Original content

English translation

It is related of Abdullah ibn Ja'far - may God be pleased with him - that one day he had set out on a journey and alighted in the date-grove of a people, which was guarded by a black slave. He saw that three loaves of bread were brought as the slave's daily food, and a dog appeared there. The slave threw one loaf before it, and it ate; then he threw another, and it ate that too; then he threw the third, and it ate that too. Abdullah - may God be pleased with him - asked him: What is your food each day? He said: What you have just seen. Abdullah said: Why did you not keep it for yourself instead? He said: This creature is a stranger in this land; I suppose it has come from a far distance and is hungry, and I did not wish to leave it hungry. Then Abdullah asked: What will you eat today? He said: I shall keep a fast. Abdullah said to himself: All people blame me concerning my generosity, yet this slave is more generous than I. So he bought the slave, the date-grove, and everything that was in it; then he set the slave free and bestowed all of it upon him.

Whoever, with a morsel or two of bread, practices self-sacrifice over the dog of the carnal soul — Even were he a slave, for instance, it would befit masters to confess their servitude to him.