Chapter 1Prophet Adam (a)

Allah made the mountains and the seas.He made all the animals.He made the heavens and the stars.

He made the sun and the moonand he made the angels.The angels were like Allah's servantsand did everything He ordered.

Then Allah decided to make a man.He called this first man Adam.He taught him many thingsso that Adam had more knowledgethan the angels.

There was one Jinn,called Iblis and he thoughthe was better than Adamso Allah would not let himstay with the other angels.

He was to be called'Shaytan', the Devil.Shaytan blamed Adam for what hadhappened to him and was very angry.

Allah let Adam live ina beautiful place becausehe was good. The place wascalled Paradise.

It was a very nice place butAdam was a little lonely,on his own all of the time.Allah decided to help Adam.He made Hawa to be Adam's wife.

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They were happy andliked living in Paradise.

There was, however,one thing they were not allowed to do.There was a specialtree and Allah had told them they must noteat any fruit from that tree.

At first Adam and Hawa werevery good and kept awayfrom the tree.Shaytan decided to dosomething very naughty.

He told them they were sillyto keep away from the tree.He said nothing would happenif they ate its fruit.He said the fruit was deliciousand they should try it.

After a while they began tolisten to Shaytan and thoughtthey would have just a littletaste of the fruit, just to seewhat it was like.Shaytan was very happy becausehe had made them disobey Allah.

As soon as they had eatenthe fruit,Adam and Hawarealised that they had beenvery naughty andthey felt guiltyfor what they had done.

Allah forgave themBut He wouldn't let themstay in Paradise any moreSo He sent them to live on earth.

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Chapter 2Habil and Qabil -Prophet Nuh (a)

Adam had two sonscalled Habil and Qabil.Adam thought thatHabil, the younger son,should take over after him.But Qabil didn't like thisidea and was veryjealous.

To settle the argumentAdam thought of an idea.He told his sons to thinkof a present to give toAllah and to leave iton top of a certain hill.

The one whosepresent Allah accepted,would win theargument.

Allah chose Habil'spresent because Habilhad taken a lotof time and troubleto choose his present.

Qabil was very upset andangry. He was so angrythat he killed hisown brother. Afterwards,when he realised whathe had done, he cried

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and cried but it wastoo late to be sorry.

Prophet Nuh (a)After many years Adam

had grandchildren and evengreat grandchildren.There were now lots ofpeople on earth.Many of them obeyed Allahbut some were not so goodand did just what theywanted to do all the time.This made Allah very unhappy.

Allah chose Nuh,a good man, to tell thepeople that what theywere doing was wrong.But they wouldn't listento him and carried ondoing bad things.

Allah decided thatall the naughty peopleshould be punished.He told Nuh to builda big ark nearhis house.

Nuh quickly got busychoosing good wood andbuilding it up into afine ark.A lot of people laughedat him but he did nottake any notice of them,because Allah had toldhim what to do.

When he had finished,he put lots of foodinto the ark and collectedthe good people together.They also took lots of

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animals with theminto the ark, twoof every kind.

One day, all of a sudden,the sky went very darkand it started to rain.Lightly at first, thenmore and more heavily. Soonthere was water everywhere.The bad people were notlaughing any more. Theywere frightened becausethey had no shelterfrom the water.

Only the good peoplein the ark weresafe and dry.

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Chapter 3Prophet Hud (a) - Prophet Salih (a)

A long time ago,a great tribe lived in theSouth of Arabia.They were called Ad.They were very clever andcould do many things.They used the mountainsfor their homes.They carved out great mansionswith wonderful pillars.

They called their city Iram.It was very famous.As time went on,the people of Adthought more about themselvesand less about Allah.They thought theydidn't need Allah,because they hadlots of moneyand power.

They thought they werebeing clever but reallythey were foolish.Before long they turnedto bad ways.Gangs of them used torob and kill peopletravelling by.

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There was still one good manamong them.His name was Hud.He did not belong to any ofthe gangs.He did not agreewith the things they did.He tried to tell themto stop their bad waysand told themto follow Allah's ways.

Hud said Allah would punishthe bad ones but most of thepeople still would not listen.They thought they weremore clever thanthe messenger of Allah.

Allah told Hud to take all thegood people into a big cavenear the city. The very nextday a terrible tornadocame and only thegood ones,the ones who hadlistened,were saved.

Prophet Salih (a)The people of Thamud

lived in a valleycalled al-Hajrin the north of Arabia.It was a good landso everything grew very easily.Cattle and sheep grazedon the land.

