The Excellence of Bread

“It is a narration of abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.), from the Messenger of Allah, O Allah, grant compensation to Muhammad and his family worthy of their services to Your cause. He (the Messenger of Allah) once said, ‘You must treat bread with reverence because from the throne to earth and what is in it, a large number of His creatures have worked for it (to make it ready).’ He (the Messenger of Allah) then said, ‘Will you like if I tell you something?’ They replied, ‘Yes, O Messenger of Allah, we pray to Allah to keep the fathers and mothers in service for your cause.’ He (the Messenger of Allah) said, ‘Among the Prophets before you there was a Prophet called Daniel. He once gave one loaf of bread to the owner of the crossing (means) to help for crossing. He threw the bread away saying, ‘It is of no use for me. We crush bread under our foot.’ When Daniel saw it, he raised his hands to the sky and said, ‘O Lord, make bread revered because I saw what this servant just did to it and what he said.’ Allah, most Majestic, most Glorious, sent revelation to the sky and told it to withhold rain and the earth to turn into a piece of pottery.’ It did not rain and they ended up eating each other. When their condition reached the point which Allah, most Majestic, most Glorious, wanted, one woman said to the other, who each had a child, to one day eat the child of one of them. The other woman agreed and they ate the child. When they became hungry again the other woman demanded to eat the child of the other woman but she refused saying, ‘Between us there is the Prophet of Allah.’ They went to Daniel (a.s.), for judgment. He said to them, ‘I can see to what degree the condition has reached.’ They said, ‘Yes, O Prophet of Allah and it is more difficult.’ He raised his hands to the sky and said, ‘O Lord, return to us with Your generosity, and the extra of Your mercy and do not make the children to suffer because of the sins of the owner of the crossing and his disrespecting Your bounties.’ Allah, most Majestic, most Glorious, commanded the sky to send rain and earth to grow produce for His creatures what they had lost of the goodness because He had turned to them with kindness through the small child.’”