Ask him if he has ever seen me not fasting in the month of Ramadhan...

Ask him if he has ever seen me not fasting in the month of Ramadhan, or disregarded any of the religious rulings associated with it? When the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his holy progeny) enquired, the person again replied in the negative, but then added: By God! With the exception of the zakat, which every person – pious or otherwise, does make it a point to pay, I have never seen him give any alms to a pauper or a fakir!

Defending himself, the other person again said to the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his holy progeny): Ask him if he has ever seen me pay out the zakaat less than what was due upon me, or haggle with those who had come to collect it from me? When asked, the man said: No. The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his holy progeny), then turning to that man, said: Go away from my presence, for it is highly probable that he may be better than and superior to you.

[^4] The Punishment for Backbiting, on the Day of Judgment Sheikh Bahaai (may the mercy (of God) be upon him) says: Once it so happened that in a prominent gathering, in my absence, I became the topic of conversation.

Does one of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? But you abhor it .”[^5] Later when he came to know that I had become aware of his act, he wrote me a lengthy letter in which he expressed his repentance over the deed and sought forgiveness from me. Replying to his letter, I wrote: May God reward you for the gift that you sent for me! This is because your gift shall cause the scale of my good deeds to become heavier on the Day of Judgment!

It has been narrated that the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his holy progeny) said: “On the Day of Judgment, a person shall be brought forth for the reckoning of his deeds; his good deeds shall be placed in one pan of the balance while his evil deeds would be placed in the other and it would be observed that the pan of evil deeds was heavier than that of the good deeds.