Everyonehad plenty of everything.When people have a lotthey sometimes forgetwho provides everything,

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they sometimes forget Allah.When this happensAllah sends a messengeror a prophetto try to help the people.

To the people of Thamud,Allah sent Salih.Salih told the peopleto remember Allahbut a lot of people justlaughedat him and wouldnot listen.

He did not give up.He still tried to persuadethem to worship Allahand soon peoplebegan to listen.They realised Salih was right.The leaders of Thamudwere upset by this.

They did not want peopleto listen to Salih.They did not believe Salihwas sent by Allah.They wanted him to prove it,they wanted a sign.They told Salihto bring them a camelbut it hadto be aspecial camel.

Salih prayed to Allahand Allah sentthe special camel.The camel gave lots andlots of milk so all the poorpeople had enough to drink,and they were very happy.

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The leaders of Thamudbecameangry again to see Salihand his followers so happy.They decidedto kill the camel.Salih told them that Allahwould punish them.

Salih took all the good peopleaway from the valley.A terrible earthquake cameand destroyed the valleyand all the bad people.If they had listened to Salihthey would have been saved.

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Chapter 4Prophet Ibrahim (a)

Many years ago a boycalled Ibrahim livedin Canaan.he was very clever and was always asking questions.Most of the people he knewworshipped idols butIbrahim did not.

The people hadforgotten the messagesthat Adam, Hud, Nuhand Salih hadbrought them.Instead of praisingAllah they worshippedstatues.

Ibrahim told his fatherhe didn't think people shouldworship objects they hadmade themselves. His fatherwas angry and told himnot to say anything aboutthe gods again.Ibrahim decided he mustshow the people they werewrong so he thought of aplan.

One night he sneaked intothe place where allthe statues werekept. With an axe

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he chopped off theheads from all butone of the statues.The biggest onehe left.

The next morning thepeople were very angryand upset at what hadhappened. They weresure Ibrahim had done it.They gathered in thepublic square and askedhim if he had done it.Ibrahim told them to asktheir big idol if heknew who was responsible.

But, of course, the statuecould not speak and thepeople knew it was onlystone. Ibrahim shouted atthem and asked howthey could worship lumpsof stone. The bad people wereeven more angry.They started to collect woodfor a fire. They weregoing to burn Ibrahimto death.

They made a big bonfireand put Ibrahim on the top.Everyone came to watch. Theylit the wood. The fire burned,the flames grew higher andhigher. The people had toback away from the heatof the flames.

Ibrahim was a goodperson. He believed in Allah.Allah would protect him.Allah would not let the

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fire harm him. When theflames dies down the peoplecould not believe their eyes.

They saw that Ibrahimwas alive and the flameshad not harmed him at all.How had this happened?They all knew this was agreat miracle and theyfell to their knees.

This wonderful thing hadmade them believe in Allah.Some people would still notlisten. They thoughtIbrahim was just a magician

Nimrod, the king of Canaan,heard all about Ibrahim.He wanted to talk to him.He asked Ibrahim about Allah.Ibrahim told him thatAllah could do all things.He could give life and death.Nimrod said that he toocould do that.

His soldiers broughttwo men in. Nimrodordered one to bekilled and theother to be saved.

Nimrod thought thatthis made him like Allah.Ibrahim told him thatAllah brings the sunevery morning from theEast.

He asked Nimrod ifhe could bring the sunfrom the west nextday, of course, Nimrodwas unable to do that.

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Chapter 5Prophet Ibrahim (a) - Prophet Ismail (a)

Ibrahim married a girlcalled Sarah. They livedvery happily in Palestine.They worked and hadplenty of everything.

Ibrahim became verywealthy, but he wasa good man. Healways helpedother people too.

After many years Ibrahimand Sarah still had nochildren. This madethem very sad. Theyboth wanted achild to sharetheir life with.

Sarah told Ibrahimthat he should marryher servant Hajar too,so that Ibrahim andHajar could make achild together.

Prophet Ismail (a)After a while Ibrahim

did marry Hajar andshe had a son.

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They called him Ismail.They were all veryhappy.

Ibrahim, Hajar and Ismailmoved to a valley inArabia. They settled ina good place with hillsand mountains on allsides to protect them.

After a while Ibrahimsaid that he should goback to see Sarah andto get more food and water.Before he left he prayedto Allah to look afterhis wife and son becausethey did not have muchfood and water left.

The food and watersoon began to run low.Hajar was very worried. Whatcould they live on?They prayed to Allah.

