A man came to see Imam Syafi’i complaining about the hardship of his life. He is employed with a salary of 5 dirham. To him, the amount is not enough.
Strangely, Imam Syafi’i ordered him to meet his employer to reduce his salary to 4 dirham. The man went to execute the command of Imam Shafi’i though he did not understand the purpose of the messenger.
After a while, he came back complaining as he did not make any progression in life. Then Imam Syafi’i ordered him to return to his employer and asked to reduce his salary to 3 dirham. The man went away to perform Imam Syafi’i advice with awe.
One day, the man came to Imam Syafi’i and thanked him for his commands. He told Imam Syafi’i that his income (3 dirham) can satisfy all his needs. What is the secret behind this?
Imam Syafi’i explains that he does not have the right to earn more than 3 dirham with his work. The remaining of 2 dirham has deprived the wealth of his possessions.
In a nutshell;
He collected the ‘haram‘ with the ‘halal‘ just to increase his properties. Unfortunately, when the bad entered the good, the properties ravage each other.
Perhaps this story can be a very valuable lesson to all of us. We can’t expect to get a high salary when we are not doing much works and we should not be proud of our high salary when we are performing unsatisfying workloads (unbalanced with the salary received).
Reference:
Tazkirah, T. (2015, Sept 9). Pesanan Imam Syafie berkenaan Pendapatan yang Berkat. Tazkirah.Net. https://tazkirah.net/pesanan-imam-syafie-berkenaan-pendapatan-yang-berkat/