Dhu al-Hijjah 17, 1430 A.H, December 04, 2009

The location where this true story occurred is in a district in Yaman and it took place last January (in 2009).

The story of the sufferings and pains suffered by the people of Gaza spread throughout the world. Everybody was fuming in anger, hatred, enmity and rage. Even more people felt sad and were touched when cute little children became victims from the crazy spurt of bullets and bombs, blood were wetting the ground freely.

This terrible tragedy also came to the knowledge of an old lady who lived poorly in one of the villages in Yaman. Just like everybody else, she also felt sad and sorrowful, and she could not help but shed her tears.

One day she was determined to help the best she could. Incidentally, the only ‘asset’ she had was an old cow, it was too sickly, thin and weak.

Equipped with a high spirit and the feeling of extreme sympathy, she intended to give away her cow to the people of Gaza. So she left her house on foot en route to one of the masjids in Yaman while holding her only beloved cow.

Coincidentally, it was Friday and the jama’ah (assemblage) had already swarmed the compound of the masjid to perform the Friday Prayer. The people started to direct their attention and observe the old and poor lady standing outside the masjid with her cow. Some of them nodded, some of them shook their heads and not a few of them smiled cynically or quite the opposite astounded seeing the poor lady standing faithfully beside her cow.

Time passed by and although the jama’ah of the masjid were engrossed listening to the khutbah delivered by the Imam, they from time to time looked curiously at the two creatures of God. The old lady and her cow were still there without even a little sign of embarrassment or reluctance on her face.

After the Imam got down from the mimbar (pulpit), the Friday prayer was then performed. Let the intense sun burn and sweats drip from her face, the old lady and the cow were still there.

As soon as all the jama’ah completed the solat and do’a, the old lady suddenly hurried and dragged her cow towards the front door of the masjid and waited patiently, unperturbed by the jama’ah walking out of the masjid. Many of them stayed and were curious of what the old woman would do next.

When the Imam of the masjid came out, the old lady bounced up and said: "O Imam, I have heard of the sad story of the people of Gaza. I am a poor person but I sympathize and want to help them. Please accept the one and only cow I have to be brought to Gaza, give it to the people there."

Caught by surprise, the Imam was stunned for a moment by the request of the old lady. And predictably, he was reluctant to accept it. Yeah, how to bring the old cow to Gaza, the Imam questioned. All around, the jama’ah started to murmur. There were those who said that it was an impossible thing to do especially that the cow was already old, it surely had no value.

"Please… take this cow to Gaza. This is all I got. I really want to help them," the unknown woman repeated. The Imam was still reluctant. Every jama’ah talked and whispered to each other. All eyes were fixed on the old lady and her old cow.

The eyes of the old lady started to glaze and well up with tears but she was still unyielding and kept on gazing at the Imam. The atmosphere was filled with silence for a while.

Suddenly, someone from the jama’ah voiced out an idea: "Never mind, let me buy this cow for a price of 10,000 riyals and then bring that money to be donated to the people Gaza."

The Imam appeared to be in agreement. The sad old lady wiped her tears that had already flowed down. She remained speechless but seemed to agree with the suggestion of the jama’ah.

Suddenly, a young man got up and offered an even more remarkable suggestion: "What if we all offer the highest bid while contributing that money to buy the cow and the money will then be delivered to Gaza?"

The woman was surprised, as well as the Imam. It appeared that the idea of the young man was accepted by the crowd. And then in a few minutes, the bids started to roll and a lot of the jama’ah hurried to contribute their money to be collected.

There were those who bid starting from 10,000 to 30,000 riyals and it continued for some time. The atmosphere in the compound of the masjid became noisy when the jama’ah continued to bid non-stop while simultaneously donating their money.

Finally, the old, thin, and feeble cow owned by the old and poor lady was bought for a price of 500,000 riyals (around 148,000 USD)!

It was all through the biddings of the jama’ah plus the public who sympathized with the people of Gaza which included the pure intention of the poor woman. What’s even sweeter was that, after the money was surrendered to the Imam, everybody unanimously agreed on a decision.. one of the jama’ahs voiced it out to the old lady:

"We have bidden your cow and managed to collect a sum of 500,000 riyals in order to own that cow…

"However, we have agreed that the money that had been collected will be given to the Imam to be sent to the people of Gaza while the cow is to be returned to you," he said while looking at the poor old lady shedding her tears some more… in happiness.”

Unexpectedly, Allah destined everything, the intention of the poor woman to help alleviate the burden of the people of Palestine prevailed and was made easy by Allah to the extent that a huge sum of money could be collected while at the same time she could still keep the one and only ‘asset’ she possessed. Subhanallah!

Therefore, the lesson is that every pure and good intention is always under the consideration and reward of Allah especially that it comes from the small heart of a poor human being who wants to help the Muslim community which is suffering as a result of the oppression by the Zionist regime of Israel, even though she herself was in difficulties and scarcities in every way.

NOTE: If you all sympathize, please be willing to extend your contribution for the sake of the people who are oppressed in Palestine through the nearest Humanitarian Fund in your locality.

Source: Harakahdaily, translated by a Mujahid