One of the people present asked him: “May I be your ransom.

One of the people present asked him: “May I be your ransom. You granted him such a great favor, then why did you hide your face from him?” His holiness said, “So that I may not see the degradation of request in his face! Have you not heard the Apostle of Allah (S)'s hadith saying? “The one who does a good deed secretly is rewarded as of seventy Hajj pilgrimages!

The one who commits a sin overtly is abandoned and the one who commits the sin covertly is forgiven.” After that, the Imam recited a poem with the following content: “Whenever I put in a request to Him, I will come back from Him with my honor and face [saved].[^6] Imam al-Ridha‘s (a.s.) Treatment of his Subordinates One of Imam al-Ridha‘s (a.s.) beautiful and affectionate moral features is his tenderness towards servants and slaves, which, while indicating his extraordinary humility – a common characteristic among (a.s.) – it also represents the Imam's sublime attentiveness and affection toward the subordinate and the poor.

His holiness paid attention to his servants' acts of devotion and spirituality to the extent that he had appointed someone to wake them up for their late-night supererogatory prayer ( salat al-layl ).[^7] He cared about the freedom of his slaves, as it is reported: “His holiness has freed a thousand slaves.”[^8] One of the people of Balkh says: “I was in the company of Imam al-Ridha (a.s.) in the journey to Khurasan.

One day he spread a tablecloth [to eat] and called all the servants – whatever rank they were – to gather around the tablecloth. I said, ‘May I be your ransom, would that you spread a separate tablecloth for them.’ His holiness said, ‘Verily our Lord is One, our mother is one, our father is one, and the reward goes to actions.” Among his holiness' most valued features was that he was mindful of the peacefulness of his subordinates at the mealtime.

Two of his servants named Yasir and Nadir said, “Imam al-Ridha (a.s.) said to us if we were eating and he came to us, we did not have to stand up and should finish our food.” Sometimes his holiness would call one of us and when he was told that we were eating, he would say: “Let them finish their food”;[^9] and sometimes he would care so much for his servants that he would make a morsel with his own hands for them [to eat].