Hazrat Abdullah Ibne Mubarak RA was once going for Hajj with a caravan. At some point the caravan people threw a dead chicken on a rubbish heap. Hazrat Abdullah Ibne Mubarak was slightly behind the caravan. He was very surprised to see that as soon as the caravan passed out of sight a young girl from the nearby village picked up the dead chicken and quickly ran to her home. Hazrat Abdullah Ibne Mubarak followed her to her home and asked her why had she picked up the dead chicken from the rubbish. When he insisted a lot the girl finally relented and said, "My father, who was the sole bread earner in our family, has passed away. My mother and I are the only ones left in the family, and neither of us can work. We have nothing to eat at home. For several days now we are at that stage where Shariah has allowed Muslims to eat dead animals. So I keep scavenging and whenever I find a dead animal in that rubbish heap we eat it."

Hazrat Abdullah Ibne Mubarak was deeply saddened to hear her story and reflected, "There are people in this world who are eating dead animals to survive and I am going for Hajj." He told his assistant to keep only 20 Dinars so that they could get back home, and told him to give rest of the nearly two thousand Dinars to that girl, and said, "We won't perform Hajj this year but because of the relief this money will bring to this family, I am hopeful that InshaAllah (God willing) Allah Ta'alah will reward us with a lot more Thawab (eternal reward) than that Hajj."

Adapted from the talk "Value your time" by Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani DB