“Reward” for A Deceiver

“Reward” for A Deceiver

“Reward” for A Deceiver

Sometimes, we found curious things happened to Allah’s creatures – Glorified and Exalted be He – that we believed could only happened by the wish of The Master of the heavens and the earth, He Who Rules everything on this earth. Such as what happened to a monkey in this story below, in which he punished a man who had deceived others in transaction in order to gain a lot of profits. This evil act is considered as devouring people’s wealth wrongly, whereas Allah the Glorified and Exalted had declared,

“Believers! Do not devour one another’s possessions wrongfully.” (Chapter An Nisa:29)

May this story bring a lesson for us all. And Allah is the bestower of guidance.

From Abu Huraira –may Allah be pleased with him-, from the Messenger of Allah –peace and prayer of Allah be upon him-, he said,

“There was a man whose job is selling intoxication on a ship, then he mixed the liquor with water, while he was befriended by a monkey. Suddenly the monkey grabbed his purse and climbed onto the ship’s pole, then spilled some of the money (dinar) to the sea and some others to the ship, thus dividing it into two. “

This story was narrated by Imam Ahmad, 2:306, Imam Al-Baihaqi in “Syu’abul-Iman”, 4:332 and the others. It is classified as valid hadith by Al-Albani in “Silsilah Ahadits as-Shahihah”, 6:628 no. 2844.

Moral of the Story

It is a unique story that is suitable to be lesson for us about a bad habit of a merchant. In order to gain lots of profit, he intended to deceive people. He mixed the liquor that he sold with water so that it’ll be plenty and yield lots of money. The monkey spilled half of his income to the sea and some others to the ship. Probably that is the punishment he deserved in this world, and later in the hereafter, he’ll suffer from bad reward because of that deceiving.

Similar practices could often be found among us today; a merchant mixes the good and bad stuffs, expensive stuffs are mixed with cheap stuffs, milk is mixed with water, honey is mixed with solution of sugar, fuel is mixed with kerosene, or the kerosene with water to increase its amount. They are people who devour human’s possessions wrongly, whereas what they devoured incited Allah’s wrath – Glorified and Exalted be He -, and because of which they’ll be punished. The Messenger of Allah –peace and prayer of Allah be upon him- said,

“Verily, a lump of flesh that grows from what incensed Allah the Glorified and Exalted will not enter Paradise, and the hell is more suitable for it.” (Narrated by Ahmad, 28:468 and At-Tirmidhi, 3:1, see: Al-Misykah, 2:126)

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