$17

There was once a man who was going to travel to a dangerous land. He goes to the house of a
man well known for his honesty. He knocks on the door and tells him: "I'm giving you $1440 to
keep with you as I am traveling to a dangerous place. When I get back, I only want $17 back."
The honest man stood their perplexed but agreed.

The next day, the traveler comes back to the honest man's house and asks him for the $17.
The honest man tells him that he forgot and that he had spent it all. The traveler forgave him
since he knew that this man is honest enough to give it back later.

The next day, the same man travels to the same dangerous place and gives the same honest
man $1440 to keep and at the end of the day, he will take $17 back. The traveler returns from
his travels and asks the honest man for his $17. The honest man replies that he was so
engrossed in having a good time with his friends, that he spent all the money again.
Once again, the traveler forgives him, knowing he didn't do it deliberately.

This same incident starts to happen everyday, whereby the honest man is given $1440 and is
expected to return only $17 but fails to do so.

Later on, his child becomes sick and the doctor giving the treatment tells the honest man that
if he wishes for his child to be looked after, the fee is $1440. The honest man starts to panic
realizing he can't afford $1440. It then struck him that the traveler used to give him that same
amount. He runs to the traveler’s house and asks him in a panic for $1440.

The traveler told him that due to his feeble excuses, he has stopped going to his house as he
has lost faith in his honesty.

The irony is that this story has once been directly relevant to each and every single one of us.

It is quite remarkable that Allah s.w.t. gives us 1440 minutes each day and only specifies 17
minutes of that back in prayer. But due to the ignorance of people and the whisperings of
Shaitaan the accursed, we are blinded towards the minute scale of what we are giving back.
This story points out three things:

1. The importance of Solat and how little we have to give back.
2. The mercy of Allah that he forgives us even after such blunders.
3. The fact that we only realize how important something is (in this case the gift of wealth)
until it is gone.