Charity has great merit, for God Almighty has commanded us with it when desiring to prevent harm, heal the sick, and open the paths for all good. It extinguishes the Lord’s anger. The Exalted Lord says in His Holy Book: If a dead person wants to return to life again and wants to do something that brings him closer to God, he will give charity. Do you know the greatness of this good habit?
Our story tells the tale of a righteous sheikh. He had a vast area of fertile land that he farmed and ate from its harvest, and he fed the poor, needy, and others who needed food, without anyone being turned away. He had three sons who worked in gathering the harvest. The old sheikh would take what was good from it and place it in a separate place, telling his sons that what he had selected from the harvest was for God’s guests. So he would leave the gates of the lush garden open for the poor. They would enter through them and pick from the fruits what they desired, praying for the sheikh for increased provision and abundance.
One day, the sheikh turned to his sons and found them looking at him with a deep gaze, but filled with resentment and distress. He looked at them questioning and said to them: Why are you looking at me like this? One of them answered: What you do of good is very much, and we get only a very little from it. His father answered them: This is God’s right, and it must be given to God good and beautiful.
While the sheikh was on his deathbed, he gathered his three sons and said, advising them: My sons, I advise you with the poor. Do not cut off any provision or good that comes to them from our fruits. Do not scold or turn away a needy person. The sheikh died.
A period of time passed until the fruits ripened, and they were wonderful and beautiful. The three sons stood looking at them in amazement. One of them said: They have become very beautiful. Another said: Let’s let the poor come and eat from them. But the third looked and said: We won’t let anyone. His brothers looked at him and said to him: We toil and suffer for these fruits, while these lazy ones come and eat from them as they wish without making any effort. One of them answered: This is our father’s will and God’s command. The poor have a right to these blessings. But his brothers scolded him and insisted not to give out any of those fruits to the poor.
The three agreed to sneak at night to harvest the fruits alone without the poor knowing. But when they went at night and in darkness, they found the poor gathering around the lush garden, turning their palms and looking at the garden with longing. The three hurried to see what happened, and suddenly fires had broken out in the garden. No one knew how, but all the crop had burned, and nothing remained of it. The sons remembered their father’s will and regretted their negligence of God’s right.