Download PDF: [S] Giving in full is Excellence (Islamic story)

Hadrat Sayyiduna Abdullah ibn Abbas – may Allah be pleased with them – narrates (bearing in mind that this was one of those blessed Ashaab who was considered extremely generous) that he once stopped at a certain place while he was returning from Syria to the Hejaz. He then asked his servants for some food. However, looking through their goods, they did not find any food. He then informed his representative, “Go towards a certain plain, perhaps you will find a camp or a certain village. If you do, please ask them for some food and milk.”

 

This person then walked with the other servants and they came across an old women who was camped on one side of the village. They asked her, “Do you have any food which we can purchase?”

 

She replied, “I do not have food which I can sell, however, I do have enough to be able to feed myself and my son.”

 

They asked her where her son was. She replied that he was herding some animals not far from there and that he would be arriving very soon.

 

They asked her what she was preparing for herself and her son. She replied that she had prepared a single bread which would be shared among themselves. She also said that besides this, there was nothing else.

 

They then asked her for half the bread. In spite of her poor state, she replied that she would not be able to give them half but was prepared to give the entire bread to them. She told them eplied that if she gave anything which was half, it would be considered a defect and if she gave anything in full, this would be more acceptable to her.

 

She then gave them the single bread and did not even ask where they had come from and where they were going to.

 

Such was the state of the early Muslims. At the end of this story, it is mentioned that Hadrat Sayyiduna Abdullah ibn Abbas – may Allah be pleased with them – was so impressed by this old lady that he gave her enough wealth and animals so that she could have a comfortable life in this world.