The story recounts that a king fell seriously ill, and his doctors believed that the only cure was a liver transplant from a human being with specific characteristics. Senior officials were tasked with finding a boy who met the required criteria. When they located him, the king summoned the boy’s parents and offered them a large sum of money for their son’s liver. The parents consented, allowing their son to be killed so the king could take his liver and be cured of his illness.
The king then consulted a judge to determine whether it was permissible to take the boy’s life for the sake of medicine. The unjust judge declared that it was acceptable. The boy was brought forward to be slaughtered like a sheep while the king watched from a distance. The king saw the boy looking at his executioner, then raising his eyes to the sky and smiling.
The king hurried toward him and asked in astonishment, “Why are you smiling when you are about to die?” The boy replied, “My parents should have shown mercy to their son. The judge should have been just in his ruling, and the king should have pardoned me. Money blinded my parents, so they handed my life over to you. The judge feared you, O king, more than he feared God, so he made my blood lawful for you to shed. You, my lord king, saw your cure in killing an innocent person. Therefore, I have no refuge except my Lord, and I lift my head to Him, accepting His judgment. I know for certain that God is more merciful to me than my parents, who abandoned me for money. I will take the judge of the earth to the Almighty Judge of Heaven. O king of this world, your kingdom will not last forever. God is always there, and He will grant me justice, for I have been wronged.”
The king was deeply moved by the boy’s words and wept. He then said, “It is better for me to die sick than to live after shedding the blood of an innocent person.” The king embraced the boy and granted him whatever wealth he wished. It is said that the king recovered from his illness a week after the incident.
---
Famine and the Compassionate Patriarch During World War I, the famine known as “Safarbarlik” struck Lebanon. The Orthodox Patriarchate in Damascus opened its doors to feed the hungry and displaced from Beirut, without discrimination based on religion or sect. At that time, the price of wheat soared, and it became rare to find. In response, Patriarch Gregory Haddad mortgaged all the endowments of the Patriarchate and the Syrian monasteries. He sold the church’s gold and silver artifacts and vessels to buy wheat and save people from starvation. Everyone who came to the Church of Mary received a loaf of bread each day, regardless of their religion.
One day, the person in charge of distributing the bread complained about the large number of Muslims coming to collect it, saying their numbers had surpassed those of the Christians. The Patriarch held the loaf high and asked the distributor, “Is it written on the bread that it is only for Christians?” He then ordered that a loaf of bread be given daily to anyone who asked, regardless of their religion. One day, a poor man came to the Patriarch seeking charity. One of the Patriarch’s attendants asked the man about his religion. The Patriarch became furious and said, “Would you withhold charity from him because he is not of your faith? Is it not enough that he extended his hand to you? Why humiliate him by asking about his beliefs?” When the Patriarch passed away, Muslims mourned him even more than Christians. It is said that eighty thousand Muslims joined the Patriarch’s funeral procession. They called him “the Father of the Poor.”
---
A Sermon by Muqatil to Abu Ja’far al-Mansour Muqatil ibn Sulayman visited the Abbasid Caliph Abu Ja’far al-Mansur, who requested a sermon from him. Muqatil replied, “Shall I advise you based on what I have seen or what I have heard?” The Caliph said, “Based on what you have seen.” Muqatil said, “Your Majesty, the Umayyad Caliph Omar ibn Abd al-Aziz had eleven sons and left behind eighteen dinars. They shrouded him with five dinars, bought a grave for four, and distributed the remaining amount among his sons.
The Umayyad Caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik had eleven sons, and each son inherited one million dinars. I swear by God that I saw one of Omar ibn Abd al-Aziz’s sons donating one hundred horses for the sake of God. On the same day, I saw one of Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik’s sons begging in the markets. People asked Omar ibn Abd al-Aziz as he lay on his deathbed, ‘What have you left for your sons, Omar?’” Omar ibn Abd al-Aziz replied, “I have left my sons nothing but the fear of God. If they are righteous, then God Almighty will take care of them. If they are unrighteous, I will not leave them money that would enable them to disobey God Almighty.”
