Formerly, in my youth, I was an unjust cop.  I was assigned to secure the market.  There was no one who was safe from my injustice and cruelty.  How many people had dealt with me and I tortured them - may Allah forgive me.  Whenever I think of them, my heart breaks because of the despair in my soul (for God's forgiveness).  If I didn't have a strong belief in the love and mercy of Allah, I would not be me, like who I am today,  and of course,  I hadn't left the immoral acts that I used to do before.  I used to be a drunkard, I often beat and tortured innocent people, and often meddled in other people's affairs that had nothing to do with my job, and involved in selling and buying problems.  I defended people who bribed me even if they were guilty.

One day while I was walking in the middle of the market, I saw a buyer and a seller at odds.  The seller insisted that the buyer had to pay the price he had determined, while the buyer was trying to bid the lowest possible price.  So I snapped at the buyer and almost hit him if there was no hand that I didn't know the owner preventing me.  I gasped and looked at the face of the owner of that hand.  It turned out that the hand belonged to a gray man and his face indicated that he was a good person.  With a gesture of his hand, he told me to stop my intention of hitting the buyer.  For the first time ever I was willing to listen an advice from the beginning till the end.  Then he ended his advice by quoting a hadith of Rasullullah pbuh which said, "Whoever goes to the market and buys groceries that please his daughter, Allah will pay attention to him." And the man continued saying to me,  "You know I had just returned from a trip. Before I went home I stopped at the market to buy something that would please my three daughters." 

(Malik Bin Dinar continued the story) My heart was touched when I heard that man saying like that. So, I bought the groceries he wanted and handed them over to him. Before I left him, I asked him, in the name of Allah,  to tell his daughters to pray for me.

(Continued) 

Translated from "101 Kisah Teladan"  written by  Muhammad Amin al-Jundi, Indonesian translation by Safrudin Edi Wibowo, Lc