Her father began praising her and while enumerating her virtues...

Her father began praising her and while enumerating her virtues, he uttered: “From the time she was born till today, she has never fallen sick.” As soon as the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.) heard this, he immediately left the gathering. Later, he said, “There is no goodness in an entity which, like a zebra, never falls sick.

Diseases and misfortunes are God’s gifts to His servants that should they ever become negligent of Him, diseases and misfortunes serve to make people mindful of Him.” [^4] Patience in Sickness Abu Muhammad Riqqi says: Once, I arrived in the presence of Imam Ridha (a.s.) and greeted him. He replied to my greetings, inquired after my health and began to converse with me. In the course of the conversation, all of a sudden he said, “O’ Abu Muhammad!

Every Mu'min, whom God afflicts with a misfortune and who exhibits patience over it, shall surely come to possess the rank and recompense of a martyr in the eyes of God.” I wondered, “In what connection did the Imam (a.s.) speak this? We had not been talking about misfortunes and calamities for the Imam (a.s.) to have suddenly come up with this kind of speech?” I bid farewell to the Imam (a.s.) and proceeded towards my friends and fellow travellers, when suddenly I experienced a pain in my leg.

I passed the night in great pain and when morning dawned, I noticed that my legs had become inflamed. After a period, this inflammation became more severe. I remembered the speech of Imam Ridha (a.s.) in which he had recommended patience in the face of misfortune and how I had thought it to be out of place then. In this state I reached Madinah, but there, a large wound developed in my leg, oozing pus. The pain was so excruciating that I could not be at peace.

I then realized that the Imam (a.s.) had visualized such a phenomenon when he had spoken to me and advised me to keep calm by means of patience. For ten months, I was bed-ridden as a result of this sickness. The narrator says: After a period, Abu Muhammad regained his health only to fall ill once again, eventually passing away in that sickness. [^5] Imam Sajjad helps the Lepers Once, Imam Sajjad (a.s.) encountered some lepers sitting on the roadside and eating their food.

Greeting them, he passed by, when all of a sudden he stopped and said to himself: “God does not like the haughty ones.” Having said this, he retraced his steps and approaching the lepers, said, “Presently, I am in a state of fasting (and thus unable to sit down and share your food).