Miracle 81: A Hypocrite Turns into a Believer

Imam Ali (a.s.) said: ‘O Messenger of Allah! I passed by a house of the Clan of so and so, and I saw a man from the Ansaar, a Momin removing from dustbins, the skins of the melons and the cucumbers and the figs, and he was eating these due to the intensity of the hunger. So, when I saw him, I was embarrassed from him that he would see me, so he would be ashamed, and I turned away from him went to my house.

And I had prepared for my pre-dawn meal and for the breaking of my fast, two loafs of barley. I came over with these two to the man and gave these to him, and I said to him: ‘Take from this every time you are hungry, for Allah, Mighty and Majestic would make the blessings to be in these two’.

He said to me, ‘O Abul Hasan! I want to test these blessings for my knowledge of your truthfulness in your words. I desire the meat of a duckling. The people of my household desired it from me’.

I said to him: ‘Break a morsel from these two – by a number of what you want from a duckling, for Allah, the Almighty would convert it to a duckling by my asking for it for you, by the virtue of Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a.) and his purified progeny (a.s.).

At that time, the Shaitan came in front of me and said, ‘O Abul Hasan! You are doing this with him, and perhaps he is a hypocrite?’

I replied to the Shaitan: ‘If he happens to be a Momin, then he is rightful of what I am dealing with him, and if he happens to be a hypocrite, so I am rightful of the favouring, for it is not so that every good deed would meet its deserving one’.

And I said to him: ‘I am supplicating to Allah, the Almighty through Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a.) and his purified progency to Incline him to the sincerity and the refraining from the Kufr if he was a hypocrite, for this charity of mine upon him (the supplication) is superior to my charity upon him with noble meal. And the Shaitan was overcome, and I supplicated to Allah, the Almighty secretly from the man for the sincerity, by the virtue of Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a.) and his purified progeny (a.s.).

So, the man started trembling and fell down on his face. I stood him up, and I said to him: ‘What is that which you did?’ He said, ‘I was a hypocrite, doubting in what Mohammed (s.a.w.a.) was saying and in what you were saying, and Allah, the Almighty has uncovered for me, from the skies and the veils. I saw the Paradise and I saw everything what is prepared with it from the rewards and uncovered for me from the layers of the earth, so I saw Hell, and I saw everything what is prepared with it from the Punishments

That is where the faith occurred in my heart and finished off my insanity with it, and the doubts which used overwhelm me, declined from me’.

The man took the two loafs of bread, and I said to him: ‘Everything you desire, so break a little from the loaf, and Allah, the Almighty will convert it to whatever you desire, and covet, and want’.

It did not cease to be like that, being converted to meat, and fat, and sweets, and dates, and melons, and winter fruits, and summer fruits, until Allah, the Almighty manifested wonders from the two breads, and the man came to be from the ones Allah, the Almighty liberated from the Fire.

That is when I saw Jibrael (a.s.), and Mikaeel (a.s.), and Israfeel (a.s.), and the Angel of Death to have aimed for the Shaitan, each one of them with a rock the like size of the mount Abu Qubays. One of them hit it upon him, and piled one on top of the other, so he almost fragmented, and Iblees went on saying, ‘O Lord! Your Promise! Your Promise! Did You not respite me up to the Day of Judgement?’ There was a call: “I have given respite to you from dying. I did not respite you from breaking of limbs and injuries”’.¹

Footnotes

1. Behar al-Anwaar, Vol. 42, Chp 116, Trad 7 ↩