Ask our children:
1. Who controls everything in the world?
2. If we lose something, can Allah Ta‘ala return it to us?
3. Who must we turn to, when in difficulty?
Now tell them the story:
Once there was a poor man sitting all sad on the sea-shore, looking at the waves rise and fall. He was thinking to himself: “How nice it would be if my life also goes up like the waves and that I become rich.” Just then a strange person came and gave him a priceless pearl. The poor man was full of joy and he thanked the person from the bottom of his heart. The poor person decided to have a quick swim before returning home. He left the pearl next to his clothes on the sea-shore and jumped into the water. When he came out, the pearl was nowhere to be seen. The poor man returned home very sad and told his wife what had happened. She reminded him that Allah Ta‘ala will definitely give them something better in return for the lost pearl.
The next day the poor man sat on the sea-shore again, hoping to get something better. Again the strange person appeared and gave him a red ruby. The poor man took it and carefully tied it to his hat. Without wasting any time he rushed off home. Whilst on his way home, there was a huge bird circling above him. The shine of the red ruby caught the eye of the bird. The bird thought that it was a piece of meat. So it swooped down, picked up the ruby and flew off. The poor man returned home even sadder and told his wife what happened. Once again she reminded him that Allah Ta‘ala will definitely give them something better.
The third day the poor man found the strange person waiting for him at the seaside with a bag full of gold coins. The poor man thanked the strange person and he took the bag of gold coins straight to his home. However his wife was not at home, so he hid the bag under the firewood and went looking for her. In the meanwhile the next door neighbour came over to borrow some firewood. Hearing no reply, he decided to help himself. To his surprise he saw the bag of gold coins beneath the firewood. Wasting no time he took the firewood and the gold coins as well. After some time the poor man and his wife returned home, only to find the gold coins missing. This time both of them were sad and hungry, so the wife told the husband that he might as well take his fishing rod and catch some fish to eat.
The poor man went with his fishing rod and in a short while returned home with a huge fish. He told his wife to prepare the fish while he went to gather some firewood. As the wife cut the fish in half, to her surprise she saw the pearl inside the fish. She shouted out to her husband: “I found it!”
In the meantime the poor man climbed up a tree to break off some branches to use as firewood. Up in the tree he came across a bird’s nest and inside the nest was the red ruby. He grabbed it and ran home shouting out to his wife: “I found it!”
As the husband and wife shouted: “I found it” the next door neighbour got a fright and he thought to himself that before they find him with the bag of gold coins, he might as well drop it off at their front door. The wife ran out of the kitchen with the pearl in her hand, whilst the husband ran home with the red ruby in his hand, and they both met at the front door with the bag of gold coins lying in front of them.
Lessons:
1. What is written for us will definitely come to us.
2. We should never give up hope in life.
3. Our trust should always be in Allah Ta‘ala.
4. Difficulty is always followed by ease, provided we are patient.
5. Everything always does not happen in such a dramatic manner. However, the promise of Allah Ta‘ala is true and He will grant ease after difficulty.