A DEVIL can turn into a saint only if Allah wants so. And that is exactly what happened to a rich man of Basra, Habib, who used to lend money to people at high rates of interest. He was known to be so strict about the interest money that he won’t budge from the house of his debtor until he collected something.
One day, he reached the house of a debtor. His wife told him that her husband was not home and she had nothing to give him except a slaughtered sheep’s neck that her husband had brought for cooking. Habib, without any hesitation, brought it home and asked his wife to cook it. When the cooking was done, a beggar knocked on Habib’s door and asked for something to eat. “I don’t have anything to give you,” Habib dismissed him with scorn.
Later on, when his wife opened the pot to eat food it was full of blood and puss. He called her husband to show him the result of his deeds. Shocked, he decided to immediately stop all his evil doings and left his home to ask his debtors for the principal money only. Seeing Habib, the urchins playing in the street, started teasing him: “Habib, the interest-taker, Habib the blood-sucker devil. Stay away from him, lest we also become like him.”
Very disappointed, he went to the renowned saint of his time, Khawaja Hasan Basri (21-110 Hijri) and sought his advice so that Allah could forgive him. On his way back, he came across those boys again. Surprisingly, this time they cleared the way for him quietly. After this, he asked his debtors to take their loan deeds back and all the interest money he had charged. Afterwards, he gave away all his wealth in charity and engaged himself in the worship of Allah. During the day he’d go to Khawaja Hasan Basri to acquire religious and spiritual knowledge. And since he couldn’t clearly pronounce some verses of the Holy Quran, he was called Ajmi.
Habib was then left with no money. His wife asked him to do some work to earn a living. But he’d spend the entire day worshipping Allah. In the evening, when his wife would inquire about food, he’d say: “The one I work for is so kind that I couldn’t dare ask him about my wages, but he told me that after 10 days he would give me the entire wages.”
On the tenth day when he returned home empty-handed he was very upset and didn’t know what to tell his wife. When he reached home he smelled the aroma of cooked food. He asked his wife about who had brought the food. She said: “Someone brought it and said that Habib should work hard. His master would give much more.” He became so impressed by this unexpected event that he left everything and became engaged in Allah’s worship 24 hours a day. Soon his spiritual excellence started showing.
One day Khawaja Hasan Basri came to Habib’s house. Habib had already started the Maghrib prayers. As Khawaja Hasan knew that Habib’s pronunciation of some words was incorrect, he offered prayers separately. That night he heard a divine voice in his dream: “Your one prayer with Habib in lead could have been better than all your life-time prayers. You just thought about his pronunciation, but didn’t look into his Akhlas (sincerity) and Yaqeen-i-Kamal (total belief in Allah).”
On another occasion, Khawaja Hasan came running to Habib’s house to hide from the soldiers of Hajjaj Bin Yousif (96 Hijri). Habib told them that he was inside. The soldiers looked everywhere but couldn’t find him. They asked Habib why he had lied to them. “No, I didn’t lie; I saw him going inside but I don’t know what happened to him.” When the soldiers left, Khawaja Hasan came out and told Habib that the soldiers touched him several times but they couldn’t see him. “How dare you informed them about your teacher?”
“Had I not told the truth we both could have been arrested,” explained Habib.
“But what did you do that they couldn’t see me?”
“I just read four times Ayatul Kursi and Sura Akhlas, and gave you in the protection of Allah. He saved you.”
It is said, a disciple can excel his Murshed in Taqwah. Habib actually demonstrated it.
Once Habib saw khawaja Hasan at the bank of the River Dejlah. Habib asked about where he was going. “I’m waiting for the boat to go across the river.”
“Have belief in Allah and start walking on the water of the river,” saying this Hazrat Habib stepped into the river and started walking on the water. Seeing this, Hazrat Hasan fainted and when he recovered people asked what had happened. “I taught Habib all the religious and spiritual knowledge, but he has excelled me in spiritual powers. He walked on the river water by virtue of his Yaqeen-i-Kamal, whereas I waited for the boat.”
In the next meeting, when he inquired Hazrat Habib about the event, he said: “You blacken the paper with your knowledgeable writings, but I clean the blackness of my heart.”
When a person excels in Taqwah, Allah befriends him and never rejects his prayers. During his time, a murderer was sent to the gallows. Several people, in their dream, saw him wearing beautiful clothes and strolling in paradise. People asked him how come he went to paradise when he had murdered a person. “When they were about to hang me,” he said, “Habib Ajmi came to my side. He focused his attention on me and prayed to Allah to forgive me. Because of his prayers I’m here in paradise.”
