Sultan Murad IV, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1623-1640, would often anonymously go into the midst of the people and see their state. One evening, he felt an uneasiness in himself and the urge to go out. He called for his head of security and out they went. They came to a busy vicinity, and found a man lying on the ground. The Sultan prodded him but he was dead and the people were going about their own business. Nobody seemed to care about the dead man lying on the ground.
The Sultan called upon the people. They didn’t recognise him and asked him what he wanted. He said, “Why is this man lying dead on the ground and why does no one seem to care? Where is his family?”
They replied, “He is so and so, the drunkard and fornicator!”
The Sultan said, “Is he not from the Ummah of Muhammad (saw)? Now help me carry him to his house.”
The people carried the dead man with the Sultan to his house and once they reached, they all left. The Sultan and his assistant remained. When the man’s wife saw his dead body, she began weeping. She said to his dead body, “May Allah have mercy on you! O friend of Allah! I bear witness that you are from the pious ones.”
The Sultan was bewildered. He said, “How is he from the pious ones when the people say such and such about him? So much so that no one even cared he was dead!”
ṠḀḉṙḕḊ ṖḕḀṙḶṠ 