A Christian Doctor being Blessed with Imaan

There was once a pious Shaikh who was traveling with forty of his companions. During the journey, they came to the city of Baghdad where they stayed for three days. They were poor people and did not have any money to buy food.

After three days had passed in hunger, with them not getting anything to eat, the Shaikh said to his companions, “One of us should go out and try to get some food for us.”

One of the people in the group went out and began to walk through Baghdad, hoping to find someone to help them. However, he did not find any person he felt he could ask for help, until finally, overcome by hunger and tiredness, he decided to sit down outside the surgery of a Christian doctor.

The Christian doctor was very busy, and there was a long line of patients at the door of his surgery waiting to be treated. The Christian doctor would examine the patients and then prescribe to them the medicine which they needed for their illness.

When the Christian doctor saw this man seated outside his surgery, he asked him, “What illness are you suffering from?” The man did not want to mention his hunger to the Christian and ask him for help, but since the Christian doctor asked him what illness he had, he held out his hand for the Christian doctor to examine him.

As soon as the Christian doctor examined his pulse, he realised that this man was not suffering from any illness, rather he was suffering from hunger and starvation. The Christian doctor said, “I know this illness, and I also know the cure for this illness.” He then called his servant and said, “Go to the market and bring one ratl each of bread and halwa (a ratl is equal to just under half a kilogram).”

Hearing this, the man thought about the Shaikh and his companions, who were all starving, and said to the Christian doctor, “There are forty men who are all suffering from this very same illness.” The Christian doctor said to his servant, “Bring forty ratl of each food, for all of them.” The servant went to the market, bought the food, and brought it back to the Christian doctor who gave it to the man saying, “Take this for yourself and for the other people you mentioned who also need it.”

The man took the food, handed it to a porter to carry for him, and then returned to the place where he and his companions were staying with the pious person.

In the meantime, the Christian doctor had secretly followed him, as he wanted to see whether the man had been speaking the truth or had been lying when he said that there were forty people who all needed food. As he came to the place where the man was staying with his companions, the Christian doctor stood outside where they could not see him, but he could hear what they were saying.

The man took the food inside and presented it before the Shaikh and his companions. Before eating the food, the Shaikh asked him, “Tell me – how did you get this food?” The man then told him the entire incident, of how he had come to the Christian doctor’s surgery, and how the Christian doctor had shown him kindness and helped him.

Hearing this story, the Shaikh said to his companions, “How can we eat the food of this Christian man, who has shown us kindness, without repaying him for his kindness?” The companions asked, “How can we repay him for his kindness?” The Shaikh replied, “The way to repay him is that before eating, we should make dua to Allah Ta‘ala to bless him with imaan and save him from the fire of Jahannum.” Thus, they all made dua for the Christian’s guidance, while the Christian, who was standing outside, was listening to everything that they were saying.

When the Christian doctor saw that despite these people being so hungry, they did not touch the food or eat anything until they first made dua to Allah Ta‘ala to bless him with imaan and save him from the fire of Jahannum, then his heart was extremely affected. He knocked on the door and asked permission to enter. When the door was opened, he entered, and recited the kalimah saying:

أشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وأشهد أن محمدا رسول الله

I testify that there is none worthy of worship besides Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammed (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) is the Rasul of Allah.

In this way, he embraced Islam.

The lesson we learn from this incident is that we should not regard any good deed to be too small or insignificant, because it might be the means for our gaining the forgiveness of Allah Ta‘ala and success in the Hereafter. Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) said, “Never regard any good deed to be insignificant, even if it is the action of meeting your brother with a smiling face.” (Saheeh Muslim #2626)