There was once a man in a state of want and poverty. One day, he left home with some yarn and sold it for one dirham (silver coin), hoping to purchase flour. Coincidentally, he thereafter passed by two men who were shouting and fighting with each other. On enquiring, he learnt that the reason for their quarrel was one dirham. To end their dispute and create peace between them, he gave them his only dirham even though it was the only money that he possessed.
The man thereafter returned home and informed his wife of what had transpired. As their situation was dire and they required food, she gathered some of their household items and handed them to her husband to sell in order to raise some money. Unfortunately, despite his efforts, he was unable to sell the goods.
After some time, he met a man who had a fish that had begun to spoil. The man said to him, “You have goods which you cannot sell, and I have something which I cannot sell. Why do we not then exchange your goods and my fish?” The man agreed and they swapped the fish and the goods.
He then went home and handed the fish to his wife saying, “Please clean and prepare this fish, as we are dying of hunger!” While cleaning the fish, she slit its belly and discovered a pearl buried inside! She turned to her husband and said, “Something has emerged from the belly of the fish. It is smaller than a chicken’s egg and resembles a pigeon’s egg.”
The husband looked at it and realised that it was something that he had never seen before in his life. He was seized by excitement and exclaimed, “I think that it’s a pearl!” His wife asked him, “Do you know the value of a pearl?” “No” he replied, “but I know a person who does.” Saying this, the husband took the pearl and went to see one of his friends who was a jeweller by trade.
After greeting him with salaam, he sat down, handed the pearl over and asked, “How much is this worth?” After examining the pearl for a lengthy period, his friend replied, “I can give you forty thousand dirhams (silver coins) for this pearl. If you wish, I can give you the money immediately. However, if you want a higher price, you can go to so-and-so, as he will pay you even more for this pearl.”
The man accepted his friend’s advice and went to the second person. When he saw the pearl, he said, “I can pay you eighty thousand dirhams for this pearl, but if you wish, you can go to so-and-so, as he can pay you more than I can.”
The man thus proceeded to the third person who on examining the pearl said, “I can pay you one hundred and twenty thousand dirhams, and I do not know of anyone who will pay you more than this.”
The man happily accepted the offer and carried the money home in twelve piles of ten thousand dirhams each. When he arrived home, he found a beggar at the door. He related to the beggar all that had transpired and how he had acquired the wealth. He then bade him to enter and said to him, “Take half of this wealth.”
The beggar took six of the piles, equalling sixty thousand dirhams, and departed. However, after going a short distance, he returned and said, “I am neither in poverty nor am I destitute. Allah Ta‘ala, who gave you twenty qeeraat in exchange of the one dirham that you spent, sent me to you. All this money that Allah Ta‘ala has given you is only one of the twenty qeeraat, and Allah Ta‘ala has kept the other nineteen qeeraat in store for you in the Hereafter.”
(Al-Faraju ba’dash Shiddah vol. 3, pg. 238)
Lessons:
1. The man only spent one dirham, but it was spent for the purpose of reconcilingtwo Muslims who were fighting. Hence, Allah Ta‘ala awarded him with a reward far greater than he imagined. If the reward for reconciling others is so great, then how much greater is the reward for reconciling with our own family members, as this includes the reward of joining family ties as well!
2. In order to reconcile two parties that are fighting, some compromises and sacrifices will have to be made. If one has to willingly sacrifice his right or lose some wealth to achieve peace, Allah Ta‘ala will grant him an adequate recompense together with the far greater rewards of the Hereafter.
3. When the man arrived at his home and informed his wife that he had spent his sole dirham, she apparently supported his decision and did not express anger. Furthermore, she gathered some of their household effects and gave them to him to sell so that they could buy food. In this way, she supported him in his Deen and exercised patience over the difficulty that they were experiencing.
4. When the man went to the first and second jeweller, they offered to buy the pearl from him, but also informed him that he could get a better price elsewhere. As the man did not know the value of the pearl, they could have easily paid him a fraction of its real worth and then sold it for a profit of their own. However, since they wished well for their Muslim brother, they dealt with him in a manner conducive to securing his benefit, not their own. It was also the barakah(blessings) of his noble action of spending his only dirham in reconciling the disputing parties, that he was guided to honest people who gave him sincere advice. Otherwise, he could have ended up in the hands of some fraudsters who would have robbed him of his wealth.
5. When Allah Ta‘ala had blessed the man with so much of wealth, he felt that he should share it with the beggar as well, so that the beggar could also be happy and enjoy the favour of Allah Ta‘ala. Hence, we should also wish well for others and try to assist them where possible.