Odyssey of Sacrifice — Page 23
! 25 front her at that time. Hadrat Ayesha (ra) asked someone to give these grapes to the beggar. The person showed astonish ment, upon which Hadrat Ayesha (ra) commented that, ‘even if someone does a small good deed he will get a reward for it. ’ The fi nancial sacrifice of the poor companions of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (sa) was such that they used to do laborious jobs all night long and then would pay their earnings into financial sacrifice. The verse under discussion was also revealed regarding a simi lar such incident. Hadrat Abu Aqeel (ra) worked all night and earned roughly 7 Kilograms of dates in return. He gave half of the dates to his family, and the rest he presented to the Holy Prophet Muhammad (sa) in financial sacrifice for the preparation of a battle. He presented these dates to the Holy Prophet Muhammad (sa) saying that he is making this sacrifice to seek the nearness of Allah. There were some hypocrites in this gathering as well who started mocking Hadrat Abu Aqeel (ra) saying that he wants to win the nearness of Allah by donating 3 kilos of dates. Upon this , Allah the Almighty revealed the verse under discussion and not only praised the sacrifice of this companion but also warned the hypocrites of a painful punishment. How beautifully God ac cepted the sacrifice of this poor servant of His and appreciated his sacrifice by giving the warning of punishment to those who mocked him. The narrative of the sacrifices of the companions of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (sa) would always be decorated with the incident of the competition of financial sacrifice between Hadrat Umar (ra) and Hadrat Abu Bakr (ra). At the occasion of the battle of Tabuk, the Holy Prophet (sa) asked his companions to sacrifice their wealth. Ha drat Umar (ra) narrates that, “I ncide ntally I had a lot of wealth at that time. So, I thought in my mind that