The Wisdom of the Porter
📜 A Walk Through Basra
One day in Basra, the great scholar Al-Hasan Al-Basri was walking through the market. He hired a porter to carry his belongings home. As they walked side by side, Al-Hasan noticed the man quietly repeating two simple phrases:
“Alhamdulillah... Astaghfirullah.”
He said nothing more. Just those words, whispered with calm and conviction — as if the entire world had been reduced to their essence.
🗣️ A Question from the Heart
When they reached Al-Hasan’s home and he paid the porter, he couldn’t help but ask:
“What is the secret behind these two words that never left your lips?”
The porter smiled with the simplicity of one who truly knows:
“My life with God revolves around two states: a blessing that deserves my praise, and a shortcoming that requires my repentance. I found no better words to meet my Lord with than these.”
💡 A Lesson in True Understanding
Al-Hasan paused deeply, then clapped his hands in awe:
“A porter more learned than you, O Hasan!”
In that moment, he realized that true wisdom is not in eloquence or lengthy speech, but in the purity of heart and clarity of understanding.
🌙 The Gift of Contentment
He remembered that the greatest gift from God is not fleeting happiness, which comes and goes like the breeze, but the deeper gift of contentment — that peaceful dwelling in the soul which makes you praise in blessings and repent in shortcomings.
Did not Allah say to His Messenger ﷺ:
“And your Lord will give you, and you will be content.”
— He did not say “you will be happy.”
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