Uncle Sultan was a simple merchant who owned a small shop to sell salt. Uncle Sultan had a white donkey named Hamrun, and Uncle Sultan loved this donkey, until Hamrun became slow-moving, slept a lot, and worked little. The animals on the farm called him Hamrun the Lazy.
One day, Uncle Sultan placed a load of salt on Hamrun the Lazy’s back to sell in the market. Hamrun walked as usual very slowly, talking to himself in distress: “When will I rest from this work? When will I eat and drink, sleep and not work?” While he was talking to himself, he fell into a small pool of water, and he started braying and saying: “What is this? I work and tire myself, and I also fall into water?!”
Hamrun found himself in the pool of water, found the water cool, and the weather hot at noon. He decided to sit in the pool to rest a bit, then got up sad to continue his journey. Suddenly, he found that his load had lightened—the salt he was carrying had dissolved in the pool of water. Hamrun the Lazy rejoiced and began jumping and singing: “Finally, I will rest from work! Welcome, welcome to laziness! Every day I will go down to this pool and stay there until my load lightens. Yes, until my load lightens completely. Welcome, welcome to laziness.”
Hamrun went to the market, and half the quantity of salt had been lost. Uncle Sultan wondered: “What made the salt decrease this much? What happened on the way?” He began asking himself, then said: “It seems they didn’t load him with the full load at home!”
The next day, Hamrun the Lazy went to the lake and repeated the same situation, then went to the market happy and joyful. Uncle Sultan was surprised again and said: “Did someone steal the salt from the donkey? Did children play with him and the salt fell from Hamrun?” Then he said to himself: “Why all this confusion? Tomorrow, I will place the load myself and watch from afar, because this loss of loads hasn’t happened before.”
The next day, Uncle Sultan placed the load of salt himself and watched him from afar. The donkey walked his way until he reached the pool of water. Uncle Sultan found the donkey going down into it, braying happily. Here, Uncle Sultan learned of the cunning donkey’s trick and realized that Hamrun was the one dissolving the salt in the water. He decided to punish him for his cunning and laziness.
In the morning, Uncle Sultan placed a large load of sponges on Hamdoun the Lazy’s back instead of salt. Hamrun walked reassured, saying: “Today’s load is light, but there’s no harm—in a little while, I’ll reach the pool, and you’ll lighten more and more, oh load. I hate loads, I hate work, and I hate working in Uncle Sultan’s shop.”
When Hamrun reached the pool of water, he went down as usual, laughing and braying. After a while, Hamrun the Lazy tried to get up to continue his journey to the market, but he found that his load had become heavy—very heavy. He walked with difficulty, braying and saying: “Oh, I won’t be lazy from today onward! Oh, I won’t be lazy from today onward!” He went to the market and found Uncle Sultan smiling. He knew that Uncle Sultan wanted to teach him a lesson for his laziness and cunning.
We learn from this story:
A Muslim must be active and love work in order to contribute to serving his religion, country, family, and himself, and that laziness is not among the traits of a believer. The lazy person must be punished until he becomes active to serve his religion and country.