I said to him: "O my master, Allah (Blessed and Exalted be He) said: {And do not throw [yourselves] with your own hands into destruction} 1 , and if you were to complain of your condition to your brothers, they would not leave you like this."
He replied: "If they were [truly] my brothers, my condition would not have been hidden from them. Indeed, I heard from our Master Ja’far, Mighty is His Might, that he said: 'Whosoever among the believers is struck by an affliction and conceals his state for three [days], complaining to no one, Allah shall grant him relief from the very midst of that hardship.' And I hope for relief from Allah."
He [the narrator] said: I saw his children at the time of Sahar (pre-dawn) taking stalks from the foundations of the walls and eating them. When morning came, a knocker struck the door. He looked out and saw a group of the people of Kufa who entered upon him carrying a pouch containing ten thousand dirhams.
They said: "So-and-so has died and bequeathed three pouches like this—some say five—to be distributed among his