Stories

Once upon a time there was a king and he was a
wise man too. In his kingdom used to live many
other wise men. Now some of these would not
agree to believe that God did exist, while others
not only agreed but argued to the satisfaction of
the King that there was ‘God’. The King, being a
wise man, arranged for a discussion.
The date and time for discussion was fixed. The
king held his court at the appointed time on the
appointed date. The non-believers assembled in
his presence but the believing wise man did not
come at the appointed time
The people waited and waited till they lost their
patience and uttered the words: “He has no
arguments to advance in support of his conviction,
so he will not come. He has lost, we have won.”
At last, the wise man arrived and there was an
uproar in the court of the king. The people cried:
“Why are you late? You have lost”.
The king asked him to explain the cause of his
delay. The believing wise man explained, saying:
“I started from my home in time, but when I came by the side of the river which I had to cross
before reaching here, I did not find a single boat,
by which I could cross and reach the opposite
bank”.
Upto this point the disbelieving men heard him
patiently and did not say a single word. The
believing man then continued:
“I waited and waited till at last I saw some planks
of wood coming out of the river”.
And the unbelieving men began to shout “O, It is a
lie. It is unbelievable. It is unthinkable”.
Continued the believing wise man: “Plank by
plank came out of the river and then I saw the
planks were cut to proper size and shape and
joined to each other with nails by themselves until
they formed a boat. And then I took my seat in it
and came over to the other bank. I am late because
of the delay in the availability of the boat”.
Amid a roar of the non-believing men, the
believing wise man tried to convince them of the
cause of the delay; but the opponents would not
believe him. Then he said:

“You do not believe what I say. It appears the
story of the boat forming by itself is something
impossible for you to believe. Now in the name of
justice, I ask you. Do you see the earth, the sun,
the moon, the stars and the skies? Every thing is
set according to a plan. But you say it came into
existence without a Creator. In other words
you deny the existence of God. How far is your
statement reasonable and justified?
This silenced them all and there was no answer
to this. So the non-believers lost and the believer
won.

Bilal is very lovingly remembered by all Muslims
of the world as one of the earliest great African
Muslim.
He was born in a village in a mountainous place
in Western Arabia. Bilal’s father was called
Rebah and his mother was known as Hamama.
They had come to Arabia as slaves from Ethiopia.
The father and mother were slaves of Ummayya
bin Khalaf, a rich man from the tribe of Quraish.
Bilal was therefore born in slavery and served as
a housekeeper. His master Ummayya bin Khalaf
was not a Muslim.
When Bilal was about the age of 40, it was the time
when Prophet Muhammad started teaching the
new religion of Islam, Bilal was attracted by the
teaching of Prophet Muhammad. He accepted the religion of Islam and became a Muslim.
When Ummayya bin Khalaf and his family went to
worship idols, Bilal would pray to Allah as taught
by Islam.

In the early days of Islam the tribe of Quraish who
were strong and many and lived in and around
Makkah, disliked Islam.
They also disliked Prophet Muhammad and his
new teachings. If any person accepted the new
religion, they oppressed and harassed him.
One day Ummayya bin Khalaf came to know of
Bilal’s secret prayers. He called Bilal and asked,
“Oh Bilal, do you worship and bow down to the
God of Muhammad?”
Bilal was not afraid. He replied, “Yes Master, I do worship Allah, the only God.”
The reply angered Ummayya greatly. He began to
torture Bilal. He was tied with ropes and made to
lie on the burning hot desert sand at mid-noon.
He was then asked to forget the God of Islam
and worship the ‘great’ idols known as LAT and
UZZA. But Bilal was strong in his new belief. He
refused to worship idols and kept crying “AHAD-
AHAD”, meaning “One God, One God.” The
tortures continued and were increased. Hot iron
rod were stamped on his pained body. Yet Bilal
would not yield.

On one hot day Bilal lay on the burning hot sand
tied to the ground. A very heavy stone was placed
over his chest. Bilal could no longer bear the heat
and the load so great. He had also grown weak. In
that tied condition even water was denied to him.
In the condition he lay and lost his senses. As the
day neared its end, it became cooler; he regained
his conscious (senses). He found that the heavy
stone was no more on his chest. He wondered who
had come to free him from pain. His heavy eyes
slowly opened only to look at the bright smiling
face of Prophet Muhammad.
Prophet Muhammad had heard of and seen
the torture of Bilal. It pained him extremely to
learn that a true believer should suffer in such a
manner. He also felt pity for the poor man He
told Abu Bakr to purchase Bilal from Ummayya
and set him free. This was done. In similar ways
the Prophet had many slaves set free. He insisted
that slaves be treated fairly and kindly. By his own
conduct he also set such examples.
When Bilal first came before the Holy Prophet,
he praised the Holy Prophet in two poetic lines of
his native language. The Prophet asked Hassan bin
Thabit to translate it in Arabic. He translated it in words which means:
“When in the world, the virtues are described,
thou art mentioned as the model of virtues in our
midst.”
Among the slaves from Africa, Bilal was the first
to accept Islam. He had a strong faith in Allah
and a great love for the Prophet. He had a pure
character. Soon he earned high respect of the
Prophet and other great Muslims of the time. The
Prophet liked Bilal’s sweet voice and made him the
first Muazzin -The Caller To The Prayers.
All through his life Bilal remained a close
companion of Prophet Muhammad and was with
him at every occasion. When the Prophet died he
was very saddened. Thereafter all his life he looked
grieved and very solemn. He had gone to Madina
when the Prophet had migrated. After the death
of the Prophet he did not feel happy to stay in
Madina. He sadly discontinued giving ‘adhan’
and migrated to Damascus, Syria. He died there
after about eight (or ten) years. His grave is still
existing in the famous Muslim graveyard in
Damascus. People still go to his grave to pay
respect and salute him.

