15 Feb The Red Necklace

❝Right after completing Hajj I found a red necklace with a pearl on it. I picked it up. Suddenly an old man started to look for it and offered a hundred dīnār to anyone who could find it. So, I just handed it over to him.

‘Take the money.’ he said. But I refused and left for Shām where I visited Al-Quds. Thereafter I left for Baghdād but had to take lodge in a mosque in Halab as I was hungry and freezing. They made me lead the prayer. So I prayed with them, after which they served me food. It was still early Ramadān. They said to me,

‘Our Imām has passed away, please lead us in prayer for the rest of the month.’

They followed that by saying,

‘Our Imām has a daughter…’, so they got me married to her and I remained for a whole year. She gave birth to a baby boy but it had lead to her falling ill. One day as I was taking care of her and observing her, I noticed a necklace around her neck, that very same necklace with its red string. I said to her,

’Theres a story to this necklace…’ and went on to explain to her the story.

In tears she said,

“You are the one! Wallāhi, my father used to cry and say, ‘Oh Allāh grant my daughter from the likes of the man who returned the necklace to me!’ Allāh answered his du’ā.”

She passed away after that. As I departed, I carried the necklace with me along with the inheritance and returned to Baghdād.❞

— Imām Ibn ‘Aqīl al-Hanbalī (r)

[Narrated by Ibn al-Jawzī’s grandson, Abu-l Mudhaffar]