Stories about the Positive Effects of Giving Charity
Posted by: Taalibah 4 Life in New posts, Recommended, Short StoryStory #1
The governor of Egypt once summoned Ibn Al-Furat to come to him. When the two men were face to face, the governor said, “I always had evil intentions regarding you. So much hatred do I harbour in my heart against you that I am always making schemes to capture you & banish you from these lands. But do you know what prevents me from doing so? For many nights now, I am seeing you in my dreams; you are always preventing me from reaching you, using a loaf of bread to keep me back. When I order my guards to kill you, you fend of their various blows with a loaf of bread that is in your hand, so that neither blow nor arrow reaches you. Now tell me the story behind this loaf of bread.”
Ibn Al-Furat said, “O governor, ever since I was very young, my mother would come to me every night & place a loaf of bread underneath my pillow. Then in the morning she would give it away in charity on my behalf, & she never stopped doing so until she died. Then I continued to do the same myself, every night placing a loaf of bread underneath my pillow, & then in the morning giving it away in charity.” The governor was greatly affected by what he heard; he said, “By Allaah, I will never even think about harming you after this day. I now think well of you & love you very much.”
Story #2
A long time ago, a woman’s son went missing. He was gone for so long that she finally lost all hope of ever seeing him again. One day, she sat down to eat. Breaking off a piece of bread from a nearby loaf, she was about to it into her mouth, when all of a sudden a beggar appeared at her door & asked her to feed him. Not only did she give him the remaining part of the loaf of bread, but she also gave him the morsel that she was about to put into her mouth. Putting the loaf back together as best as she could, she handed it over to the beggar, & since she herself was relatively poor, she remained hungry for the rest of the day. After a few days passed, her son returned & they both rejoiced at their meeting. They sat down together, & he began to give an account of many hardships he endured since the time he had gone missing.
He said, “Perhaps the worst thing that happened to me occurred when I was walking in the valleys of such & such place, only a few days ago. A lion approached, & instead of trying to attack my donkey that I was riding upon, it leapt straight at me, throwing me off my mount. As far as it could, the donkey raced off, & I was left as easy prey for the lion. It began to tear away my clothes with its ferocious claws. I was so afraid that I almost fainted. The lion then leaned over me, getting ready for a lethal strike, but a huge man, whose face & garments were both white, suddenly appeared & drew the lion’s attention away from me. He came, & without the use of any weapons, he pulled the lion from me & wrestled it to the ground. Then looking at the lion with a menacing expression, he said, ‘Stand, O dog, a morsel for a morsel!’ the lion immediately got up & raced away. After seeing the lion speed away, I returned my gaze to the man, but he was no longer there, & I couldn’t find him afterwards. I stayed where I was for a number of hours, until my strength returned to me. Realising that the lion had done no harm to my body, I got up & walked away, until I joined up with a travelling party. I told my story to them, but there was one part of it that I was,& still am, extremely confused about: what did the man mean when he said, ‘A morsel for a morsel’?” at this point during the narrative, his mother stared ahead of her with an incredulous expression, realising that the man came to save her son at the same time she had given up her morsel of bread to the beggar.





































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