Good and evil you do comes back to you

Once, there was a pious woman who regularly cooked chapatis (flatbreads) for her family and also made extra for any hungry travelers who might pass by. She would place these extra chapatis on her windowsill, so that anyone in need could take them.

For several days, an old man would come by, take a chapati, and instead of thanking her, he would say, “Whatever good you do, you do for yourself, and whatever evil you do, it will come back to you.”

This routine continued day after day. The old man would take the chapati and repeat the same words, “Whatever good you do, you do for yourself, and whatever evil you do, it will come back to you.” The woman began to grow irritated with him. She thought to herself, “Not even a word of thanks, and what does this saying even mean?”

One day, as she was cooking, she became so angry thinking about the old man’s behavior that she decided to poison the chapati she would give him. As she was about to place the poisoned chapati on the windowsill, her hands began to tremble. “What am I doing?” she thought to herself, and immediately threw the poisoned chapati into the fire. She then prepared a fresh batch of chapatis and placed them on the windowsill as usual. The old man came, took a chapati, and walked away, still repeating his usual words: “Whatever good you do, you do for yourself, and whatever evil you do, it will come back to you.”

On that very day, the woman’s son returned home from another city where he had been studying. The woman embraced him and asked if he was hungry. The son replied, “No, Mother, I’m not hungry. On my way home, I met an old man who was feeding orphans. He offered me a chapati, and I accepted. It filled me up, and I’m still not hungry.” The son then added, “The old man kept repeating, ‘Whatever good you do, you do for yourself, and whatever evil you do, it will come back to you.'”

The woman was stunned. She realized that the old man her son had met was the same one she had almost poisoned. She immediately sought forgiveness from God, understanding that if she had given the old man the poisoned chapati, her son might not be alive today.

Later that evening, when her husband, a religious scholar, returned home, she told him the entire story. After listening, her husband said, “I am proud of you, my wife. Satan is the enemy of mankind; he always tries to lead us astray and away from God. But the choice is ours whether to listen to him or ignore him. Satan cannot force us, as mentioned in the Quran:

‘And when the matter has been concluded, Satan will say, “Indeed, Allah had promised you the promise of truth. And I promised you, but I betrayed you. But I had no authority over you except that I invited you, and you responded to me. So do not blame me; but blame yourselves. I cannot be called to your aid, nor can you be called to my aid.”‘
(Surah Ibrahim: 22)

My dear wife, do you know why your hands trembled when you were about to place the poisoned chapati on the windowsill? It was because of your good deeds that prevented you from committing a wrong, as stated in the Quran:

‘Indeed, good deeds do away with misdeeds.’
(Surah Hud: 114)

And that old man was not trying to annoy you; he was actually reciting a verse from the Quran:

‘Whoever does a good deed, it is for himself; and whoever does evil, it is against it. And your Lord is not ever unjust to His servants.’
(Surah Fussilat: 46)

There are many other similar verses in the Quran.”

The woman understood the depth of these words and thanked God for guiding her away from wrongdoing.