Hajar went to the top ofthe mountain, Mount Safa,to look for Ibrahim.

Now their water was all goneand they were desperate.She went to the otherside of the valley andclimbed to the top of MountMarwa. She looked towardsthe North, East, West andSouth for help but foundnone.

Hajar kept runningbackwards and forwardsbetween Mount Safa andMount Marwa.She did this seven times.

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Suddenly she sawIsmail kick the groundwith his heel.A spring of water gushedout - beautiful, pure water,they were saved.

Even today this water, calledZamzam, still flows in theValley of Hijaz and whenpeople go to Makkah on Hajjthey go seven times betweenthe two mounts in memoryof this miracle that savedthe lives of Hajar and Ismail.

When Ibrahim returned he wasamazed to see the valley.The water had made the placevery fertile. All the animalsand caravans visited andmade it a prosperous place.

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Chapter 6The Sacrifice of Prophet Ibrahim (a)

One night Ibrahim hada bad dream.He dreamt Allah toldhim to sacrifice Ismail.

Ibrahim thought it wasShaytan playing nastytricks on him.

The next night Ibrahim hadthe same horrid dream.

Ibrahim knew thatAllah would onlyask him to do sucha thing if he had goodreason.

Even though he lovedhis son dearly, he wasprepared to do thisdifficult thing for Allah.

Ibraim toldIsmail theyhad to go toMount Arafat.He took a knifeand a rope with him.

On the way they passeda place called Mina.The devil, Shaytan, cameto Ibrahim andtried to talk him

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out of sacrificinghis son.

Ibrahim turned his backon him and would not listen.

When they reached MountArafat, Ibrahim told Ismailwhat Allah wanted him to do.Ismail listened and acceptedwhat was to happen. He wasan exceptional child.He too was agreat prophet.

Ismail told his father to tiehis hands and legs and blindfoldhimself so he would not struggle andmake his father even more upset thanhe was going to be and Ibrahim wasblindfolded so he would not see hisson suffer.

Ibrahim did as Ismailhad said. He then tookthe knife and did whatAllah had told him todo. When he tookthe blindfold from hiseyes he looked down, notat his son but at adead ram.

Ismail was at his side.Ibrahim was afraid.

He thought he had disobeyedbut then he heard a voicetelling him not to worry.Allah looks after hisfollowers. Ibrahim and Ismailhad passed a difficult test.

Each year, during themonth of Dhul Hijjah,many Muslims, from all

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over the world, travelto Makkah.

They want to rememberwhat Ibrahim andIsmail did.

In the month of Dhul Hijjahthese pilgrims go to Makkah,Mina and Arafat.They visit placeswhere Ibrahim and Ismaillived and preached.

They give a sacrifice justas Allah commandedIbrahim to do. The pilgrimssacrifice animals inmemory of the deed.

We must obeyAllah's commandsas Ibrahim andIsmail did. Weobey by doingthe things weknow are right,praying, obeyingour parents andalways tellingthe truth.

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Chapter 7Prophet Ibrahim (a) & Prophet Ishaq (a)

The Well of Zamzamwhere water first flowedto save the lives ofHajar and Ismail, becamea popular place for thecaravans to stop.

Some people liked theplace so much they decidedto stay there.This place became knownas Makkah.

One day Ibrahim hada message from Allah.He and Ismail were tobuild a place forpeople to pray.They were to buildan altar, it was tobe known as the Ka'aba.

The angel Jibrailbrought the messagesaying that the Ka'abashould be built nearthe Well of Zamzam,the most sacred placeon earth.

The foundation stonefor the Ka'aba was tocome from heaven.It is found today in a

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corner of the Ka'aba and isknown as the black stone.

When Ibrahim wasbuilding the Ka'abahe was standing ona large rock. Allahsoftened the rock andthe shape of Ibrahim'sbare feet was left init. It is still there,for all to see.

When Ibrahim wasvery old the angelscame to see him andsaid Allah wasgoing to give a sonto him and Sarah.

Sarah could not believeit was true. She too wasold. The angels said thatall things are possibleto Allah. They said theson was to be calledIshaq. He was to be a prophet.

Sure enough,Sarah did havea son and they calledhim Ishaq. he grewup to be a greatprophet.

Ishaq married agirl called Rebecca.They had two sons,called Esau and Yaqub.Yaqub became agreat prophet.

Yaqub grew up andmarried Zia and theyhad lots of children,both boys and girls.

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His second wifeRohsie had two sons,Yusuf and Benjamin.

