The Pious Farmer

One day, Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) told the Sahaabah (radhiyallahu ‘anhum) the following incident. Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) told them that once, a long time ago, a man was in the jungle when he heard a voice call out from a rain cloud in the sky.

The voice was instructing the rain cloud and said to it, “Give water to the farm of so-and-so person.” The cloud immediately moved towards a piece of land that was covered in stones and began to rain there. As the water fell on the stony land, it began to collect and flow in a ditch. The man was very surprised, so he walked along the ditch to see where the water was going.

Finally, he saw that the water was flowing to a certain farm. A farmer was standing in the farm and was using a spade to make the water flow from the ditch into his farm. The man asked the farmer, “O servant of Allah! Tell me – what is your name?” The farmer answered him, and told him the same name that the man had heard the voice calling out when instructing the cloud to give water to the farmer’s land.

The farmer then asked him, “Why do you want to know my name?” The man replied, “I heard a voice in the same cloud from which this water came. The voice mentioned your name and instructed the cloud to send water specially for your farm.”

The man then realized that the farmer must be a pious person who was doing some good deed in his farm due to which Allah Ta‘ala was looking after him and was sending rain especially for him. So he asked the farmer, “Tell me, what are you doing in your farm that is so pleasing to Allah Ta‘ala and is making Him so happy with you?”

The farmer said, “The only thing that I am doing is that when the crops are harvested, then I take one third of the harvest and I give it in sadaqah and charity to the poor people to eat and enjoy. My family and I eat another third, and as for the last third, then I use it to replant the crops and continue farming.” (Saheeh Muslim #2984)

In this story, Allah Ta‘ala was happy with the farmer because of the good action that he was doing. The good action that he was doing was that when he would harvest the crops, then he and his family would not eat and enjoy all the crops themselves. Rather, they would also worry about the poor people who did not have anything. That is why they would take one third of the crops and give it in sadaqah.

Allah Ta‘ala was so happy with the farmer that He took special care of him and even sent the rain specially for his farm. This is the special barakah that a person will enjoy in his life when he makes Allah Ta‘ala happy. He will not need to worry about anything, because Allah Ta‘ala will take care of him and fulfill all his needs.