Imam Hassan's Generosity
Generosity : “ When you give before you’re asked”-Imam Hassan(PBUH)
Imam Hassan (PBUH) was a man of many great attributes such as kindness, wisdom, and knowledge. The quality that he was most known for was his generosity, thus he was given the name Kareem Ahul-Al Bayt; the generous of the Prophet’s Household.Imam Hassan divided his wealth in half three times in his life. he would keep one half for himself and the other would be spent for the sake of God in the form of charities to the poor, orphans, widows and the less fortunate. |
He was known for his selfless acts of generosity through out his life, such as one day Imam Hassan was performing prayer and worship inside the mosque of Al-Haram, when he saw a poor person asking God, “O’ God I need 10,000 dirhams I’m in debt, I’m in loan and I need 10,000 dirhams.” Imam Hassan rushed to his place of residence in Mecca. He brought with him to the mosque a bag that he gave to the person that he had heard earlier. The man opened the bag to find exactly 10,000 dirhams.
Imam Hassan was walking in Medina and he saw a young man sitting at the front of a huge garden and sharing his loaf of bread with a dog. Imam Hassan approached him and asked , “What are you doing?” The young man replied, “This animal is just starting at me and this is the only loaf of bread that I have, I can’t eat it on my own and I have to give this dog some of this loaf.” “What do you do?” “I’m a slave and I work in this garden, the owner owns me and this garden and I take care of it.” “Where’s your owner?” The young man informed Imam Hassan of the owners place, the imam approached the owner, asked him for the value of both his garden and slave ,and bought them both. He came to the young man and told him “ I bought you but now I set you free and this garden is now yours.” |
Imam Hassan was leaving the mosque when he saw poor people seated on the floor eating bread crumbs. They asked him “O’ son of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH&P) will you join us?” He replied, “yes I’ll be honored to join you.” The imam sat with them all as his equals in humanity and not placing social rank or wealth as a barrier for social interactions. When they were done eating the bread crumbs the imam told them, “Now I would be honored if you’d be guests at my house”. The imam took them and fed them all a proper meal. The imam’s elegant manor of accepting their invite instead of simply asking them to come to his house from the begging, is a lesson in humbleness and never rejecting the kindness of others no matter who they are.
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Imam Hassan lived by his principle of giving before being asked. He takes in consideration the feelings of those in need for it isn’t an easy task to muster the courage to ask for financial help. He relives those in need of the embarrassment of asking and com of their dignity.
Source
- The Generosity of Imam Al-Hassan- Sayyed Hossain Al Qazwini-Night 15- Ramathan 2017
- https://youtu.be/sah8_0Iue84
- Figure 1: https://paintingvalley.com/praying-man-painting#praying-
- Figure 2: Sa'di in a Flower garden, from a Mughal manuscript of the Golestan, ca. 1645. (edited)
- Figure 3: https://www.google.com/amp/s/shiaapp.com/2304/2018/10/18/%25D9%2585%25D8%25AF%25D8%25B1%25D8%25B3%25D8%25A9-%25D8%25A7%25D9%2584%25D8%25A5%25D9%2585%25D8%25A7%25D9%2585-%25D8%25A7%25D9%2584%25D8%25AD%25D8%25B3%25D9%2586%25D8%25B9/amp/