One of our pious predecessors once stopped over in a village during a journey. In those days travellers would stay in the masjid and the locals would invite the traveller for meals.Hence when a resident offered to provide the Shaykh with food for the evening the Shaykh accepted. The villager brought three rotis and some food in the evening.
After eating that night, the Shaykh felt a very strong inclination towards performing good deeds. As a result he spent most of the night in prayers and when he slept he was blessed with seeing the Prophet sallallaahu ‘alayhi wasallam.
The Shaykh realised that it was either because of the blessing of the place he was currently at or the blessing of the food he had eaten that had enabled him to experience such a blessed night. Thus he decided to spend the next day in the village as well.
Upon seeing the Shaykh the villager again offered to provide dinner. This time however the villager brought two rotis. The Shaykh experienced the same thing on this night as well, thus he decided to spend a third day in the village.
The villager provided food for the Shaykh on the third day as well and again the Shaykh experienced an extremely spiritual night.
On the fourth day the villager said to the Shaykh that the right of the guest as mentioned in the hadeeeth is for three days only. Therefore I will not be able to provide for you today.
The Shaykh however was curious to understand the reason behind his experience of the last few nights.
Thus he asked the villager what he did for a living and why he had brought different quantities of rotis on the three days.
The villager explained that he was a woodcutter by trade and that he would earn enough in a day that would suffice for himself, his wife and his son.
He then explained that on the first day they all stayed hungry in order to entertain the Shaykh. On the second day his son could no longer tolerate the hunger so he kept one roti for him and gave two the Shaykh.
On the third day both his wife and son were in need so he gave them two rotis and gave one to the Shaykh.
Now on the fourth day he himself could not bear the hunger so he would have the keep the food for himself and his family. Thus he had to excuse himself from entertaining the Shaykh.
From this great incident we learn two important lessons. The first is the great blessings that lie in halaal income. And the second is the intense love and altruism that our pious predecessors had.”
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