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On the authority of Abdullah ibn Salam, may God be pleased with him, that the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: O people, spread peace, feed the poor, and pray at night while people are asleep, and you will enter Paradise in peace. Narrated by Al-Tirmidhi.
Is the reward for goodness anything but goodness? When we do good to people like us, we find goodness in them, so what about when we comply with the orders and laws of our Creator, Glory be to Him?! Blessed is he who adopts goodness as a way of life.
The story:
One of the most beautiful long stories on our website ever, as it contains many ideal values and morals that our true religion has urged us to follow.
At the beginning of my life, when I was young, I lived with my paternal grandmother. My grandmother was not educated at all. She had not gone to school or received an education when she was young, but she had an ability that God Almighty had given her. She was blessed with wisdom and sound nature, and her heart was filled with faith to the point that she had memorized the major and minor surahs of the Holy Qur’an, and she did not know how to read from the Qur’an at all!
I used to take my grandmother as a guide in all aspects of my life, as I always admired her good behavior and quick wit that she possessed. Many times, without counting, we would go through very bad economic circumstances, our situation is like that of many Egyptian households, and these bad circumstances are due to many reasons, such as my uncle being late in sending us the money that he sends us every month, or perhaps he had reasons or ways that prevented him from sending us money at all.
In all the bad circumstances, my grandmother was able to manage her affairs and the affairs of the entire house. Perhaps we went through a crisis and we did not feel it at all. She was extremely kind and compassionate, and was very keen on our education, especially our memorization of the Holy Quran.
An unforgettable crisis:
But one day we went through a crisis that was completely unprecedented, and this time in particular my grandmother was bound by many obligations at the time and she had never expected what happened to her. She received the money that her uncle had sent us, and she went with it all to the market to buy some things, and suddenly she found that she had lost all the money without realizing it. Perhaps she had been robbed, or perhaps she had lost it before she had bought anything from the market!
I remember this day very well. We had just returned from school. She entered the house absent-minded and did not show any reaction as usual with us. She glanced at us to reassure her heart after we returned from school. She immediately entered her bedroom and went to her closet and took out the last remaining money she had with her.
It was ten pounds at the time. She held it in her hand and was lost in deep thought at that time. I cannot forget her state that day. Her feet were frozen as she looked at the ten pounds, and from the intensity of her concentration she was certain that there was a mountain of worries carried on her shoulders and rivers of complex thoughts and calculations passing through her mind.
For the first time in my life, I saw tears in my grandmother’s eyes, which had always been so strong and firm that nothing could ever subdue or sadden her. Her tears were tears of confusion and helplessness, and suddenly she wiped her tears with her hands and looked at me, saying: “I want you to help me with what I am going to do now.”
She was talking to me suddenly full of enthusiasm as if she was planning something, and what she was planning stunned me. I almost lost my mind. After all this confusion and helplessness, she thought about what she had thought. My grandmother asked me to take the ten pounds and go to the market and buy twenty eggs and half a kilo of yellow lentils.
At first I thought she wanted it for us, and that she would store it at home for the hardship we were going through, but she began to cook the yellow lentils with such love and skill that its fragrant smell filled the entire house. She boiled the eggs and prepared small leaves with some salt and cumin, and heated many loaves of bread. She carried all of this while we helped her and went down to the neighborhood to feed the poor and needy with it.
I almost went crazy from the horror of what my grandmother was doing. That day, we hadn’t even eaten. My grandmother bought food with the last of her money, and I wish she had fed us with it. Rather, she distributed it all to the poor in the neighborhood. I thought she had read all these thoughts in my eyes. Didn’t I tell you before that she is smart and quick-witted? I found her approaching me and whispering in a low voice: “Be patient, my love, and you will see!”
That day we were so tired that we didn’t feel hungry. As soon as we got home before the afternoon call to prayer, we all went to sleep. We fell into a deep sleep and were awakened by the sound of loud knocks on the door. My grandmother rushed to the door to find a little boy from the market vendors holding her bag of money in her hand!
My grandmother's money bag fell in front of his shop, and when he wanted to catch up with her, she had disappeared in the crowd. He couldn't leave his shop, so he kept the bag. After the market ended, he started asking the saleswomen about her features, and they directed him to her house. Our happiness at that time was indescribable. My grandmother looked at me and smiled.
Our happiness was doubled when a friend of our uncle’s who was with him abroad visited us just before the Maghrib call to prayer, carrying lots of gifts and delicious sweets. He had given my grandmother a sum of money that he had borrowed from my uncle. My grandmother approached me and said: “I want you to know something very beautiful, my daughter. Feeding people removes misfortunes. Whenever you are in distress, rush to feed a poor or deprived person, and you will find that God Almighty, in His majesty, takes pity on you.”
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