There was a merchant in Baghdad. He is a firm believer and follower of Islamic principles. He was a cloth merchant. He was very honest and he used to sell and buy silk clothes.
Once there was an order to supply 30 bundles of silk clothes to another merchant in a nearby village. He sent them through his assistant and told him to collect some of money and particularly instructed him to explain there were some damaged clothes in one of the bundles. The assistant supplied the clothes and collected the sum and gave it to the merchant. The merchant immediately asked the assistant that he explained about the damages. The assistant forgot to explain about that and after knowing this, that merchant was worried and restless. He was upset for the whole night and the next day, he spent all the sum collected by the assistant to poor people (30,000 Dirhams).
Yet another occasion, an old lady came to him to sell some silk clothes. She asked for a sum. After inspecting the clothes, the merchant told her that he demand was too less. Then, she asked for some more and the merchant after a careful inspection, gave her five times of her price.
It may look foolish for many of present day's merchants. But, the basic business principle is "Honesty" and people who believed and followed were rewarded properly latter.
The name of the merchant is "Imam Abu Hanifah" and he established a school at Kufa, which later became a famous College of Theology. Under his guidance, the labour of him and his students gave us the 'Hanafi school of thought". He was also the 1st Imam to arrange all the subjects of Islamic Law systematically.
Without doubt, an inspiring personality to learn from.
