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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Moral Stories (part 2) Rejection of Food From Caliph Haroon once sent with his servant a tray full of some delicious dishes to Bahlool. When they were delivered, Bahlool diverted the food to a dog sitting nearby. On seeing this, the servant protested saying that this was a disrespect to the Caliph and he would report to him.

Bahlool retorted by asking the servant to keep quiet lest the dog also refused to eat the food if it came to know that the food was from the Caliph. His refusal to eat the food from the Caliph demonstrated his rejection of favours lest it affected his heart to lean towards the tyrant Haroon. This provides a lesson to us as to how we should avoid such favours in public and religious service so as not to be distracted from one's principles of truth and justice. The following ayat.

of the Holy Qura'n guides us not to lean towards those who oppress people: "And do not incline to those who are unjust, lest the fire touch you, and you have no guardians besides Allah, then you shall not be helped." (11:113) ON THE THRONE OF CALIPH One day Bahlool entered Haroon's palace and saw the throne of the Caliph to be vacant and none of his guards standing nearby. Immediately he went and sat on the throne.

When the court men saw him on the throne, they went forward and forced him to step down by beating him. Bahlool started crying loudly and when Haroon entered the court, he asked him the reason for crying. The courtiers explained what had happened. The Caliph comforted him and at the same time scolded his men for the treatment given to Bahlool., To this, Bahlool reacted by saying: "I am not crying for what has happened to me, but I am crying for you, the Caliph.

I have been made to suffer so much only for sitting on the throne for a short while. How much are you going to suffer for sitting on it for so long, because it belongs to someone else while you are the usurper of it". Haroon was one of those pompous and oppressive kings from Banu Abbas (descendants of Abbas bin Abdul Muttalib) who had usurped the caliphate of the divinely appointed vicegerents of the Prophet.

The above incident afforded an opportunity to Bahlool to warn Haroon of the sufferings awaiting him after death. That Haroon would not be able to escape the punishment for usurping the rights of and oppressing the household members of the Prophet.