[Parisienne]

Rasul Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wasallam) told us that once there was a man who used to sell wine. He would mix water in it, thereby cheating people. He had a monkey and they went on a ship. The monkey went on top of the ship’s mast carrying with him all the money the man had made. He then proceeded to throw one coin in the ship and one in the sea till he was done with all of it. [Ahmed]

This hadith is talking about an earlier Ummah for whom alcohol was halal. This hadith tells us how because of cheating, only half of the money earned by the man was rightly his. This hadith also shows us how Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) used the monkey to purify the money of this man. Anything and everything can become a soldier of Allah (subhana wa ta’ala), as everything is under the command of Allah (subhana wa ta’ala). In this case, the monkey became a soldier of Allah (subhana wa ta’ala).

In the case of Nimrud, a mosquito became a soldier of Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) and killed him. In the case of Abraha, it was the ababeel (the birds) that killed him and his army and protected the Kaaba. In the case of Firaun, it was the water that drowned him and his army but saved Musa (alaihis salam) and his nation. In the case of Rasul Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wasallam) it was the spider outside the cave of Thour, that spun a web and protected him from the Kuffar of Makkah. This should give us an indication of the power of Allah (subhana wa ta’ala), and make the eeman of the believers stronger.