Assalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.
 

In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful. All praises is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds - The Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful, Sovereign of the Day of Recompose. It is You we worship and You we ask for help. Guide us to the straight path - the path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor, not of those who have evoked (Your) anger or of those who are astray. Ameen.

While we are still in the month of celebration, Syawal, please do not forget our unfortunate brothers and sisters around us. Especially now that we are facing with financial hiccups due to Covid-19. To those who have yet to fulfil your zakat, please do not forget to carry out your Amanah. Here is a story on zakat that you can take some lessons from. It is the story of Tha'labah Ibn Haatib Ansaari.

Once, Tha’labah Ibn Haatib Ansaari approached the Holy Prophet s.a.w. and beseeched:

“O’ Prophet of God! Pray to God that He grants me wealth and riches.”

“Little wealth for which you are able to offer thanksgiving, is better than immense riches for which you are unable to offer thanksgiving,” the Holy Prophet s.a.w. advised him.

Tha’labah went away but approached the Holy Prophet for the second time, repeating his request.

The Holy Prophet s.a.w. said, “You shall not obey me. By God! If I wished that the mountains would turn into gold for me, they would do so.”

For the second time, Tha’labah went away, but returned a third time and again placed his request before the Holy Prophet s.a.w. and implored, “Do pray for me. I avow that if God grants me wealth, whoever possesses a right in it, I shall give it to him.”

The Holy Prophet s.a.w. prayed for him and God answered his prayers. Tha’labah initially purchased some sheep, which slowly grew in number till they became plentiful.

Earlier, he used to offer all his prayers behind the Holy Prophet s.a.w. but after his wealth and riches began to increase, he would only be present for the Zuhur and the A’sar prayers, and spent the rest of his time looking after his sheep.

As time passed, his work increased to such an extent that he could only manage to come to Madinah for the Friday prayers and eventually even this became a thing of the past. He would only come up to the road leading towards Madinah and seek news of the city from the passers-by.

One day, the Holy Prophet s.a.w. inquired about him, whereupon he was informed that Tha’labah’s sheep had increased manifold and he had settled outside Madinah. Hearing this, the Holy Prophet s.a.w. cried out three times: “Woe be unto Tha’labah!”

After a period of time, the verse pertaining to zakat was revealed. The Holy Prophet s.a.w. selected two people, one from Bani Sulaim and the other from Juhniyah, and gave them written authority, empowering them to collect the zakat.

Approaching Tha’labah, they read out the order for the collection of zakat. After some thought, Tha’labah said:

“This is Jizyah (poll-tax) or something akin to it. Go and collect it from others and come back to me later.”

They proceeded to a person from the tribe of Bani Sulaim and read out the Holy Prophet’s s.a.w. orders at which he handed over the best of his camels to them as his zakat. The collectors explained to him that they had not asked him to give the best of his camels, but he insisted by saying that he was giving the camel through his own choice.

The collectors collected the zakat from the others and on the way back, again approached Tha’labah and sought his zakat.

He said, “Let me have a look at that decree.”

After reading it, he once again repeated, “This appears to be Jizyah or something similar to it. Go away and let me ponder over it.”

The collectors returned to the Holy Prophet s.a.w., but before they could speak he exclaimed: “Woe unto Tha’labah!” and then prayed for the generous person from Bani Sulaim. The collectors explicitly narrated to him their encounter with Tha’labah whereupon the following verses were revealed:

And there are those of them who made a covenant with Allah: If He gives us out of His grace, we will certainly give alms and we will certainly be of the righteous ones. But when He gave them out of His grace, they became niggardly of it and they turned back and they withdrew. So in consequence He effected hypocrisy into their hearts till the day when they shall meet Him because they failed to fulfil towards Allah what they had promised with Him and because they told lies.

One of Tha’labah’s relatives, who had been present during the revelation of the above verses, informed him of the incident. On hearing about it, he hastened to the Holy Prophet s.a.w. and entreated him to accept his zakat, but he refused saying:

“God has ordered me not to accept your zakat.”

Tha’labah was devastated to hear this.

“This is a consequence of your own deeds. I had ordered you but you refused to comply with my orders,” the Holy Prophet s.a.w. said.

After the demise of the Holy Prophet s.a.w., Tha’labah approached Abu Bakr, who refused to accept his zakat. During U'mar’s caliphate, Thalabah approached him, but he too refused and U'thman too followed suit, till death finally overtook Tha’labah.