Abu Talhah And His Devotion To Salah
Abu Talhah (radiyallahu anhu) was once saying his salah in his garden. His attention was drawn towards a bird that flew about, but could not find a way out of the dense foliage. And for a short moment, he followed the bird with his eyes, and forgot the count of his raka’at. Upon this mishap, his sorrow knew no bounds. He went to Rasulullah straightway and said: “O Nabi of Allah Ta’ala, this garden of mine has been the cause of a diversion in my salah. I give it away in the cause of Allah. Kindly spend it as my appear proper to you.”
A similar thing happened to one of the ansar in the time of Uthman (radiyallahu anhu). He was saying his salah in his garden. he branches of the trees were weighed down with ripe juicy dates in luxurious abundance, which caught his eyes, and he felt pleased with it. This made him forget the number of his rakaat. He was so much stricken with grief that he decided to part with the garden that had distracted him from his salah. He approached ‘Uthman (radiyallahu anhu) and gave the garden him for using it in the path of Allah Ta’ala. Uthman (radiyallahu anhu) had the garden sold for fifty thousand silver coins and spent the money as desired.
This shows the value the sahabah set on their faith; that Abu Talahah could give away his orchard worth fifty thousand silver coins because it had interfered with his salah. According to Shah Waliullah, the Sufis give preference to obedience to Allah Ta’ala over anything that distracts from it. Shah Waliullah (rahmatullah alayh) has written about this in his book Al-Qawl al-Jameel the different ways in which pious people approach Allah . He says that this is the style of those who love obeying Allah more than they love anything else and who guard this quality with jealousy. Why, they say, should our attention turn towards anything else when we are busy obeying Allah?