Feeding the Guest in Darkness – Sahabi Ka Mehman Ki Khatir Charagh Bujha Dena
A sahabi came to Rasulullah (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) and complained of hunger and distress. Just then, Rasulullah (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) had nothing in hand, or in his home, to feed him. He asked the sahabah anyone would keep him as a guest for the night on his behalf. One of the Ansari said: “O Nabi of Allah, I will do that.”
The Ansari took the person to his house and instructed his wife: ” Look here, this man is a guest of Rasulullah (sallallahu alaihi wasallam). We will entertain him as best as we can, and won’t spare anything in doing so.” The wife replied: “By Allah! I have got no food in house, except a very little —something just enough for the children.”
The Ansari said: “You put the children to sleep without deeding them, while I sit with the guest over the small meal. When we start eating put out the lamp pretending to set it right, so that the guest may not become aware of my not sharing the meal with him.”
The scheme worked out nicely, and the whole family, including the children, stayed hunger to enable the guest to eat his fill. It was over this incident that Allah Ta’ala revealed the ayay:
They prefer others above themselves, even though poverty become their lot {al-bashr 9}
The Ansari took the person to his house and instructed his wife: ” Look here, this man is a guest of Rasulullah (sallallahu alaihi wasallam). We will entertain him as best as we can, and won’t spare anything in doing so.” The wife replied: “By Allah! I have got no food in house, except a very little —something just enough for the children.”
The Ansari said: “You put the children to sleep without deeding them, while I sit with the guest over the small meal. When we start eating put out the lamp pretending to set it right, so that the guest may not become aware of my not sharing the meal with him.”
The scheme worked out nicely, and the whole family, including the children, stayed hunger to enable the guest to eat his fill. It was over this incident that Allah Ta’ala revealed the ayay:
They prefer others above themselves, even though poverty become their lot {al-bashr 9}