The Benefits of Assisting a Poor

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One year, Abdullah Ibn Mubarak resolved to go to Makkah for Hajj. One day, as he was passing through a lane, he suddenly witnessed a woman, who bent down, picked up a dead and putrid fowl from the ground and hid it under her cloak!

Abdullah said to her: O’ Lady! Why have you picked up this fowl?

The woman replied: Need and adversity have compelled me to resort to such an act!

When Abdullah heard this, he took the indigent woman to his house and handed her the five hundred dinars that he had set aside for Hajj.

That year, he did not go for Hajj. When the other pilgrims returned after having performed their pilgrimage, he proceeded to welcome them. As soon as they set their eyes upon him, they said to him: We have seen you performing the rites of Hajj at A’rafaat, Mina and other places.

Astonished, Abdullah approached the Imam (peace be upon him) and narrated the entire episode to him, whereupon he (peace be upon him) clarified: God had created an angel, in your likeness, to perform the pilgrimage of the House of God (in your place).Namunah-e-Ma’arif, vol. 2, pg. 413; L’aali al-Akhbaar, pg. 253. ) 

Reference -Anecdotes for Reflection Part 4