GREATEST CALAMAITY AND CATASTROPHE - A MUSLIM SEEING HIS BELIEVING BROTHER IN NEED WITHOUT BEING ABLE TO HELP HIM

Dec 16, '12 1:59 PM for everyone Imam Ali ('a) son of Imam al-Husain ('a). One of his Shi`ah complained to him of want. The Imam ('a) wept because of feeling so deeply for the man. The man asked the Imam ('a), 'Master! Is not weeping spared for major calamities and catastrophes?!’ The Imam ('a) answered him by saying, 'What calamity and what catastrophe is greater than a Muslim seeing his believing Brother in need without being able to help him?’ That Shi`ah man came out of the Imam’s meeting place puzzled. Then he heard that the enemies of Ahl al-Bayt ('a) were saying, 'How strange these folks are! Once they claim that the heavens and the earth obey them, and that everything is at their disposal, and once they are unable to provide their own Shi`ah with the least amount of help!’ The same poor man went back to the Imam and said, 'My calamity of hearing what these enemies of Ahl al-Bayt ('a) have been saying is much greater than my poverty and extreme want.’ The Imam ('a) said, 'Woe unto them! Do they not know that Allah has friends who do not provide Him with suggestions?! O servant of Allah! Allah has permitted an ease for you from your hardship.’ The Imam ('a) gave him food for his iftar as well as suhur. Thus, Allah swiftly removed his hardship, granting him a very large pearl which the man found inside the belly of a fish; he sold it for a large sum of money. The man returned both bread loaves to the Imam ('a) (Bihar al-Anwar, Vol. 46, p. 20 with a variation of wording). Tags: hadees