mr. hasan had three sons. faruq, abdullah and qasim. he loved them very much. he wanted to see them grow up as good muslims. mr. hasan himself was a good muslim. he did his best obey all the commands of allah.

one day, mr. hasan thought he would test his sons. he gave each of them some sweets and said, “eat the sweets in such a place where no one can see you, and when you have done so, come back to me.”

faruq took the sweets and went to his room. he shut the door from the inside and ate the sweets, thinking that no one could see him.

abdullah went to the cellar of the house and he was sure that nobody was there. he ate the sweets in the darkness of the cellar.

qasim thought and thought about a place where he could eat the sweets without anyone seeing him. he could think of no such place. every time he thought about a place, he remembered allah could see him. so he did not eat the sweets.

faruq and abdullah came back and told mr. hasan about what they did. qasim came and returned the sweets to his father saying, “there is no place which is secret from allah, so i did not eat the sweets. “ mr. hasan was very pleased with qasim. he told faruq and abdullah to learn a lesson from their brother qasim.

mr. hasan also said, “my dear sons, always keep in mind that allah knows everything. he is with us all the time. so we should not do anything bad even in secret.”