The Shaykh’s advice to fear Allah in seeking lawful sustenance, and his mention of the hadith of the plank and the hadith of the cloud, and his explanation of His saying, “And whoever fears Allah…”

The Shaykh: ... Where are you from two of the finest of the Prophetic hadiths that the masses of those who deal with banks have not heard, and therefore their faith in the verse has weakened? The first hadith: He (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “... There was a man before you ...” until he reached a wealthy man, so he said to him, “Lend me one hundred dinars.” He said, “Bring a guarantor.” He said, “Allah is the guarantor.” He said, “Bring a witness.” He said, “Allah is the witness.” So he lent him one hundred red dinars, and they agreed on the day of repayment. The debtor took the one hundred dinars and went out, traveling across the sea to work. The appointed day came, and he was outside the town, and he realized that he would be forced to delay the repayment beyond the agreed time. What did he do? He did something strange; if we heard what he did, we would say this man is a fool, a madman. He came to a plank, carved it well, and packed it with one hundred dinars, stuffing it well. Then he went to the seashore; he was in one town and the lender in another. He said, “O Lord, You were the guarantor and You were the witness,” and he threw the plank into the sea. Yes, yes, by Allah ... Allah the Exalted is capable of everything. He commanded the waves to take the plank to the creditor’s town. The creditor went out according to the appointment, waiting for the debtor. The ship did not come, but his eyes fell upon this plank, and the waves were tossing it before him. So he reached out for it, and it was heavy, weighing one hundred dinars. He took it to his house and broke it open, and out came one hundred red gold dinars. A little while later, the debtor arrived. What should we say about this man? A dervish, a dervish, but a believer, as evidenced by the fact that he ignored what he had done, because what he did was not subject to the natural cosmic laws that Allah decreed for people; he did not send it by registered express mail, no, all these matters are outside the norm, so he knew what he had done, and therefore he ignored the matter and paid the creditor one hundred dinars as if he had done nothing. Look, birds fall according to their kind; two righteous men. There is no god but Allah! He gave him one hundred dinars. The creditor received the one hundred dinars, and he was amazed by the previous incident, so he had no choice but to tell him the story. He said to him, “By Allah, I did this because time caught up with me and I was unable to come to you on the appointed day, so I took the plank, packed it, and so on, and I addressed the Lord of the Worlds, who was the guarantor between us and the witness, and I said to Him, “You are the guarantor and You were the witness”. By His (Glorified and Exalted is He) testimony and guarantee, He delivered it to you. He said to him, “May Allah bless you in your wealth and make it ...” We do this today, by Allah, except that we rarely see the world truly empty, but this is very rare. No one sees it; no one sees it. If he took the one hundred dinars from the debtor and kept silent, who could say, “You took two hundred dinars from me”? What does this mean? It means that when our Lord knew the piety of this debtor, He made the sea serve him, He made the sea serve him and preserved his wealth from being lost. We are in the story of the bank. The second story, which is also strange, he (peace and blessings be upon him) said, . It has never happened in the world that we hear a voice, not even from helicopters today in the end times, a voice from the sky saying, “O cloud, rain on such-and-such land,” for example, the land of Ahmad ibn Abdullah. He saw this cloud moving this way, so he went this way, walking with the cloud, and then the cloud discharged its load of water onto a garden. He looked out and saw a man working with a pickaxe. He greeted him, as if he knew his name. The man was surprised and asked, “How do you know my name? You are a stranger.” He told him the story, saying, “I heard a voice from the sky saying, ‘Rain on the land of so-and-so,’ so I walked with the cloud and found the cloud discharging its load of water onto your land, so I knew that you were the one meant by this voice.” He asked him, “By what did you deserve this divine care?” He said, as is the case with the righteous, “By Allah, I do not know and I am not aware, but I have this land, I plant it and harvest it, and then I divide my harvest into three parts: one third I return to myself, spending it on myself and my family, and the second third I spend on my land, and the third third I give in charity to my neighbors and the poor.” He said to him, “This is it. By this piety, you deserved the help of Allah ... These meanings, which they call spiritual meanings, have fallen from the hearts of the Muslims, and unfortunately the Muslims have become like the disbelievers, believing only in matter, only in matter, as if matter is permanent and lasting, but most people do not know. And indeed in that is a reminder for whoever has a heart or lends an ear while being a witness.”