The Sheikh and the Parrot

There was a Sheikh who was teaching his students Aqeedah (faith), He taught them ‘la ilaha illa Allah’ and explained it to them.
The Sheikh loved keeping pets, so he was given a parrot by one of the students as a gift.
And with days the Sheikh started to like the parrot.
He used to take it in his lessons, until the parrot knew how to say la ilaha illa Allah, He would utter it day and night.

One day the students found their Sheikh crying and sobbing.
When they asked him the reason, he told them that a cat attacked the parrot and killed it.
They said: Is this the reason you are crying!
If you wish we will bring you another parrot better than that one.
The Sheikh said: I am not crying because of this…

But it made me cry when the cat attacked the parrot.
It was shouting and screaming until it died.
He used to say la ilaha illa Allah a lot.
However, when he was attacked by a cat he forgot to say it.
He did nothing but scream!
Because he used to say it with his tongue only, and his heart did not learn it, so it didn’t feel it!

Then the Sheikh said: I am afraid to be like this parrot, we live our lives repeating la ilaha illa Allah with our tongues, but when death comes we forget it because our hearts did not know it.
When he told his students, they started crying in fear of lack of honesty in saying “La ilaha illa Allah”.

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May Allah grant us ” ﻻ ﺍﻟﻪ ﺍﻻًﺍﻟﻠﻪ” in our hearts and on our tongues.