Sadaqah in a Child's Life-Threatening Crisis: The Story of the Imam of Aleppo

Among the eighteen stories in the book «من عجائب العلاج بالصدقة», this story — the eighteenth and last — is the most detailed, the most emotional, and the most specific in terms of the narrator's identity. This is not an anonymous tale of the "a man said" kind — here there is a name, the name of a mosque, the name of a city. For exactly this reason, this story needs to be written about separately — because it presents a completely new kind of story within this series' verification framework, one that does not fully match any of the other seventeen.

The story — a child shaking with fever, a hungry cat, and a wife's dream

In the book's words, Sheikh Abdul Hadi Badla, the imam of the Jami' Ar-Ridwan mosque in the city of Halab (Aleppo) in Syria, narrated this story in his own words. The book describes him as "one of those few scholars who address both the intellect and the heart."

In his words — at the very beginning of their marriage, Allah favored them with their first child. It was their first child, so the joy was something different. But this very child at one point fell ill with such a severe disease that the medical science of that time was helpless before it. The child's condition kept worsening, and the parents' condition kept breaking down too — their first child, the light of their eyes, and yet there was nothing they could do about his pain — this helplessness was the heaviest burden.

With the help of acquaintances, the child was taken to an experienced and well-known doctor. The child was then suffering from a very high fever. The doctor said directly, "If this child's fever does not come down tonight, then tomorrow he will leave this world."

Hearing this, the imam returned with the child — sad, downcast, with sleep gone from his eyes. After praying salah, he left the house like a man out of his mind, leaving his wife weeping at their son's bedside. He walked street after street, not knowing what to do for his son now. Just then he remembered that saying of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ — "Treat your sick with sadaqah" (داووا مرضاكم بالصدقة). But at such a late hour, at whose door should he go to give sadaqah, and what would that person think if he suddenly knocked on the door like this — in this dilemma he kept walking in the streets.

Just then, in the dark night, a hungry cat cried out. He remembered another hadith — the Companions once asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, "Is there a reward for us even regarding animals?" He ﷺ said, "There is a reward in every living liver (that is, in being kind to every living creature)" — narrated by Bukhari and Muslim. As soon as he remembered this hadith, he went into the house, took a piece of meat, and fed the cat.

Mixed with the sound of the door closing came his wife's voice — "Have you come back? Come to me, quickly!" He ran and saw that his wife's face had changed, with a flash of joy on it. His wife said that after he left, she had dozed off while sitting, and in that doze she had seen a strange dream. In the dream she was holding her son close to her chest, when a huge black bird swooped down from the sky and tried to snatch the child away. In fear she held her son tightly, and before she could understand anything, a cat began to strike that bird with tremendous force, starting a fight such as she had never seen before — even though the bird was much bigger. In the end, the cat drove that falcon away (in the original narration it first says "black bird" and later "falcon" — both words are in the original text). At that very moment, she woke up at the sound of her husband's return.

The imam himself says — he smiled then, and felt a glad tiding of good. The two of them rushed to their son — and then they saw the fever leaving his body, and the child opening his eyes. The next morning the child was playing with the other children of the neighborhood.

The book does not stop here — it also adds a conclusion. After narrating this story, that child — who is now a young man of about 17 years, who has already completed memorizing the entire Qur'an and is continuing his Islamic studies — delivers a heartfelt exhortation to the worshippers at his own father's mosque, Jami' Ar-Ridwan in Halab, on a night of the last ten days of Ramadan.

An important word about the dream part

In this story the wife's dream is a central part, and in the Islamic tradition dreams are indeed a real matter — the hadith also speaks of regarding good dreams as glad tidings. But this series' policy is that no personal dream will be presented specifically as a "proven sign sent from Allah" or as proof of the truth of any event. What has been done here is that the way the Sheikh himself narrated his wife's dream is conveyed exactly in that way, as part of the story. It is not being claimed as a proven prophecy or a certain divine sign — it is only a part of a story told by a person himself, and it should remain just an account of his own experience.

There is a name, but how much verification?

Now let us come to the real question — how verifiable is this story?

First, an important truth needs to be acknowledged — the identity of this story's narrator is the strongest among the eighteen stories in this book. Sheikh Abdul Hadi Badla is not a fictional or vague name. Independent research has confirmed that he is indeed a real Syrian da'i who is currently or recently active — the actual khatib and imam of the Jami' Ar-Ridwan mosque (written elsewhere also as "Jami' Ar-Radwan") in the Shahba area of the city of Halab, Syria. Dated videos of his khutbahs have been found on multiple independent YouTube channels (for example, a clip of a khutbah from July of 2022), and a Facebook page has also been found in his name and identity. That is, the identity "Sheikh Abdul Hadi Badla, imam, Jami' Ar-Ridwan, Halab" has been independently verified beyond the book, and has proven true.

