A Promise Across the Sea

Long, long ago, among the people known as Bani Isra'il, the descendants of Prophet Ya'qub عليه السلام, there lived a man who needed to borrow money. Not a little money, either: a thousand dinars. A thousand gold coins.

We know his story because the Prophet ﷺ told it, and the Companion Abu Hurairah passed it on, all the way down the centuries to us.

The man went to another man of Bani Isra'il and asked him for the loan.

A thousand gold coins is a great deal of money. The lender said: "Bring me witnesses, so that they can see me lend it to you."

"Allah is enough as a witness," the man replied.

"Then bring me a guarantor," said the lender. He meant someone who would promise to pay if the borrower did not.

"Allah is enough as a guarantor," the man replied.

Think about that. No other person would see the loan being made. No one would promise to pay for him. All he had was his word, and his trust that Allah, Who sees and hears everything, was witness enough.

And the lender said, "You have spoken the truth." He handed over the thousand dinars, to be paid back by a day they both agreed on.

Then the borrower sailed across the sea and did what he had gone there to do. The agreed day was creeping closer, and he needed a ship to carry him back in time.

He searched for a ship. He searched hard. But he could not find a single one.

Imagine standing on that shore. The day of your promise is almost here. The person you owe is far away across the water. There is no human witness, and no guarantor but Allah. If the money came late, or never came at all, who could ever prove there had been a loan?

This is what the man did. He took a piece of wood and carved a hole inside it. Into the hole he put a thousand dinars, and with them a letter to the lender. Then he sealed the opening up tightly.

He carried the wood down to the sea, and he spoke to Allah:

"O Allah, You know that I borrowed a thousand dinars from so-and-so. He asked me for a guarantor, and I said, 'Allah is enough as a guarantor,' and he accepted You as guarantor. He asked me for a witness, and I said, 'Allah is enough as a witness,' and he accepted You as witness. I have tried hard to find a ship to send him what is his, and I could not. So I leave this money in Your safekeeping."

He threw the wood into the sea, and it went far out into the water.

Then he went on his way, and all the while he kept searching for a ship to the lender's land.

Back across the sea, the lender went out one day, hoping that a ship might have arrived with his money. And there, all of a sudden, he saw a piece of wood.

He took it home for his family, to use as firewood. The saw went back and forth, back and forth. And when the wood split open, there inside he found his money, and the letter.

Some time later, the borrower arrived at last on a ship, and he brought with him another thousand dinars.

"By Allah," he said, "I never stopped trying to find a ship to bring you your money, but I could not find one before the one I came on."

"Did you send anything to me?" the lender asked.

"As I told you," the borrower said, "I could not find a ship before the one I came on."

He had no way of knowing whether the wood had ever arrived. He had simply come, with the full amount, ready to pay.

The lender said, "Allah has delivered on your behalf what you sent in the piece of wood. So go back with your thousand dinars, rightly guided."

Somewhere tonight, far away, the sea is still rolling in and out, wave after gentle wave. The man on the shore could not see where his piece of wood would go. But Allah could.

Your own promises are smaller than a thousand gold coins: a book to give back, a turn you promised a friend, a job you said you would do. Keep them, even when nobody could ever make you. Allah is enough as a witness. Do your part, and leave the rest with Him. Sleep well.