The well-wisher guest

ONCE there was a family of six people who lived in a village: a father, mother and four sons who were young men. They belonged to a very good background and had a good family name but due to bad times, they were poor. They had a house and there was a date palm tree in their compound. They would quietly take down the dates at night and sell them to a businessman who would give them a small amount of money in exchange with which they would somehow run their house. This went on for some time when one day a family friend who was passing that way came to their house to stay for a day. At night they served food to their guest and while eating, the guest noticed that the other members of the house were not eating and offering him all the food. He was intelligent and quickly understood the situation of the family. At night when everyone was sleeping, the guest went outside and finding an axe somewhere chopped down that tree quietly, taking care not to wake up other family members. After chopping down the tree he took his bag and quietly left their house while other family members were asleep. In the morning when everyone woke up, they were shocked to find the tree, which was their only source of income and which was giving them sustenance, chopped down. Now there was nothing to give them food and they were very worried about their future. They cursed that guest who not only ate up all the food which they offered him the previous night but also chopped down the tree which was giving sustenance to the whole family. Now since they could not see any other way to arrange for their food, the four sons who were young men set off in four different directions in search of work. Being hardworking, intelligent and from a good family background, they found work easily and were able to earn a decent amount for their living. After one year, all four of them returned to their home as decided and were very happy to meet each other, since they were quite prosperous by now. That guest who had left quietly that night also happened to come to their home to ask about their condition. At that time they realized that it was out of good intentions that the guest had chopped down that tree. By depending upon the meager amount of dates from that tree, the whole family did not look for other sources of income. It was because of that tree that they had limited themselves to a life of poverty which was removed with the removal of that tree from their house. They all thanked that visitor who had helped them to realize their abilities and had helped them to make their lives much better than what it was before. That guest was indeed their well-wisher. Moral: One should not depend upon meager resources to live an easy life but should realize and discover one’s talent and abilities and work hard in order to make a good living. Depending upon the dates of the tree for their living was like earning a small amount of interest from money in the bank but by employing their talents and abilities, the four young men were able to earn much more than what they used to earn from the date tree. Shabbir Thingna, Madinah