Kumayl says: “I was with Hazrat Ali (r.a) once on a journey, when we reached an uninhabited place. He approached a grave and said “O you dwellers of the graves! O you who lie in ruins! O you who live in wilderness and solitude! How are you living in the other world? What is your news from there?”
Then he paused for a moment and continued “The news from our side is that the wealth and riches you accumulated have long been distributed; your children became orphans; your widows have long since remarried. Now let us hear from you.”
Then he turned to me and said: “O Kumayl! If they could speak, they would have answered that the best of provisions is indeed Taqwa.” Tears started flowing from his eyes as he added, “O Kumayl! The grave is a container of one’s deeds…but one only realizes it after death.”
REFLECTIONS OF THE AUTHOR: Our good and bad acts are stored up in our graves. It is said in a Hadith that every person meets his good deeds in the grave in the shape of a pleasant companion who befriends him and consoles him there. But his wicked deeds assume hideous shapes with repulsive smells, which add to his misery. In another Hadith it is said, “Three things accompany a person to his grave… 1) his wealth (as was the prevalent custom amongst the Arabs of the time), 2) his relatives, and 3) his deeds. His wealth and his relatives return after burying him, but his deeds go in and stay with him in the grave.”
Once Rasul Allah (s.a.w) asked the Sahabah (r.a) “Do you know in what relation your relatives, your wealth and your deeds stand to you?”
The Sahabah expressed their desire to know about it, so he continued, “These are like a person who has three brothers. When he is about to die, he calls one of his brothers to him and asks him: “Brother! You know my condition. What help can you give me at this time?” That brother replies “I shall call the doctor to you, nurse you and attend to your needs. And when you are dead, I shall bathe you, enshroud you, and carry you to the grave. Then I shall make Dua for you after you are buried.” This brother is his relatives.
He asks the second brother the same question, and he replies “I shall remain with you for as long as you are alive. As soon as you die, I shall leave you and become someone else’s.” This brother is his worldly wealth.
He then questions the last brother, who replies “I shall not abandon you even in your grave, and I shall accompany you into that place of absolute solitude. When your deeds are weighed in the balance, I shall lend my weight to the scale of your good deeds and weigh it down.” This brother is the personification of his good deeds.
Now tell me, which of the brothers do you regard the most useful to the person?” The Sahabah replied “O Rasul Allah! The last brother is indeed the most useful to him. There is no doubt about it. The other two brothers were utterly useless.”
Resource: Translation of the Book “Fazail-e-Aamal (Virtues of Good Deeds)”, written by Maulana Muhammadd Zikriyya Kandhelwi (r).
A wonderful story which made the Prophet pbuh laugh, is the report given by Imam Ahmad from Umm. Salamah. Abu Bakr went to do business in Basra, and with him were Nu’ayman and Suwaybit ibn Harmalah, both of whom had been present at Badr. Suwaybit was in charge of food on the journey, and Nu’ayman said to him, “Feed me!” Suwaybit said, “Not until Abu Bakr (radhiallahu `anhu) comes.” Nu’ayman was a fun-loving man with a sense of humour, so he went to some people who had brought livestock with them, and said, “Will you buy a sturdy Arab slave from me?” They said, “Yes.” He said, “He has a big mouth, and he may tell you that he is a free man. If that means that you do not want to take him, then forget the matter, and do not cause trouble for me with him”..
They said, “No problem, we will buy him.” So they bought him for ten young she-camels. Nu’ayman brought the animals back, and told the people: “There he is!” Suwaybit said: “I am a free man!” They said, “He has already told us all about you,” and put a rope around his neck and led him away. Then Abu Bakr came, and was told what had happened. He and his companions went and returned the animals and took Suwaybit back. They told the Prophet pbuh what had happened, and he and his Sahaba would laugh about the story for a year afterwards.
Once Nuayman went to the suq and saw some food being sold which appeared to be tasty and delightful. He ordered some and sent it to the Prophet as if it were a gift from him. The Prophet was delighted with the food and he and his family ate of it.
The vendor of the food then came to Nuayman to collect the price of it and an-Nuayman said to him: “Go to the Messenger of God it was for him. He and his family ate it.” ..
The vendor went to the Prophet who in turn asked Nuayman: “Didn’t you give it to me?” “Yes,” said Nuayman. “I thought you would like it and I wanted you to eat some of it so I had it presented to you. But I don’t have any dirhams to pay the vendor for it. So, pay, O Messenger of God!”
The Prophet had a good laugh and so did his companions. The laugh was at his expense, literally, for he had to pay the price of the unsolicited gift. Nuayman felt that two benefits came out of the incident: the Prophet and his family ate food that they enjoyed and the Muslims had a good laugh!
A Bedouin came to the Prophet pbuh. He entered the mosque and left his camel in the courtyard. Some of his Companions said to Nu’ayman ibn ‘Amr al-Ansari, who was known as al-Nu’ayman: “If you slaughter it, we will eat it, because we want to have some meat, and the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) will pay for it.” So al-Nu’ayman slaughtered it. Then the Bedouin came out and saw his saddle, so he shouted, “They have slaughtered my camel, O Muhammad!” The Prophet pbuh came out and asked: “Who did this?” They said, “Al-Nu’ayman”..
So he went looking for him, and found him at the home of Duba’ah bint al-Zubayr ibn ‘Abdul Muttalib, where he had hidden in a ditch and covered himself with palm branches and leaves. A man pointed to where he was and said, loudly, “I have not seen him, O Messenger of Allah.” The Prophet pbuh brought him out of the ditch, and his face was dirty from where the leaves had fallen on him. The Prophet pbuh asked him, “Why did you do that?” Al-Nu’ayrnan said: “The ones who told you where I was, O Messenger of Allah, are the same ones who told me to do it.” The Prophet pbuh began wiping his face and laughing, then he paid the price of the slaughtered camel. – [reported from Hayat As Sahabah, 3/154, 155]
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