THE MISERLY MOSLEM PRIEST AND HIS WIFE.
In a village situated on the banks of the Indus, the “Abaseine,” or Father of Rivers as it is called, there dwelt many years ago, an Imam, or “Mullah,” a President of the Mosque, who had come to be much respected by the people for the constant and regular manner in which he officiated, and walked closely in the ways of the Prophet. In his time many used to go to Mosque who never went before. This Imam had his fees of course, for the performance of Nikahs, or marriages, and other rites of the Mahomedan faith, some of which he bestowed on the sick and poor. On festival days, besides an increase of fees, he generally received clothes and other articles from the faithful, so that in point of fact he made a rich harvest.
Towards the latter end of his days, however, this Imam contracted habits of stinginess, yet he never failed to preach liberality to others, and above all, the giving of alms to the sick and poor.
THE MISERLY MOSLEM PRIEST AND HIS WIFE.
He would tell the faithful, “You must always give what you can, and if you have no money, give them of the food you prepare for yourselves, and ever remember” he said, “that those who do this the most exactly will obtain the best blessings, and if you give them dishes of a savoury nature, so much the greater merit, and so much the better for you.”
This Imam had but one wife, devoted to his interests in every way, and with the strongest belief in her husband’s sanctity and sincerity, and she looked up to him as her spiritual guide and teacher.
She had noticed for some time, however, how niggardly he was becoming, and her neighbours had also remarked this to her, “But,” they said, “he never ceases to preach to us to give dainty dishes to the poor.”
All this distressed the wife, so she made up her mind that she would try one day to hear what the Imam actually did preach to the people.