Heaven for Sale
Once sitting on the bank of a river and playing with mud, Bahlool was constructing small houses and gardens. At that moment, Zubeida - the wife of Haroon - happened to pass nearby. She asked what he was doing and the reply given was that he was building houses in heaven.
"Would you sell to me?" inquired Zubeida. "Why not!" replied Bahlool.
"What is the price?" she asked. "One-hundred dinnars for each house", said he.
Thinking that it would be a sort of help to the poor and insane Bahlool, Zubeida asked her servant to bring the money which she paid to him. The same night she dreamt seeing a fabulous palace in heaven with beautiful hooriya in it. They told her that this palace was the one which she had bought from Bahlool.
Zubeida on waking up in the morning related the dream to her husband Haroon - the Caliph. Upon hearing this, Haroon sent someone with one- hundred dinars to Bahlool with a request to sell him a house in heaven.
Bahlool smiled and said that Zubeida had purchased without first seeing or knowing whereas Haroon wanted to have it after coming to know about its true existence in heaven. Therefore he would not sell to him.
The following verse in the Holy Qur’an stresses the need of having faith in the unseen:
"This Book, there is no doubt in it, is a guide to those who guard (against evil). Those who believe in the unseen and keep up prayer and spend out of what We have given them." (2: 2-3)
Taken from the book “The Moral Stories (Part 2)”
Author: Ahmed .H. Sheriff
Other links:
Bahlool’s Advice to Haroon
