generosity and bestow honor and respect. He said, "Honor the honored of a humbled people, and the rich of a impoverished people." Let all of that be according to what is written in the Mother of Books and the decree of the Almighty, the Generous Giver. Otherwise, how many poor people have been made rich by warnings, and how many rich people have become unable to possess even a dinar? And from that is what was narrated that the minister Al-Muhallabi was, in the beginning of his affair, poor and possessed nothing. He traveled from Baghdad to Mecca in a caravan, and the crowd afflicted him and delayed everyone. So he recited, saying: "My sustenance is sold, so I will buy it. This life, I have no fear of it. May God have mercy on a servant who gave his life in charity to his brother." A merchant heard him and gave him a loaf of bread and a dirham. Then circumstances changed. Al-Muhallabi rose to the ministry, and the merchant became impoverished until he did not possess enough for his daily sustenance. It reached him that Al-Muhallabi had risen to the ministry, so he went to him and wrote him a note, the content of which was: "From relief." "From relief." The minister said, "May my soul be sacrificed for you, a saying that reminds me of what I had forgotten. Do you remember when you said to me, 'My sustenance is sold, so I will buy it'?" And he sent it to him with some of his servants. When he read it, he wept and was moved, and remembered what had passed. He ordered for him a swift horse, a thousand dirhams, and wrote him a note similar to the one he had sent.