The Neighbor
Seyyid Jawad Ameli, a great
Mujtahid, was having his dinner when someone knocked at his door. A
servant from his master, Ayatullah Seyyid Mahdi Bahrul Uloom appeared
and said: "Your master has sent for you immediately. He has just sat
down for his dinner but refuses to eat till he sees you."
There was no time to lose. Seyyid Ameli
left his dinner and rushed to Seyyid Bahrul Uloom's residence. Just as
he entered, the master looked disapprovingly at him and said: "Seyyid
Jawad! You have no fear of Allah! Don't you feel ashamed of Allah?"
This came as a thunderbolt, because he
could not remember doing anything to incur the wrath of his master.
Hesitantly he asked: "My master may guide me where I have failed."
"It is now a week that your
neighbor and his family are without wheat or rice. They were buying
some dates from a grocer on credit and today the grocer refused to grant
him any further credit. He returned home empty-handed and the family is
without a morsel of food,"
Seyyid Mahdi said.
Seyyid Jawad was taken by
surprise. "By Allah," he said, "I have no knowledge about
this."
"This is why I am displeased all the more. How can you be
unaware of your own neighbor? Seven days of difficulties have passed
and you tell me that you do not know about it. Well, if you had known
about it and ignored him despite your knowledge, then you would not even
be a Muslim," Seyyid Mahdi admonished.
And then Seyyid Mahdi Bahrul
Uloom instructed him to take all the dishes of food before him to the
neighbor. "Sit with him to eat, so that he does not feel ashamed.
And take this sum for his future ration. Place it under his pillow or
carpet so that he is not humiliated. And inform me when this work is
completed. Till then, I shall not eat."
Reference:
Pearls of Wisdom. A String of Incidents in the History of
Islam. The World Federation of Khoja Shia Ithna-Asheri Muslim
Communities. Page 31. |