Do you remember the British took the people to the doorstep...

Do you remember the British took the people to the doorstep of their embassy and gave them rice, and took back an ass-load[^3] of rice in return for each grain they had given to them, and they still do not let them go?!" With this joking, we handed the rice over and returned home. The next morning he called out to me and said:" Mahmud!

Buy a quarter of a kilo half-broken rice as well as two Rials of fat oil and give it to your mother to cook some rice!" At those times, such behavior of my father was too heavy and unintelligible, for why must he have to give away the rice we had at home, whereas for our lunch we had to buy half-broken rice?! Later on, I found that fellow had been bankrupt and (meanwhile) he was going to have a large feast.

Self-Sacrifice on the New Year's Eve The late Shaykh Abd al-Karim Hamid relates: 'I was working as an errand-boy at the Shaykh's shop for one toman a day. On the New year's eve, the reverend Shaykh had fifteen tomans; he gave me some money to provide rice and deliver to some addresses, and at last five tomans was left that he gave to me!' 'I thought to myself: Is he going home empty-handed on the eve of the New Year? And at the same time his son's trouser leg was torn.

So, I left the money he had given to me in the counter's drawer and ran away. Whatever the Shaykh shouted I did not return. When I got home I found he had been chasing me. He said: "Why did not you take money?" And he insistently gave the money to me! , [^1]: Mizan al-Hikmah : 1, 22 : 1. [^2]: Two of the Shaykh's sons who have died. [^3]: A kharwar equals about 300 kilograms. Previous…