A Thorn

بسم الله الرحمان الرحيم

In the Name of Allah,

the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

Once upon a time there was a terrible punishment under way in a 

certain country. They were feeding the criminals to the hungry lions.

People would gather to watch this horrifying scene.

The criminal that day was a slave who had escaped from his owner.

He was left in the middle of an arena surrounded by high walls. They

let a hungry lion into the arena. At first the lion got ready to pounce on 

the poor man, but suddenly it stopped and started to lick the slave's 

hands!

The spectators were astonished. They asked the slave why the lion

had not attacked him.

The slave said : 

''One day, I saw this lion in the forest. A thorn had lodged itself in its 

paw, and it was in great pain. I pulled out the thorn and since that day

we have been good friends.''

People felt touched by this story. They set both the lion and the slave 

free. To the people's amazement the lion was following the slave as if 

it was his pet cat.

What a wonderful saying of our Prophetصلى الله عليه وسلم :   

الرَّاحِمُونَ يَرحَمُهُمُ الرَّحْمَانُ ارحموا مَن فِى الارْضِ

يَرْحَمكُم مَن فِى السَّماءِ    رواه الترمذى

''Allah shows His mercy to those who are merciful.

Have compassion to creatures on earth so that 

those in the heaven may have mercy upon you.''  

40 Hadiths with stoties 

by Prof. Dr. M. Yasar Kandemir