Loyalty is not just a slogan, but it is a daily attitude that reflects a person’s morals and values. The following story is a testament to loyalty, even after many years.
A villager from the Algerian countryside recounted, “In 1994, my 14-year-old daughter fell seriously ill. The doctors recommended transferring her to a hospital in the capital. I had lived all my life in a small village on the outskirts. When I arrived at the hospital, I asked for the ward, only to discover it was very far away. I hadn’t expected the hospital to be so vast that a car was needed just to get around, let alone for an old man like me. I walked as far as I could, but no one offered help.
The hardships of old age, the exhausting journey, my daughter’s illness, and my own lack of money all weighed on me. Exhausted, I eventually sat down to rest in the parking lot. Every now and then, tears welled up in my eyes, and I hid them from my daughter and others so no one would see me crying. While I was in such a state, a luxury car pulled up beside me. A tall young man in a white coat stepped out. He came over and asked what I needed. I was choked with tears and couldn’t speak.
He gently asked, “Uncle, do you have any medical papers?” and added, “Give me your card.” When I handed him the card, he studied me closely, from head to toe, his expression shifting between surprise and bewilderment, before letting out a deep sigh.
The young man then sat beside me, examining my features and softly kissing my forehead, unable to hold back his own tears. I asked him, “What’s wrong, my son? Has something happened to you?”
He replied, “No, I just felt sorry for you and your daughter.” The young man lifted my daughter into his arms and said, “Come with me.” He led her into a specialized medical ward and placed her in a wheelchair. He gave instructions, and everyone greeted him with respect and deference. I thought to myself, “He must be a very important person in this hospital.”
He guided the girl through the emergency room, the lab, the radiology department, and the anesthesia, intensive care, and general surgery wards. By around four o’clock in the afternoon, she had successfully undergone surgery and regained consciousness. I thanked God repeatedly and expressed my gratitude to the young man, who had become my support and helper, sent by God. I told him, “By God, your kindness and generosity will remain a debt I can never repay.”
Three days later, the doctor who had performed the surgery discharged my daughter from the hospital. The young man asked if my daughter could stay at his home for another week to fully recover, as the journey back to our village was long and exhausting.
Humbled by his generosity, I initially suggested returning home, but he insisted. I agreed, and we stayed with him for seven nights. His wife cared for my daughter, while he and his children treated both of us with the utmost kindness, gentleness, and respect. On the seventh night, the food was placed on the table, but I refused to eat and stayed silent.
The young man said to me, “Eat, uncle. What’s wrong?” I exclaimed loudly and firmly that I would not take a single bite until he told me who he was. I told him, “You have been taking care of me and my daughter for an entire week, and before that at the hospital, yet I don’t even know you. You serve us and treat us with such kindness, as if you know me or as if I were a relative. I have only met you once before, at the hospital. Who are you, for God’s sake?” He replied, “Uncle, eat now, and I will tell you after dinner.” I insisted, “By God, not a single bite will enter my mouth until you tell me who you are.”
The man tried to evade the question, but faced with my insistence, he lowered his head slightly and then said in a low voice, “Uncle, if you remember, I am that child you gave five dinars to in 1964, when I was sitting behind you on the bus. I am so-and-so.” And he mentioned his full name. I told him I remembered him and his father (May God have mercy on him). I said, “Yes… yes, I remember.” That day I was on the bus traveling from our rural village to a nearby town. Two boys, no older than fifteen, were sitting behind me. I overheard one of them say to the other, “This year the rains have been scarce, and autumn is almost over. The land isn’t growing anything. My father is a poor farmer and can’t afford to support me. So, I have to drop out of school this year.”
When I heard the two children speak of poverty and deprivation with such an awareness that only adults can grasp, I was deeply moved and felt distressed. I immediately took five dinars from my pocket and gave them to the boy. I told him, “Take these dinars. They are enough to buy all your school supplies.” But the boy refused to take the money. I asked him, “Why are you refusing the money, my son?” He said that his father might think he had stolen it. I told him to tell his father that I was the one who had given him the money, since his father knew me well.
The child’s face lit up, and he took the five dinars, smiling with contentment and joy as he slipped them into his pocket. After that day, I forgot all about that encounter with the boy.
The young man said, “Uncle, I am that boy. Thanks to God, and then to those few dinars, I am now a doctor at the largest hospital in Algeria. Here we are, meeting again after God has blessed me with such a high position. We parted ways in 1964, and here we are meeting again in 1994, thirty years later.
Thank God that He enabled me to repay you, Uncle. The five dinars you gave me made me a doctor of medicine. By God, even if someone gave me all the treasures of the world, I would not be as happy now as I was that day with those few dinars. Uncle, your favor upon me is immense. By God, no matter what I do, I will never be able to repay your kindness. I ask God to reward you with the best reward in this life and a great reward in the Hereafter.”
Therefore, good deeds protect against misfortune. It is said, “Sow something beautiful, even in an unexpected place.” Kindness is never lost wherever it is sown. Even if time passes, only the one who sowed it will reap its rewards.