One day Shamim asked her grandmother, “Tell
me Grandma, who made us? How did we come on
this earth?”
Grandmother smiled sweetly and said, “Yes, my
child, I will tell you. Listen to me carefully and
patiently.”
She began:
“Many, many years ago, in fact thousands of years
ago. There were water, trees, mountains, birds and
animals on this earth. But there was no man or
woman.

At this time Allah created one human form. It was
man’s body. Then Allah made the body alive. He
was called Adam. Having created Adam, Allah
commanded all his angels to bow down to it. All
the angels obeyed and bowed down. But one Jinn
(who used to pray with the angels) and who was
called Azazil, did not do so. He stood erect against
the order of his Master and Creator.
God asked him:
‘Why did you disobey my order and did not bow
down as commanded?’
Azazil proudly replied: ‘Oh God, You made me
from fire. Now you ask me to bow down to a body
made from clay and earth. I cannot belittle myself.
That is why I will not bow down to Adam.’
The reply displeased Allah. For, all who are created
by him are to obey His orders.
Azazil was sent out of heaven onto the earth. And
from then on he was called Iblis and Satan.
Iblis before coming onto the earth begged Allah to
look at his many years of prayers and obedience.
Allah asked him to ask for reward.

Iblis thought deeply. He felt that it was because
of Adam that he was sent out of Heaven. (In fact
it was not Adam but the pride which had caused
the downfall of Satan). So he thought that Adam
was his enemy. He decided to ask for life upto the
Day of Resurrection. Allah granted him life upto a
certain day. It is the day of the Reappearance of
our 12th Imam (a.s).
Having got such a long life, he vowed to misguide
Adam and all his progeny on every possible way.
Hearing his determination, Allah told him that his
scheme would be successful for only those men
who would be of evil thoughts and deeds. But he
would never succeed against good people.
“Oh, how bad of Iblis”, cried Shamim, “to think in
such an evil way”.
‘’Can Iblis hurt us?”, asked Shamim.
“Yes,” replied Grandmother. “He can harm us by
making bad things appear tempting to us. We
must always be careful”.

A caravan of Hajis came from Makkah to Madina.
Imam Ja‘far al-Sadiq (a.s) lived in the city of
Madina. The Hajis decided to go to the Imam to
pay their respects. They went to him and saluted
him. They were most welcomed. The Imam asked
them to tell him about their journey.
One of the travellers praised one of companions
very much. He said that his companion was very
pious. He was sincere. He did not abuse anybody.
He spent all his time praying.
The Imam asked:
“What is he doing for his living? What work does
he do?”
The traveller replied:
“Sir, he does no work. He only prays.”
Again the Imam asked:
“Who was feeding his camel?”
The traveller replied:
“We used to do that Sir”
The Imam said: “He is not good. He must work.

He should not put his burden upon others. If all
you, all those who worked for him, are more pious
than him.”
Moral: One should work to earn his living

Mufazzal lbne Quais was a good and pious man.
He was very poor. He had borrowed some money
from friends. He could not repay them. Therefore
he always remained worried. He wanted to find a
way that he could be free from debts.
Once he went to the great Imam Ja‘far al-Sadiq a.s. . In
the presence of the Imam he complained about his
creditors and began telling a list of his problems.
In the end he said he was poor. He did not know
how to overcome poverty. He requested Imam
Ja‘far al-Sadiq a.s. to pray for his welfare.
On hearing the sad story of a worried man the
Imam promptly ordered his servant to bring a
purse of money. When the servant brought the
money it was given to Mufazzal. Imam said that
the purse contained four hundred dinars which
would help him to solve his problem of poverty.
Mufazzal was ashamed to accept the generosity. He said that he has not come with the
aim of seeking assistance from the Imam, but only
for his blessings and prayer.
Imam Ja‘far al-Sadiq replied, “Mufazzal, I shall also pray for you. More than that, I will ask you never to speak out your hardship to others. If you
do so, the first impression people get of you is
that you are not good enough to earn bread for yourself and your family. Thus you lower your
position in the eyes of others and also loose your dignity.”
Mufazzal went away from the Imam grateful for
the help and good advice.