Beautiful Islamic Stories

- The One Closer To God

Once upon a time, there was a holy man who lived all alone in the mountains and worshipped God all the time.

He believed that in this way he could be much closer to God.

Once he was told in his dreams to go to the town and visit a shoemaker who was working there whom God loved.

The holy man did so, and when he met the shoemaker, he said: "Hail to you old man." Then he asked: "What do you do?"

The shoemaker said: "As you see, I'm a shoemaker. I pray to God, keep the fast and repair or make shoes. I give part of my income to the poor as alms and the rest to my family and household to live on."

"Of course these are all good things to do, but going away and giving oneself up to God away from everything and everyone is quite different and definitely has a higher value," thought the holy man.

He then returned to his place in the mountains and went on with his worshipping tasks.

At night, he was told in a dream to go to the shoemaker once more and ask him why his face was so lit up.

The next morning, he met the shoemaker and asked: "What makes your face shine as it does, old man?"

"Nothing. I only consider whoever I meet as the people who will finally be saved and myself as the one who will not."