Yusuf and Benjaminwere very good, obedientsons and they becameYaqub's favourites becauseof their good behaviour.Yusuf too grew upto be a prophet.

All of these greatprophets weredescendents of Ibrahim.He is known asthe father of allthe prophets.

Muhammad (s), our greatand beloved prophet,the last of all theprophets was adescendant of Ismail.

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Chapter 8Prophet Yaqub (a) & Prophet Yusuf (a)

Yaqub was alsoknown as Israil.

Israil's children couldsee that Yusuf was theirfather's favourite. Thismade them very jealous.They became so jealous,some of them actuallywanted to kill him.

The jealous brothersfinally decidedto throw Yusufinto a deep well.

They went to Israil, theirfather, to ask if they couldtake Yusuf out withthem; they said they wouldteach him to be a goodshepherd. Israil wouldnot let Yusuf go becausehe thought the otherswere planning to dosomething bad.

One day Yusuf went toIsrail and said that hehad had a strange dream.In the dream Yusufhad seen the sun, themoon and eleven starsbowing down to him!

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Israil felt thatthe dream had amessage, Yusuf wasgoing to have agreat future. Hetold Yusuf not totell his brothersabout the dream.

Israil's son werestill thinking of theirplan to kill Yusuf.They pestered Israilto let them takeYusuf with themto their work.

At last Israil agreed,but he made them promiseto look after him.They were so bad theyknew they would breaktheir promise.

At the end of the daythey asked Yusuf to takeoff his shirt. They killeda sheep and put blood allover Yusuf's shirt; then theythrew Yusuf into a well.

They went home andshowed the shirt to Israil.Pretending to be very upset;they told their father that Yusufhad got left behind and awolf had eaten him!

Israil was veryupset but hedid not believethe story.He knew that oneday Allah would

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bring Yusuf backto him.

Poor Yusuf spent thenight in the well.The next morning, whensomeone put thebucket down thewell to get water,he sat in the bucket.

The man had to get helpto pull the bucket up.He was very surprised to seea boy in it.The man was a merchant.

The merchant decidedto take Yusuf withhim to Egypt and tosell him as a slave.When they arrived inEgypt, one of the noblefamilies bought Yusuf.

The man whobought him toldhis wife that theyshould take care ofhim, as he was agood-looking childand they had nochildren of their own.Yusuf became oneof the family.

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Chapter 9Prophet Yusuf (a)

The Pharaoh of Egyptcalled Firawn had manypeople working for him.

One of his assistants hada very wicked wife whosaid many things aboutYusuf that were quiteuntrue. She thoughtshe loved him but hetold her that she shouldhonour her husband.

She became very angryand persuaded herhusband to have Yusufput in prison.

While he was in prison,Yusuf used to tell everyonewhat their dreams meantand his explanation of thedreams always came true.

Allah had given Yusufthis great gift.

Firawn kepthaving a strange dreamand none of his wise mencould explain what it meant.Then Firawn heard ofYusuf's great gift andsent for him.

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Yusuf would not leavethe prison until he hadproven his innocence.Firawn had an inquiryand discovered that Yusufreally was innocent, sohe was able to leave prison.

Firawn's dream was mostunusual. In it, he sawseven skinny cows eatseven big fat ones andthere were seven skinnyears of wheat andseven fat ears of wheat.

Yusuf explained thatthis meant there wouldbe seven years of plentybut seven years of faminewould follow, when therewould be no water andno food for anyone.

After that there wouldbe a year of rain.Firawn liked and trustedYusuf so he put him incharge of all the store housesin the land.

Yusuf had worked himselfup to a very powerful position.Allah always rewardsgood people.

Yusuf worked hard; hemade sure the store houseswere filled with wheat andgrain.

Just as he had said,there were seven yearsof plenty. Those yearspassed very quickly.Soon the seven years of

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famine came. The cropsfailed. People werehungry. Others werestarving.

Yusuf had planned forthis. He opened hisstores and let everyonehave some of the wheat.Back in Palestine,Israil too was facinga hard time withno food for his familyor the animals.

He sent his sons toEgypt to get grain fromthe famous treasurer ofEgypt. When they arrivedthey were told that theymust get permission fromthe governor to buy grain.

They went to see him, butdid not realise that thefine man, in splendid robes wasreally their brother. He toldthem they could have somegrain, but if they wantedany more, they would haveto come with their youngestbrother and parents.

Yusuf had recognised themstraight away and he longedto see his father, motherand young brother Benjaminagain.

