Protected Pearls

Narrated Abul-Fath Muhammad ibnu Abd al-Baqi ibnu Ahmed ibnu Salman said : Abu El Fadhl Ahmad ibnu Ahmad said : Al-Hafiz Abu Naeem said : Abdullah ibnu Mohammed ibnu shibl said : Abu Bakr ibnu Abi Shaybah told us that Moatamir ibnu Sulaiman told us, from his father, that Abu Othman said : Abu Burda said :

When Abu Musa came to death, he said: “ My sons! Remember the loaf man!

He was praying in the hermitage seventy years. He does not come down, except only once a week.

But one day, the devil adorned a woman in his eyes. So he liked her and was with her for seven days or seven nights. After that, the lid was revealed of the man and he returned to his senses and went repentant: for every step he does, he prays and prostrates.

He was like that until the darkness made him resort to some storehouse. In the storehouse there were twelve poor men. And there was a monk who sends, every night, twelve bread-loaves to the twelve poor men, giving everyone a loaf.

Weakened by the fatigue, the repentant man threw himself between two of the poor men.

In that night, the man with the bread loaves comes to the store and was distributing the twelve loaves, when he came to the repenting man; he thought he was one of the poor men, so he gave him a loaf.

When all the bread run out, one of the poor men was left without bread, and said: “you have given me no loaf”. The man said: “I may have skipped you, so look if I have given another man tow loaves instead of one”. The other poor men said: “no, you didn’t”. So he said to the poor man: “Then, I have nothing to give you tonight.”

So the repentant took the bread loaf he got and gave him to the poor man who had no bread.

In the morning, the repentant was dead. ”

He (Abu Musa) said:

“ Then, the seventy years (of prayer) were weighed (compared) against the seven nights (of sins), so the seven nights outweighed. Then, the seven nights were weighed against the bread loaf, so the bread loaf outweighed.”

Abu Musa said: “ My sons ! Remember the ‘loaf man !’ ”

Translated from "the book of repentants" for Ibn Qudamah Al-Maqdisi (May Allah have mercy on his soul)