A Rich Father and His Son

One day a father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the firm purpose of showing his son how poor people can be. They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.

On their return from their trip, the father asked his son,

"How was the trip?"

"It was great, Dad."

"Did you see how poor people can be?" the father asked.

"Oh Yeah" said the son.

"So what did you learn from the trip?" asked the father.

The son answered,

"I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon. We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve others. We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them."

With this the boy's father was speechless. Then his son added,

"Thanks dad for showing me how ungrateful we truly are"

You can't buy any of these things. You can have all the material possessions you can imagine, provisions for the future, etc., but if you are poor of spirit, you have nothing!

Too many times we forget what we have and concentrate on what we don't have.

The Prophet (PBUH) said;

"Richness does not lie in the abundance of (worldly) goods but richness is the richness of the soul (heart, self)."

[Sahih al-Bukhari, Muslim 5:2287]

If one is satisfied with small provision from Allah, Allah will be satisfied with a few good deeds from him.

[al-Bayhaqi, mishkat]

Allahu'alam.