Eventually the elevenbrothers returned withtheir mother and father.They bowed down before Yusuf.Yusuf put his father on his

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throne and reminded him ofthe dream he had had so long ago.

The sun, the moon andeleven stars had boweddown before him just ashis father, mother andbrothers had done at thismeeting, This was a greatmoment in his lifeand he thankedAllah, for all Hehad done for him.

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Chapter 10Prophet Shu'ayb (a)- Prophet Yunus (a) - Prophet Ayy-ub (a)

The Prophet Shu'aybwas a descendentof the Prophet Ibrahim.He was sent to Midian and theDwellers of the wood to givethem Allah's message.

The Midianite peoplecommitted many sins.

They gave short measuresand weights,they robbed people andcaused mischief but mostseriously they tried to stoppeople fromworshipping Allah.

Shu'ayb tried to makethem change but theywould not listen to him.They wanted to throwhim out and all thepeople who hadlistened to his words.

Then Allah sent anearthquake and allthe evil people weredestroyed because theywould not obey theword of Allah.

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Prophet Yunus (a)The prophet Yunus

was sent to Ninevah.He became known as theLord of the Fish (Dhan-Nun).He warned the people abouttheir evil ways and told themto follow Allah but theywould not listen.

Yunus was so angry he left.He sailed away but the shipwas so full and heavy,poor Yunuswas thrownoverboard.

He wasswallowed by anenormous fish and helived in its bellyfor three days.Then the fish spewedhim out on a shore.He was very ill butAllah was protecting him.

A plant grewand its leaves protectedYunus from the sun andkept the flies away.A wild goat provided himwith milk. When he becamebetter he went back toNinevah and gave thepeople Allah's messageonce more. This timethe people listenedand Allah forgave them.

Prophet Ayyub (a)

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The Prophet Ayyub hadbeen a wealthy man.

He was a very goodman but he lost his familyand his wealth.

He became ill and had terriblesores all over his body.However he never gave up.He spent his time praying.He was very patient andalways kept his faith in Allah.Eventually Allah showed mercy.He told Ayyub to strike the earthwith his foot and miraculouslya fountain appeared.

He drank the water and usedit to wash his body.All his sores were healedand everything was returnedto him as before.

Allah had rewarded him forkeeping his faith despite theterrible afflictions hehad tested him with.

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Chapter 11Prophet Musa (a)

Israil's family decidedto stay in Egypt. For along time they werehappy. The family grew.There were many peoplerelated to Israil and theybecame known as theBani Israil.

For some reason theEgyptian people did notlike the Bani Israil.

A new Firawn became rulerof Egypt. Israil's peoplebecame slaves to thegovernment. They wereforcedto do many unpleasant jobsand were treated very badly.

One night Firawn had adream. His high priest, Haman,told him what he thought thedream meant. An Israil boy would be bornand he would grow up and causethe death of Firawn.

This made Firawn veryangry and so he thought ofa horrible plan.All the boys born to theIsrailites would bekilled at birth.He thought this would

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stop the dream fromcoming true.

Imran and his wife had twochildren, a girl called Maryamand a boy called Iram. Soonafter Firawn told of hisplan, Imran's wife found out thatshe was going to have anotherbaby.

They were pleased but they werealso worried that if the baby wasa boy, he would be killed.

She did not tell anyone that she wasgoing to have a baby. She stayed athome and kept her secret until thebaby was born.

It was a boy.She loved the baby very much butrealised that if she kept him, hemight be killed.

She put the baby in a specialbox and Maryam went with herto the river Nile.

They carefully put the box inthe river and prayed that itwould sail to safety.

Allah was watching over thebaby. No harm would cometo him.

The box sailed into Firawn'sgardens. Some maids were thereand saw the box caught in thebullrushes. They pulled it outand were amazed to find abeautiful baby inside.They took him to Firawn's wife,Asia, who looked at him andknew at once that he was an Israili.

Firawn wanted to kill thebaby but Asia cried and

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cried and was so upset thateventually he said she couldkeep him and even adopt him.The baby was called Musa.He was not happy. He criedbecause he was hungry butwould not take milk fromanyone.

Maryam heard of this and she letit be known that she knew someonewho might be able to help.She went to her motherand told herwhat hadhappened. Theywent to thepalace and whenMusa was putin her arms hestopped cryingand took milkfrom her.

With Allah's helpMusa and hismother were reunited.She was able to look afterMusa for a long time andhe loved her dearly.

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"Wisdom is the lost property of the Believer,

let him claim it wherever he finds it"

Imam Ali (as)