Ridwaan was busy with a project for school. He asked his older sister Raeesa if he could borrow her encyclopaedia. She was on her way out with their father but she told him where he could find it. “It’s in the drawer next to my bed,” she said.

Ridwaan went into her room and looked in her drawer. He found the encyclopaedia immediately but as he slid it out, he noticed something else in the corner of the drawer. It was a large box of his favourite chocolates. Ridwaan’s mouth began to water. He reached out to grab a chocolate but then pulled his hand back. Raeesa would be very angry with him if he took one without permission. 

Ridwaan went back to working on his project but found that he couldn’t concentrate. All he could think of was the chocolates. He could just imagine how creamy and rich they would taste. He imagined putting one of those chocolates in his mouth and how delicious it would taste on his tongue.

Ridwaan found himself going back towards his sister’s room. When he was halfway there, he suddenly stopped. “No!” he said to himself. “I will not take a chocolate without her permission.” Next he thought to himself: If I take one chocolate, Raeesa will never know. She has so many chocolates, she wouldn’t even miss it. So he continued walking towards his sister’s room, ensuring that his mother was nowhere in sight.

He slipped into the room, opened the drawer and pulled out a chocolate from the box. He was about to unwrap it when he realized something very important. ‘Even though my mother and sister can’t see me,’ he thought to himself, ‘Allah can can see me. In the sight of Allah, I will be a thief, if I eat the chocolate.’ 

He could just imagine being called a thief, in front of everyone on the day of Qiyamah. Ridwaan was suddenly filled with shame. He recited Ta’awuz (Aa’oozu billahi minash shaitaanir rajeem- I seek protection in Allah from Shaitaan the accursed.) He then dropped the chocolate back into the box and ran out of the room.

He was sitting sadly in a corner when Raeesa returned home. “What’s wrong?” she asked. “I almost became a thief today,” Ridwaan confessed. He then told her what had happened. Raeesa told him that she was glad that he had not stolen a chocolate. “I wouldn’t like my brother to be a thief,” she said. “As a reward for being so honest, you have my permission to have as many chocolates from the box as you like.” Ridwaan was ecstatic. He and Raeesa then went off to enjoy the chocolate feast.