2 replies to this topic

[ghazala]

Be afraid of a gentleman when he is hungry, and of a mean person when his stomach is full.
~ Ali Ibn Abi Talib (RA)

[neelu]

MashAllah I've never heard this before but it's so true! I'm not a qualified scholar so don't take this as a hadith mauquf commentary this is just my own observation but the quote definitely makes sense. Hunger is a major test for a person (I don't just mean an affluent person fasting in ramadan and eating in the evening I mean REAL hunger, not knowing where the next meal will come from or if you will survive it). Hunger is usually the result of the most extreme form of poverty (or even a rich man during famine would give away his riches for a chance to eat) and such desperation can drive a person to do unthinkable things to get food like commit crimes or things like that and it can also lead to impaired judgement cos' it affects the sleep and bodily functions as well. During the era of the rightly guided Khalifas... I believe it was during the time of Umar's (ra) leadership but correct me if I'm wrong; a man told a starving woman during a famine that he would give her food if she committed zina with him, so she committed zina out of desperation. Under normal circumstances, zina led to the death penalty but during famine such shariah rules were suspended and in fact the sin was forgiven. This is how seriously hunger is viewed.

As for the mean person, you can understand a person not being generous because he or she is in dire poverty and has very little to give in the first place, but the mean person is blessed with more and just does not want to share due to a type of greed. Such greed is a sign that the person has a selfish streak and just thinks of himself rather than the level of consideration that is shown when a person is generous in sharing what they have. I'm sure there is hadith evidence as well which cites examples of this when Muslims were going hungry and a person who owned some stores of dates was hoarding a lot for himself rather than sharing with others and the Prophet (saw) spoke out against this. There's also hadith evidence which states that women should avoid marrying a man who is miserly. Even a rich person could be miserly. This is entirely different from one who is sensible and careful with money or avoids frivolous spending.

[ghazala]

subhanAllah sis that was truely an amazing insight ... subhanAllah im in a awe as to what u said subhanAllah ...