A Buzurg from our Akaabireen, Shaykh Abul Hasan Noori رحمة الله عليه, was once walking by the seashore, when he saw 10 barrels of wine being offloaded off a boat. It was ordered specifically for the governor of the district. Despite this, Shaykh became angry by the arrival of wine which was known to be haram, Shaykh became upset. He took a chopper and one by one, He began smashing the barrels until 9 out of 10 barrels had been smashed. When Shaykh reached the last one, instead of smashing it he walked away, leaving it untouched.
A witness informed the governor of what he saw and thus Shaykh was arrested. During the interrogation they asked him that why did you do this? Who appointed you as our guardian?! Shaykh replied – “My Allah!” (Shaykh wasn’t wrong there – Allah has appointed us all to uphold shariah).
The governor replied that in that case, why did you leave the last barrel untouched then? Surely, that too contains the very same wine that you don’t want us to drink? Shaykh replied that when I broke the 9 barrels, it was purely for pleasure of Allah, but when I came to the 10th barrel, I detected the hidden hand of my ego. The thought surfaced in my mind, that I must be a great person for standing up to the governor. My nafs made an appearance contaminating my sincerity, and thus I left that barrel and walked away.
Now of course, this was a wali. We are not on their level. So we shouldn’t create these conditions of fitna ourselves, as our weak iman will not be able to bear the consequences of such bold actions. But we must derive a lesson from this; when our intentions are contaminated, either fix the intention or walk away. But don’t do anything for other than Allah. Any deed done for other than Allah will be rejected and will amount to nothingness.
May Allah grant us the tawfiq, Aameen.
— Shaykh Dawood Seedat حفظه الله
Above is an extract from the Shaykh’s talk on 28/3/2016. To listen to the full audio, please click here.