Contentment is a trait, admired and praised at all times, and God loves a person who is contented. This attribute becomes more noteworthy at a time when a society suffers from a shortage of food supplies.
Mu’tab, who was responsible for caretaking of the house of Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) relates:
Due to shortage in the market of Madinah, the prices of commodities had shot up. The Imam (peace be upon him) asked me: How much of food supplies do we have in the house?
Enough to last us for several months! I replied:
Hearing this, he said: Place all of the supplies for sale in the market.
Astonished, Mu’tab said: What kind of directive is this that you give?
The Imam (peace be upon him) once again repeated his words, but this time with greater emphasis: Take all the provisions of the house and sell them in the market.
Mu’tab said: When I had acted as per the Imam’s (peace be upon him) instructions and sold everything in the market, he (peace be upon him) said to me: “Your duty is to procure food supplies for my house on a day to day basis just as most of the average-class people do.”
The Imam (peace be upon him) added: “The food for my family should be prepared by mixing fifty percent of barley and fifty percent of wheat”!( Daastaan-ha Wa Pand-ha, vol. 1, pg. 31. )