Acceptance of Prayer

Hazrat Saeed (ra) bin Zaid would often have his prayers answered. On one occasion, he was accused of appropriating land, the details of which are as follows: Adjacent to the land of Hazrat Saeed (ra) bin Zaid was that of a lady named Arwa bint Uwais. She complained to Marwan bin Hakam, the governor of Medina appointed by Hazrat Muawiyyah (ra), that Hazrat Saeed (ra) had wrongly seized her land. Marwan appointed some people to investigate the matter. Hazrat Saeed (ra) bin Zaid answered them, “Do you really think that I could commit such a wrongful act after hearing the Holy Prophet (sa) say that he who unjustly takes control of even a hand’s-breadth of land will be made to wear the collar equal to the weight of seven lands around his neck on the Day of Judgement?” Thereafter, he prayed, “O Allah, if Arwa is lying, make it so that she loses her sight before her death and her grave lies in the well of her house.” Hence, it is recorded that she lost her sight and as she was walking one day, she fell and died in her own well. This was then made an idiom and the people of Medina would say:

أَعْمَاکَ اللّٰہُ کَمَا أَعْمٰی اَرْوٰی

“May Allah blind you as He blinded Arwa.”

(Usdul Ghabah, Vol. 2, p. 477, Saeed bin Zaid, Dar-ul-Kutub al-Ilmiyyah, Beirut, 2003) (Roshan Sitarey az Ghulam Bari Saif, Vol. 2, pp. 164-165)