“…while she [a nomadic woman] is walking through the land she comes across a place where there is water flowing and as she looks into the water she finds a sparkling thing, a great treasure, a jewel and she places it into her knapsack, and continues on with her journey. And now as she’s going on through her journey she comes upon a man, another nomad, and this person inquires of this woman ‘I have not eaten or drank anything for some time, would you perhaps be able to give me something?’ And so the woman without hesitation takes her bag from apart her back and opens it up and as she is going through it the man sees the jewel placed therein and says ‘can I have this thing instead?’, and without hesitation she gives it to him. And so this man goes on his way thinking ‘I have this great jewel I have this great treasure I have this great thing in my possession, now I am set I need nothing else’ and he comes upon a town thinking of what kind of fortunes await him. And some days later now this same man goes back to the mountains, he goes back to the place where he found this woman, he goes back to see if he can find her again. And when he comes upon her he gives her back his hand and in his hand is this jewel and he says to her ‘I don’t want this anymore.’ And the woman says ‘You were so ecstatic you were so happy you were so full of joy that I had given you this thing, you seemed to be so pleased with it now you are giving it back to me, why is it? I have nothing else that you could possibly want.’ And he says ‘take this jewel back take this treasure back I want something else that you have. I want you to take back this pretty stone and instead I want for you to give to me that thing which is inside of you that allowed for you to give it to me in the first place.’”

- Imam Khalid Latif, Khutbah on “Responsibilities of Giving”, June 27, 2008

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