Ain Al-Hayat, The Essence of Life.pdf - Higher Intellect | Content ...

punishment inflicted on her. The king reached the place after some search. He
found that it was a beautiful garden and the woman was busy offering prayer in
seclusion. The king told her that he was asked by a prophet (a.s.) of the Bani
Israel to approach her and seek her pardon for the unjust punishment inflicted on
her. The woman said that she had a condition for pardoning him. She asked him
to bring certain persons to her presence.
The king came back to the woman with the persons she had asked him to bring
along. She told him that he should make a promise that he wouldn’t order
stoning of anyone in future without fully establishing the reason for such a harsh
punishment. The king was repentant and was therefore pardoned. Then she asked
the courtier, her husband’s brother, to seek Allah’s pardon. He shed tears of
remorse and she forgave him. She pardoned the hermit’s slave too. She called the
man who sold her as a slave and forgave his fault. In the end she called her
husband and told him her experiences. She told him that from that day neither
she was his spouse nor he her husband. She indicated to him that a boat full of
riches was on the coast. She also told him that since he had avarice for riches, he
could take all that and go his way. She asked him and the rest of the party to
leave her alone to her prayers!
• Imam Zain al Abedeen (a.s.) narrates,” In the tribe of Bani Israel a person
was known as a thief of the shrouds of dead persons. One of his neighbors
got seriously ill and was afraid that when he died, the person will dig his
grave to steal the shroud. He called the person and presented to him a shroud
and requested him not to open his grave for the purpose. In the beginning the
thief was a little reluctant. But ultimately he yielded and took one of the two
shrouds. After some days the neighbor died. The thief thought that the person
is already dead and there is no chance of his knowing that he had stolen his
second shroud. Therefore in the darkness of the night he entered the
graveyard. After sometime the thief too was seriously ill. He now had pangs
of remorse that he had broken a serious promise made to his neighbor. He
called his sons and told them that when he was dead he should be burnt to
the last vestige of the bones and the ashes thrown into the river. This way he
would be spared of presenting himself before Allah on the Day of
Judgement. The person died and his son fulfilled his last wish. Allah issued
orders for the man's ashes to reassemble and come back alive. Thus the thief
was alive once again and Allah asked him about why he took such a step as
to getting his cadaver burned? The man replied that he did that out of Allah’s
fear. A herald called, “ Your penitence has earned you pardon!”
• Ibne Babawiyah narrates that the Prophet of Islam (a.s.) was sitting one day
in the shade of a tree. A person then came, and removing his robe from his
body started rolling on the ground. The man repeatedly lamented,” O
Conscience! Taste this hardship! The hardship of the Doomsday shall be
much more severe”. The Prophet (a.s.) looked at him and said, “ What is it
that is forcing you to behave the way you are behaving?” The man said, “ It
is only the fear of Allah and the call of the conscience!” The Prophet (a.s.)