Beyond this, no additional biographical information about him is claimed here — whatever may be known about his date of birth, education, or family outside the book, none of it was confirmed in this research phase, and nothing is being guessed at here either. All that has been confirmed is only this: he is real, he is a man of this name, he is the imam of this mosque, he lives or lived in this city.

But it is important to draw a clear line right here. Even though the imam's identity is confirmed, this specific story — his son's fever, feeding the cat, the wife's dream — could not be found in any of his own khutbah archives, in the YouTube playlists in his name (it is known that a playlist named "Kalimat al-Huda wa Khutab al-Jum'ah fi Jami' Ar-Radwan bi-Halab" certainly exists), or in any other third-party retelling. It exists only in this sadaqah compilation book, and in multiple digital copies of that book (on sites such as thahabi.org and ketabonline.com) — which are merely reproductions of the same original book, not independent testimony. That is, a second independent version of this story, in his own voice or in anyone else's account about him, has not yet been found.

So what does this mean? We need to avoid looking at it from two opposite mistaken directions. On one hand, it would not be right to say that this story is false or made up — there is no evidence to confirm that either, and that a real, known imam is telling such a personal story under his own name is not something to be lightly dismissed. On the other hand, it would also not be right to say "since the imam is real, the story is certainly true" — because the verification of the imam's identity and the verification of the truth of a particular story he told are two completely different things.

To understand why this difference matters, let us make a comparison. In most stories in the book, the narrator is completely anonymous — "a man said," "a well-known woman da'i said." In these cases, if the story is proven false or exaggerated, no one's name or reputation is involved in any way — no one is caught, and no one is held accountable. But in this story, a specific, named, really identifiable imam has told this story under his own name — one who is in the public eye as the khatib of a mosque, gives khutbahs regularly, and is known to people. If this story were made up or false, his own real reputation and credibility would be tied to it. This is a real, though limited, form of accountability — which a completely anonymous story never has.

But it must also not be forgotten — this kind of accountability is never equal to the stories discussed in the eighth article of this series (the stories of Hakim Abu Abdullah and Ibn al-Mubarak, where the story itself was found in an independent source, in a classical book with specific page references). There, the account of the event itself was found exactly in an independent source. Here, only the narrator's identity has been found, not the account of the event. Nor is this medical evidence — there is no medical record here to confirm for exactly what reason the child's fever came down, and there is not supposed to be.

In short — this story has been given Status B: the source person is confirmed to be real and identifiable, which is a stronger position than most of the anonymous stories in the book — but the details of the specific event remain independently unverified, which sets it apart from a fully historically documented (Status A) story. The most honest way for the reader is to keep this story exactly as it is — a personal story told by a real person, solemn and heartfelt, which has moral accountability but no conclusive external proof.

So why was this story included in this series if its specific details are not established? The answer is simple: the aim of this series is not to hide or dismiss any account, but to place each account at its true level of evidence and present it honestly to the reader. This story carries distinct weight because of its emotion, its detailed narration, and the real identity of its narrator. The feeling people have when reading it is not false, but along with that feeling, the limit of the evidence should be known just as clearly. An imam is speaking, under his own name, about a life-threatening crisis of his own child. Respect is due when hearing this, but it is equally important that this respect never turns into the wrong message that it has been "verified." The true lesson of sadaqah (charity) — being patient in hardship, trusting in Allah's decree, and giving sadaqah while taking the means within one's ability — can be found in every layer of this story, whether or not every detail of this particular account is conclusively established.

References

Source given in the book

• The book gives no written or bibliographic source for this account. It is presented in the first person as Sheikh Abdul Hadi Badla's own narration, with his full name, his title (imam), and the mosque and city (Jami' Ar-Ridwan, Aleppo, Syria). Among the eighteen accounts in the book, he is the narrator identified in the most specific way.

Other reliable sources

• YouTube — dated sermon videos of Sheikh Abdul Hadi Badla on several independent channels (for example, a clip of a sermon from July 2022), which confirm him as the imam and khatib of Jami' Ar-Ridwan, Shahba, Aleppo. The existence of a sermon playlist in his name titled "Kalimat al-Huda wa Khutab al-Jumu'ah fi Jami' Ar-Ridwan bi-Halab" has also been confirmed.
• Facebook — a Facebook page in the name and identity of Sheikh Abdul Hadi Badla was found independently, which supports his real, active identity.
• thahabi.org, ketabonline.com — digital copies of the original Arabic book (note: these are copies of the same book, not an independent second testimony to the account).

Note: The specific details of this account (the fever, the cat, the dream) could not be found in any sermon video, interview, or third-party retelling by Sheikh Abdul Hadi Badla himself during this research phase. Whether he has told this account again himself, by searching his YouTube sermon archive video by video, remains to be verified — which could be future work for this series.

This article is prepared on the basis of the account narrated in the book «من عجائب العلاج بالصدقة» and the independent source verification of that account.