True Generosity

"The Merciful shows mercy to those who are merciful. Show mercy to those on the earth, and the One in the heaven will show mercy upon you."

Sunan Abu Dawud 4941, Jami' at-Tirmidhi 1924

Abdullah ibn Ja'far (may Allah be pleased with him) was a wealthy companion. He had land, money, and everything a man could want. One day, he walked to a palm grove on the edge of the city. The sun was hot. The work was hard. And there, laboring alone in the grove, was a poor boy.

Abdullah watched the boy work. He saw how exhausted the boy was. His clothes were old. His skin was scorched by the sun. Then a man came and brought food for the boy to eat — just bread and some dates. The boy was hungry. Very hungry.

But then something happened. A dog came to the grove. The dog was also hungry, and it looked at the boy with sad eyes. The boy looked at the food. He looked at the dog. Then, moved by compassion, he took three pieces of his bread and gave them to the dog. The dog ate. The boy smiled.

Abdullah asked him: "Young man, you are hungry. You work hard. You have almost no food left. Why did you give your bread to the dog?" The boy answered simply: "The dog was hungry too. I can fast — I can wait. But he cannot understand why he is hungry. I wanted to help him."

Abdullah asked what the boy would eat for the rest of the day. The boy replied with peace in his eyes: "I will fast for the rest of the day. Allah will provide." Abdullah stood there, feeling ashamed. He asked himself: could he really be called generous, when this boy was so much more generous than he was?

It was an amazing thing to witness. That day Abdullah made a decision: he bought the entire palm grove, freed the boy, and gifted him the land. The boy with nothing had taught the wealthy man the true meaning of generosity.

Moral of the story: True generosity means giving even when you have very little yourself.

Source: Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth by Imam Ahmad Ibn Qudamah al-Maqdisi.