Muhammad Ibn Muslim was a wealthy individual from the nobles of Kufah and a companion of Imam Baqir (as) and Imam Sadiq (as). Once, Imam Baqir (as) advised him: “O’ Muhammad! You must be humble and modest.”
On his return to Kufah from Madinah, Muhammad Ibn Muslim picked up a pair of scales and a container of dates. He then sat down at the door of Kufah’s main mosque and began calling out: “Wh’oever needs dates, should purchase them from me.” (He acted thus so that not the slightest pride should remain within him).
His relatives objected to him by saying that he had disgraced them through this act of his.
“My Imam has instructed me to perform a task and I shall not disobey him; I shall not move from this place till I have sold all the dates that are in this container,” said Muhammad.
“If it is as you say, then you might as well take up the work of a miller,” his relatives said to him sarcastically.
To their surprise, Muhammad agreed. He purchased a hand-mill and busied himself with grinding wheat into flour, the intention being to emancipate himself from vanity and self-importance. ( Riwayat-ha Wa Hikayat-ha, Page 103; Dastan-ha-e-Parakandeh, Volume 3, Page 18 )