Charity to the poor
Fatimah (A.S) was charitable and too kind to the poor and the deprived. She, her husband, and her two sons were meant by these Qur'anic verses, (And they give food out of love for Him to the poor, the orphan, and the captive. We only feed you for Allah's sake; we desire from you neither reward nor thanks. 76:8-9).
Fatimah (A.S) milled wheat and barley for her poor neighbors who were unable to do that. She carried water to her weak neighbors who could not get water.
On the night of her wedding, Fatimah (A.S) had a new dress on. When she knew that a young woman from the Ansar[1] could not find a dress to put on, she took off the dress of her wedding and gave it to that young woman. Fatimah (A.S) turned away from every material pleasure and preferred the satisfaction of Allah to everything. Jabir bin Abdullah al-Ansari said,
‘Once, the messenger of Allah (A.S) led us in offering the Asr (afternoon) Prayer, and when he offered the nafila (a supererogatory prayer), he sat in the qibla and people sat around him. A very old man came complaining of hunger and saying, ‘O prophet of Allah, I am hungry. Feed me! And I am naked (have no clothes). Clothe me!'
The Prophet (A.S) asked the old man to go to the house of his (the Prophet) daughter Fatimah (A.S). The old nomad man went to Fatimah's house and from behind the door he greeted her and said, ‘O daughter of Muhammad, I am naked and hungry. Would you please comfort me, may Allah have mercy on you?'
Fatimah (A.S) herself was in neediness, and she found nothing to give to the man except a sheepskin that her sons al-Hassan and al-Hussein slept on. The old man did not like it and he gave it back to her. Then, Fatimah (A.S) took a necklace, which was a present from her cousin Fatimah bint Hamza bin Abdul Muttalib, off her neck and gave it to the man.
The old man took the necklace and went back to the Prophet (A.S) saying to him, ‘Fatimah gave me this necklace and said to me, ‘Sell it! May Allah recompense you with good for it.'
The Prophet (A.S) cried and said, ‘And how does Allah not recompense you with good for it while the daughter of Muhammad, the principal of the daughters of Adam, has given it to you?'
Ammar bin Yasir asked the Prophet (A.S), ‘O messenger of Allah, do you permit me to buy this necklace?'
The Prophet (A.S) said, ‘Buy it, Ammar! If the human beings and the jinn participate in it, Allah will not punish them with Fire.'
Ammar said, ‘O Sheikh (old man), how much is the necklace?'
The old man said, ‘I sell it for a meal of bread and meat, a Yemeni garment that I cover my private parts and offer prayer for my Lord with, and a dinar that takes me to my family.'
Ammar said to him, ‘I give you twenty dinars, two hundred dirhams, a Yemeni garment, my camel to take you to your family, and a meal of wheat bread and meat.'
The old man said, ‘O man, how generous you are!' He left delightedly saying, ‘O Allah, there is no god but You. O Allah, give Fatimah what no eye has ever seen and no ear has ever heard of.'
Ammar perfumed the necklace with musk, enveloped it in Yemeni garment, and gave it one of his slaves saying to him, ‘Take this necklace to the messenger of Allah (A.S) and you will be his.'
When the slave took the necklace to the Prophet (A.S), the Prophet (A.S) asked him to take it to Fatimah (A.S) who took it and set the slave free. The slave smiled. Fatimah (A.S) asked him what made him smile and he said:
‘What made me smile was the great blessing of this necklace. It satiated a hungry one, clothed a naked one, made a poor one rich, freed a slave, and then returned to its owner.'
source : www.tebyan.net
