The Moral Stories (part 2)

Rejection of Food From Caliph

Haroon once sent with his servant a tray full of some delicious dishes to Bahlool. When they were delivered, Bahlool diverted the food to a dog sitting nearby.

On seeing this, the servant protested saying that this was a disrespect to the Caliph and he would report to him.

Bahlool retorted by asking the servant to keep quiet lest the dog also refused to eat the food if it came to know that the food was from the Caliph. His refusal to eat the food from the Caliph demonstrated his rejection of favours lest it affected his heart to lean towards the tyrant Haroon.

This provides a lesson to us as to how we should avoid such favours in public and religious service so as not to be distracted from one's principles of truth and justice.

The following ayat. of the Holy Qura'n guides us not to lean towards those who oppress people:

"And do not incline to those who are unjust, lest the fire touch you, and you have no guardians besides Allah, then you shall not be helped." (11:113)

ON THE THRONE OF CALIPH

One day Bahlool entered Haroon's palace and saw the throne of the Caliph to be vacant and none of his guards standing nearby. Immediately he went and sat on the throne. When the court men saw him on the throne, they went forward and forced him to step down by beating him.

Bahlool started crying loudly and when Haroon entered the court, he asked him the reason for crying. The courtiers explained what had happened.

The Caliph comforted him and at the same time scolded his men for the treatment given to Bahlool., To this, Bahlool reacted by saying: "I am not crying for what has happened to me, but I am crying for you, the Caliph. I have been made to suffer so much only for sitting on the throne for a short while.

How much are you going to suffer for sitting on it for so long, because it belongs to someone else while you are the usurper of it".

Haroon was one of those pompous and oppressive kings from Banu Abbas (descendants of Abbas bin Abdul Muttalib) who had usurped the caliphate of the divinely appointed vicegerents of the Prophet.

The above incident afforded an opportunity to Bahlool to warn Haroon of the sufferings awaiting him after death. That Haroon would not be able to escape the punishment for usurping the rights of and oppressing the household members of the Prophet.

That the Prophet of Islam had foretold of the oppressive rulers to come and in what way they would gain power can be readily derived from his following saying:

"Verily times will dawn upon people When power and rule (over people) will not be attainable except with bloodshed and oppression, ner wealth except with by usurpation and miserliness"

Bahlool Consulted By A Trader

A trader in Baghdad came in for consultation and addressed Bahlool as "The Wise". He asked for his advice on which commodity to buy from which he could expect good profit. He was advised to trade in cotton and dates.

The trader followed his advice and he made a good profit within a short period. After some time, that trader came in again but this time called Bahlool "The Insane" and asked him for similar advice.

This time he was advised to invest in onions and water-melons Accordingly he went and bought some good quality onions and melons. But this time instead of being able to sell at a profit, the goods began to rot and eventually had to be destroyed at a loss.

The trader rather dismayed with the loss this time came to Bahlool asking him to explain the reason for the loss despite following his advice. In reply, Bahlool explained the first occasion, the trader had called him 'Bahlool The Wise'.

So he offered his advice according to his intellect. But on the second occasion he had called him 'Bahlool the Insane', the advice offered was as such according to what an insane would do.

Obviously a wise trader is the one who puts his investment in such items of goods which are not liable to perish soon. How foolish was it for the trader to consult Bahlool at a time when he thought and addressed him to be insane. So Bahlool had taught him a good lesson.

Consultation in Islam is praiseworthy as can be seen from the following saying of the Prophet:

"Consultation is a protection against repentance and safety from the criticism of people".

"The one who seeks advice is helped"