The story of the owner of the two gardens

In the fourth episode of the series Qissa wa 'Ibar, Omar Abdelkafy sets out the Qur'anic parable of the two men, one of whom God gave two gardens, and presents it as a parable of the one who is grateful for God's favour and the one who denies it. ^{1 2}

He describes the two gardens as large orchards of vines surrounded by palms, with crops between them; both yielded their fruit without falling short, and a river was made to gush through them. The Qur'an, he says, paints the picture as if a camera were showing it, and he notes that the irrigation ran under the owner's hand and did not wait for rain. ^{2 3 4}

He holds that the rich man forgot that the Giver is God: he told his companion that he had more wealth and a mightier following, entered his garden wronging himself, and said he did not think it would ever perish. ^{4 5} One sin, he says, drags in a worse one: from denying the favour to denying that the Hour will come, and then to presuming upon God that, if returned to his Lord, he would find something better. ^{6 7 8} The grave lesson for him is to forget the Giver and remember only the gift. ⁹ When God grants a servant a favour, he says, He opens a door to see what the servant will do. ⁵

He describes the pious companion's answer as calm: he reminded him that he was created from dust and then from a drop, told him he should have said on entering his garden “What God wills; there is no power save with God”, and hoped his Lord would give him better than his garden. Then the fruit was destroyed, and the owner wrung his hands over what he had spent on it while it lay fallen on its trellises, wishing he had associated no one with his Lord. He links this to the story of the owners of the garden. ^{8 10 11}

• He compares the man's boast with some developed nations saying that they produce and the rest consume; Muslims fall short, he holds, if they remain consumers, and he reports the scholars' view that all Muslims sin if others excel in a useful science and they delegate no one to excel in it. ^{12 13}
• He likens the man's trust in his garden's permanence to the capitalist system's claim that it will never stop, then mentions the financial crisis. This is the speaker's view. ⁶
• He mentions Iliya Abu Madi's poem “The Clay” on being reminded of one's origin in dust, saying the poet wrote it when a brother of his became a minister and grew proud (his account; needs_source). ¹⁴

He closes by saying that giving is not a sign of God's pleasure nor withholding a sign of His anger: both are trial and testing, so the rich should give thanks, the poor be patient, and the rich not look down on the poor; he cites a hadith that an atom's weight of pride bars a person from paradise. ¹⁵ See gratitude, pride and trial.