2/28/2006

Recognize Allah in ease and He will recognize you in hardship...

What if you treated each day as a special day on which God sent every agent in your life just to refine your mettle? What if you became aware that every idiot, every genius, and every beloved - stationed in your path - was there to help produce a noble action? What if the rich remembered the poor in their daily will? What if the Blessed remembered the Wretched in their daily meals?

"Fear Allah wherever you are and follow up an evil action with a good action which will wipe it out. Treat people well." [at-Tirmidhi]
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Abu Hurayra heard the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say,
"Three of the Children of Isra'il were respectively leprous, bald and blind. Allah wanted to put them to the test and so he sent an angel to them. He came to the leper and said, 'What would you like best?' He said, 'A good complexion and clear skin and the thing that I have which makes people find me unclean to be taken from me.' He wiped him and his impurity left him and he gave him a good complexion. He said, 'What property do you like best?' He said, 'Camels (or he said 'cattle' - the relator is uncertain)' and he gave him a pregnant she-camel.' He said, 'May Allah bless you in it.'

"Then he came to the bald one and said, 'What would you like best?' He said, 'A good head of hair and to have what people consider distasteful about me removed from me.' So he touched him and removed what he had and gave him thick hair. He said, 'What property do you like the best?' He said, 'Cattle,' so he gave him a pregnant cow and he said, 'May Allah bless you in it.'

"Then he went to the blind man and said, 'What would you like best?' He said, 'That Allah return my sight to me so that I can see people.' He touched him and Allah returned his sight to him. He said, 'What property do you like the best?' He said, 'Sheep,' and he gave him a pregnant sheep.

"These animals all gave birth and produced offspring. The one had a valley full of camels, the other a valley full of cattle and the other a valley full of sheep.
"Then he went to the leper in his own form and appearance and said, 'I am a poor man who has lost his means on his journey. Today I can seek none but Allah and then you. I ask you, by the One who gave you a good complexion and good skin and property, for a camel so that I can complete my journey.' He said, 'I have many obligations.' He said, 'I seem to recognise you. Were you not a leper, that people found unclean, and poor and then Allah was generous to you?' He said, 'I inherited this property, elder son from elder son.' He said, 'If you are a liar in your claim, may Allah return you as you were!'

"He went to the bald man in his own form and appearance and said to him the same as he had said to the other and he replied to him in the same way. He said, 'If you are a liar, may Allah return you as you were!'

"Then he went to the blind man in his own form and appearance and said to him, 'I am a poor man who has lost his means on his journey. Today I can seek none but Allah and then you. I ask you by the One who returned your sight to you for a sheep so I can complete my journey.' He said, 'I was blind and Allah restored my sight to me, so take what you want and leave what you want. By Allah, I will not be hard on you about anything which you take for Allah, the Mighty and Exalted.' He said, 'Keep your propery. You have been tested and Allah is pleased with you and angry with your companions.'" {Agreed upon]

(Riyad-Us-Salaheen, 65)