Ihyaaud Deen An Effort to Revive Deen in Totality
There was once a famine in Egypt during the time of Abdul Hamid bin Sa’d (rahimahullah) who was the governor of Egypt. Abdul Hamid said to himself, “I shall prove to shaitaan that I am his enemy (i.e. I shall beat shaitaan when he tries to stop me from spending generously at such a time).”
He made a public announcement that all the poor and needy throughout Egypt should come to his house for their daily meals until the price of food dropped. Thus, the poor continued to eat at his home until the famine passed and the price of food dropped.
When the prices returned to normal, Abdul Hamid was dismissed from the position of governor. It was estimated that when he left Egypt, he owed one million (1 000 000) dirhams to the businessmen from whom he had borrowed the money to feed the poor during the famine.
Since he was departing from Egypt, he collected the jewellery from the women in his family and gave it as a guarantee to the businessmen whom he owed. The value of the jewellery left as guarantee was five hundred million (500 000 000) dirhams.
Abdul Hamid (rahimahullah) tried to get the money to pay off the businessmen and take back the jewellery, but unfortunately, he could not raise the required amount.
He therefore wrote to them after some time saying, “Please sell all the jewellery kept with you to recover the money which I owe to you. Please also give the rest of the money to those poor and needy people of Egypt whom I could not help at that time.”
Look at the generosity of the women of those times! They gave away their jewellery to be sold and distributed among the poor and needy.
(Fazaa’il-e-Sadaqaat [Urdu] pg. 711)
