Sheep Mentality

Abu ‘Alee, Al Hasan ibnul Hasan an Ni’aalee narrated to us…'Allaan al Warraaq said:

'I saw al 'Itaabee eating bread in the pathway at Bab ash Sham, I said to him: 'Woe to you, do you have no shame^[1]?!'

He responded: 'If we were in a building full of cows, would you be ashamed of eating while they looked at you?'

I said; 'No.'

He said: 'Be patient while I show you that they are only cows.'

He stood up, delivered a sermon, told stories and supplicated until there was a big crowd around him, he then said:

'It was narrated to us with more than one chain of narration that whoever has a tongue that can reach the tip of his nose will not enter the Hellfire.'

There was no one in the crowd except that he was trying to see if his tongue would reach the tip of his nose.

When the crowd dispersed al 'Itaabee said to me: 'Didn’t I tell you they were cows.'

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[1] It is considered bad manners to be seen eating in public. The scholars of Hadeeth in the past would remove one from being 'Thiqah' – trustworthy in his narrations for behaving in this category of manners, which is why al Warraaq rebuked him for it.