Allah Ta‘ala is the Provider

There was once a famous robber from the Kurds, who were a tribe of people living in the Middle East. One day, this robber made taubah from stealing and robbing people, changed his entire life and became a pious person. This is the story of how the robber changed his life and became a good Muslim. The robber says:

Once, I was going with my gang of robbers with the intention of robbing people and stealing their wealth. While traveling, we stopped to rest in a certain a place where we saw three date-palms trees. Two of the trees were filled with dates, but the third tree was dry and did not have any dates in it.

As we watched, I noticed that time and again, a sparrow came to one of the date palms with fruit, took some fresh dates in its beak, and then flew across to the dry date palm with no fruit. Seeing this, we were greatly surprised.

After I had counted ten trips of the bird between the two trees, it occurred to me that I should climb the tree and see what it was doing with the dates. I climbed up to the top of the date palm and saw a blind snake lying there with its mouth wide open. The sparrow had been feeding the blind snake by placing fresh dates into its mouth!

When I saw the sparrow feeding the blind snake, I felt ashamed of my sins and began to weep. I cried to Allah Ta‘ala saying, “O Allah! When this blind snake, which Your Rasul (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) has commanded us to kill, became blind, You sent a sparrow to feed it, and I, who am Your slave and a Muslim, have been destined to rob the people!”

At this, I heard a voice speaking to me, from within my heart, saying, “The door towards taubah is open to everybody at all times.”

Instantly, I broke the sword with which I used to rob the people, and out of remorse and sorrow, I began to throw dust on my head. I wept and cried to Allah Ta‘ala saying, “Forgive me, O Lord!” I then heard a voice from the unseen in my heart saying, “We have forgiven you! We have forgiven you!”

After a short while, I re-joined my friends who wanted to know what had happened to me. I said, “I was misguided and was cut off from my Lord. Now I have made peace with my Lord by making taubah.” I then told them the whole story. They said, “We also will make peace with our Lord,” and they made taubah and broke their swords as well.

We left all the money we had stolen behind, put on ihraam, and set out to Makkah Mukarramah to perform Hajj.

After travelling for three days, we reached a village where we came across an old, blind lady. She asked us, “Is there any Kurd among you whose name is such-and-such? ( and when saying this, she mentioned my name.)” On being told that there was a Kurd here with that name, she took out some clothes and said, “My son died three days ago and these clothes belonged to him. Since he passed away, every night I am seeing Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) in a dream, commanding me to give these clothes to such-and-such a Kurd!’ I took the clothes from her and we all put them on.

Lessons:

1. Allah Ta‘ala alone is the One who provides food, money and sustenance for the entire creation. When the snake, which is a hated creature, became blind and could not hunt, still Allah Ta‘ala looked after it and sent a bird to feed it. We, who are Muslims, are beloved to Allah Ta‘ala, so He will never forget us and will always look after us. That is why we must never get money in a haraam way, such as stealing, as this is displeasing to Allah Ta‘ala and will cause us to lose our barakah.
2. No matter how many sins a person commits, and how long he may be sinning for, if he turns to Allah Ta‘ala and cries in sincere taubah, Allah Ta‘ala will forgive him.
3. When a person stops committing sins and makes taubah then Allah Ta‘ala and Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) become happy with him. That is why Allah Ta‘ala made special arrangements for the Kurd and his friends to receive the clothes through the old woman seeing Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) in her dream, commanding her to give them the clothes.