One day, while the rooster was walking alone on the road, he met his friend the owl at sunset. He said to her: Hello, hello, how are you, dear owl? The owl said: Fine, my beautiful friend. The rooster said: Do you see this luminous disc in the sky that sends heat to the earth? The owl answered with annoyance: No, I don’t feel warmth when I see it; rather, it makes me feel cold. ...
Several tales and proverbs are narrated about the virtue of humility in Islam, and the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, preceded us in this. He is the one who gave and taught all Muslims the virtue of humility in Islam. After him, the commanders of the faithful and all Muslims followed his approach. The Humility of the Prophet, Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him: It is narrated that one day, Adi bin Hatim, who was a Christian, came to the Prophet, upon whom be the best prayers and finest greetings, while he was in Medina. He took him to his home. While they were on their way, an old, weak woman met the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and stopped him for a long time, asking him about some of her affairs. He stood for her until she finished. Adi was amazed at his humility. ...
The branch felt joyful because the two yellow birds had managed to build their nest above it. Then the mother bird rested over her eggs with tenderness, while the father bird stood beside her, looking at her. A smile filled his beak and didn’t leave him. He remembered how he and his wife, the bird, had managed to build their nest, straw by straw. The bird remembered how they had lined this nest with soft feathers. Truly, this feathers had been soaked with their sweat, but it was delicious and fruitful labor. After two weeks of this life, on a beautiful spring morning, one of the chicks began pecking the eggshell, then stretched its soft beak and began chirping, as if it wanted to inform nature of its arrival to this life so she would open her arms to it. ...
Once there was a crow who was always thinking that God Almighty had given all birds colors. Once he saw peacock feathers fallen on the ground. He thought and said: “I must place these among my feathers. After that, I will become a peacock, then I will leave the crows and become one of the peacocks.” The crow felt overwhelming happiness. He quickly gathered the peacock feathers and placed them one by one among the feathers on his body. He began walking like a peacock. When one of the older crows saw him, he said to him: “Everything you do is useless. A person doesn’t become a peacock just by placing some peacock feathers on himself. Understand.” ...
There was an elephant living in the forest who was extremely proud of his huge size. He usually caused problems for other animals and mocked them. One day, while he was walking in the forest, he saw a parrot sitting on a tree. The elephant said to him: “What is this? Didn’t you see me coming? I am the strongest animal in the forest. You must bow before me.” The parrot said to him: “Never, I can’t.” The elephant said to him: “You refuse, you fool? Then I will teach you to respect me.” The parrot refused to bow to the elephant. The elephant uprooted the entire tree and began shaking it, and the parrot couldn’t sit on it and flew away. The elephant said: “Go away. Did you see now what I can do?” Then he said: “You are all weak before me.” The arrogant elephant walked away and went to the river as usual to drink water. Beside the river, there was an ant living in a small ant hill. ...
The sun rose in the morning, and the birds began to chirp as they do every day, and the little chicks started picking up grains from the ground, running here and there. After the chicks were full and exhausted from running with their small colored wings, they all lay down under the warm sun’s rays, while the white chick stood, observing the animals in the barnyard, especially the cow. Every day, he looked at it and compared its size to his, and his body to the size of its head! He said to himself how very small I am. ...
When a person tries to help others without hypocrisy or boasting, he must consider that helping the distressed needs no noise but should be done in silence so that he receives its reward, because noise wastes the good deed and makes it as if it never happened. For help here is linked to people seeing and witnessing it, which is what God doesn’t love or approve of. A famous circus once came to a village from the rural villages. Its residents rushed with their children and family members to visit it, as it was the first time the circus had reached their remote village. Among those gathered at the circus door was a poor farmer who came with his wife and his four children to fulfill their urgent desire to see the traveling circus and watch its beautiful segments. ...
Humility is a praiseworthy trait that we should all adorn ourselves with. It is one of the most important morals that bring friends closer to us and make us bound together without any feeling of grudge or resentment—especially since arrogance takes its place when the trait of humility is absent from us. The donkey Kurkūsh lived in the beautiful forest alongside his neighbors the animals, where they lived in adjacent houses. A neighbor has rights over his neighbor: not to be arrogant or proud toward him. But Kurkūsh was not like that. He would walk every day in the forest on the banks of its clear river, strutting in arrogance, saying to all the animals in the forest: “I am better than you all. I have a body with a strong constitution that endures hardships and carries loads without fatigue or boredom.” He would look at them all as he spoke to them, displaying his strength before them. ...
In ancient times, there was a prince who ate all kinds of foods and left nothing in his stomach unrotten. He didn’t look at anything other than it. Eating was his first and last. He didn’t love travel, moving, and roaming. He went out little, had no friends or relatives except the baker. He was the only one who accompanied the prince wherever he went. Everyone was sad at the baker, for burdens descended on him every night. The prince was never satisfied, and he was fat, which made him a cause of sarcasm by everyone. The king noticed this and also noticed the prince’s lack of care for the poor and needy who came to the palace to get food, which aroused the king’s worry. ...
It is told that a man named Abu Sihot was famous for extreme stinginess, to the point that he wore very tattered clothes and didn’t think about renewing them so no one would covet him. Abu Sihot had a lot of money that he carried in a bundle when he walked and raised it with a long stick on his shoulders. He was disheveled, dust-covered beard, with an unbearable smell. ...