Continuing to test the shepherd’s piety, Sayyidunā ʿAbd Allah bin ʿUmar  رَضِىَ الـلّٰـهُ عَـنْهُ said, “Tell your master a wolf ate one of them.” He replied by saying, “Allah is watching, and He knows the truth. He will hold me accountable if I do this.” Sayyidunā ibn ʿUmar رَضِىَ الـلّٰـهُ عَـنْهُ was impressed by his response. When he returned to Madinah, he purchased the shepherd and all the goats from the slave master. He then freed the shepherd and gave all the goats to him as a gift.^[1]

صَلُّوۡا عَلَى الۡحَبِيۡب    صَلَّى اللّٰهُ عَلٰى مُحَمَّد

Dear Islamic brothers, look at the unshakeable belief this shepherd had in Allah. In a test of his piety, when he was asked to take money in return for just one goat and tell his master a wolf had eaten it, he did not commit any form of trickery. He instead said, “Allah is watching me.”

If only we thought this way! If only when Satan tries to tempt us towards disobeying Allah, we would have the same level of faith as the shepherd and stop ourselves from falling into misconduct simply due to the fact we know Allah is watching us right now.

This story also teaches us another beautiful lesson: the pious servants of Allah had great love for fasting. Even on scorching hot days, they kept voluntary fasts seeking to draw close to Allah. Islamic brothers who miss the fasts of Ramaḍān without a valid reason permitted by sharʿīah, those who keep the first few fasts and miss the rest, or those who fail to perform any good actions during this month should take heed. If only we were able to spend every second of Ramaḍān worshipping Allah with utmost enthusiasm and keep every fast in this sanctified month.

In the Quran, Allah explains the importance of Ramaḍān and the obligation of observing fasts: