One Dirham Stops a Fight

There was once a good man who had just sold the clothe he had woven. He went to buy flour so his wife and him would have something to eat that night. On his way, he heard arguing and saw two men fighting. They were about to start punching each other. When he asked them the reason they were fighting they told him it was all over one dirham (1). The good man gave them the only dirham he had wanting to do well and to avoid a fight.

When he returned home to his wife he told her what happened. She did not feel sorry for herself or blame him for what he did; rather she was kindhearted like her husband. She gathered some of the things they had in the house and gave them to him so that he could sell them at the marketplace. He spent the rest of the day trying to sell the items, but no one would buy them. On his way home, he saw a fisherman who had a fish that no one would buy from him. The fisherman and the good man exchanged their belongings and each went his own way.

The man returned home with his fish and gave it to his wife to clean and cook. They were both very hungry. When his wife cut the fish to clean its insides she saw a pearl the size of a bird’s egg. When she showed it to her husband he was astonished because he had never seen anything like it.

The man rushed to one of his jeweler friends. His friend looked at the pearl for a long time, and then he said, “I will buy it from you for 40,000 Dirhams. If you want I will give you the money now. But if you want more than what I am offering, go to this person I know, (and told him the name of that person), he will give you more that I have offered."

The good man took the rare pearl and went to the second jeweler. The jeweler took one look at the pearl and knew that it was of rare quality. He said, “I will buy the pearl from you for 80,000 Dirhams. If you want more then go to this person, he will give you more.”

The good man took his precious pearl and went to the next jeweler. As soon as the jeweler saw it his mouth hung open in amazement and he said, “I will buy it from you for 120,000 Dirhams. You will not find anyone who will pay you more than that.” So the good man agreed to sell the pearl and took the money from the jeweler.

The man carried the money back home in 12 bags. Each bag had 10,000 dirhams in it. When he reached his house he found a poor man/beggar standing at the door asking for help in finding his needs. The good man brought the poor man in and told him how he got the money he had. He then said to the poor man, “Take six of the bags.” The poor man gladly took six bags and left. A few minutes later the poor man returned and said, “I am not poor rather I am an angel whom Allah sent to you. Because of that one dirham you gave seeking the reward, Allah has granted you 20 Qirats (2), this is one of the quirats and 19 others are left or you.

(1) The dirham is silver coin, used in the past.
(2) Qirat is a unit of weight for gold.