave that he approached him and asked, "O young man, how much nourishment is provided to you everyday?" He said, "The amount that you witnessed." He said, "Then why did you give all of it to the dog?" The slave said, "Indeed we do not live in a land that is inhabited by dogs, so I knew that the only thing that led this dog here was hunger. That is why I preferred it to myself." 'Abdullah asked, "And what will you do for yourself today?" The slave said, "I will spend the night in hunger."
'Abdullah said, "The people reproach me for being too generous, and yet this young slave is more generous than me!" 'Abdullah bin Ja'far then went to the owner of the slave, asking to buy him. The owner asked, 'And why do you wish to buy him?" He informed him of what he saw from the slave, and he told him that he wanted to buy the slave in order to free him. He also said that he wanted to buy the garden, to give it as a gift to him. The owner said, "Do you wish to do all that for him, just because of this one deed? Indeed we see such wonderful deeds from him every day! I bear witness that he is free for the Countenance of Allah and that the garden is a gift from me to him!"
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