Umm Ma'bad (RA) and the goat that had nothing to give

The story

When Umm Ma'bad's husband came home that evening, herding his own half-starved flock through a season of drought, he found a container brimming with fresh milk in a camp that hadn't had a single drop to offer anyone in weeks. "Where did you get this?" he asked her, baffled. "There's no goat here that gives milk."

Earlier that day, a small group of travelers had stopped at her tent asking for milk, meat, or dates — anything, and they were ready to pay. She'd had to turn them away with nothing. "By Allah," she told them, "if we had anything, we wouldn't be lacking in hospitality." It wasn't an excuse. It was simply true — every animal in her camp was too weak from the drought to give anything at all.

One of the travelers noticed a goat sitting apart from the others, too weak to keep up. He asked if she'd let him try milking it anyway, in case there was anything left in her. She agreed, more out of politeness than expectation. He sat the goat down, spoke the name of Allah over her, and stroked her udder — and it swelled and ran with milk, enough to fill a vessel large enough for his whole group, with him drinking last after everyone else had their fill.

"A blessed man passed by us," was all she could say when her husband asked what had happened. She hadn't known his name at the time. She only knew what she'd seen with her own eyes — a stranger asking for what little she had, and giving back, from her own weakest, most overlooked animal, more than she'd ever had to offer anyone in her life.