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The 100 a Father Never Needed
This is a true story I heard from someone else, and it has stayed with me ever since.
Sometimes, the people who love us most are the ones we find it hardest to tell the truth to.
When the young man received his first salary, he was twenty-three. That was when his father made a strange request.
“Send me 100 every month.”
“Why, Dad?”
“For raising you.”
The son laughed. The father didn’t.
From that day on, on the 27th of every month, when his salary arrived, he sent his father 100. In the reference line he always wrote: “For raising me.” His father’s reply never changed: “Received. May Allah bless your income.” Never anything more.
He kept sending it while he was single. He sent it in the month of his wedding, though he was buried in debt. He sent it the month his son was born, when only 140 remained in his account.
His wife sometimes asked, “Your father is retired and owns his house. Why does he need that 100?” His friends teased, “Has your father put a tax on you?” He would only say, “That’s just how Dad is.” He never questioned it.
Twelve Years Without a Miss
Once, he was a day late. At seven the next morning, his phone rang.
“Is everything all right?” his father asked.
He sent the money at once and smiled to himself. Dad is really strict about money, he thought. He had no idea what that payment meant to his father.
Twelve years passed without a single missed month. Then, three months…
