The third anecdote is, the story of Sayyid Muhammad Jabal ‘Āmilī who paid visitation to the Imam (mgehr):
The purified and careful scholar, the above-mentioned Sayyid narrated, “As I was honored to enter Mashhad, the holy city of Imam Riḍā (pbuh), I had a hard time there, despite the abundance of blessings.
In the morning when the pilgrims were supposed to leave Mashhad, I did not accompany them, because I did not have even a slice of bread to take along and set out with them. The pilgrims left and it became noon when I went to the shrine. After performing the prayer, I thought, ‘if I do not reach the pilgrims, there is no other caravan here. Also if I stay here, I will die as winter comes.’ I got up, went to the dharih [the special chamber], and complained about it. Then, I went out with a depressed mind.
I told myself, ‘I will go out hungry anyway, and if I get perished, I will be relieved and otherwise, I will get to the caravan.’ I came out of the gate and asked for the way, they showed me the two directions. I walked until the evening but did not get anywhere, then I realized that I lost my way.
I reached an endless desert where, nothing grew there, but the watermelon of Abu Jahl “Khiaratlkh. Due to the severity of my hunger and thirst, I cut about 500 bitter melons, hoping that one of them is watermelon, but it was not! I was wandering around the desert to find water or grass until it got dark.
… but, I was really disappointed! I began crying and let the death overtake me. Suddenly, a high place caught my eyes and I went there. I saw a river that made me wonder how it could exist in such a high location. I thanked God and I said to myself, “I will drink water, perform ablution and pray; lest I die without praying!”
After Isha [night] prayer”, the weather got very dark, and the whole wilderness got full of the animals and the predators, and I could hear some strange noises around. I knew many of them like lions and wolves. Also, some of the animals’ eyes glow from afar. I was terrified but, as death is the end of everything and I suffered a lot, I decided to surrender to fate, so I slept.
When I woke up, it was full of moonlight because the moon shone. And the noises were gone! Well, I was in extreme weakness and lethargy. There, a rider appeared and I assumed he will kill me! It was because he will be going to rub something. And as I don’t have anything with myself, he will get angry and certainly will hurt me.
When he reached, he said “Hello”. I replied and was assured. He asked, “What are you doing?” there I weakly pointed to myself. He stated, “There are three Persian melons beside you. Why don’t you eat them?” As I searched [a lot and I couldn’t find], I was disappointed. So, I gave up on watermelons, let alone the Persian melons.
I said, ‘Stop teasing me. Leave me alone”. But he stated, ‘Take a look back.’, and I did. There was a plant that had three large Persian melons. He went on, ‘Satisfy your hunger with one of them, eat half in the morning, and take another half and the intact one with yourself. Take the straight line this way. Eat the half melon tomorrow around noon, but do not eat the intact one, you will need that. Around the sunset, you will reach a black tent. They will take you to the caravan’.
Then, he vanished from my sight. I got up and cut one of them. It was very soft and sweet, I have not tasted it before. So I ate it, and picked the two others, then ate one half there, and the other half in the noon, when it was very hot. I took the other Persian melon with me and when it was about sunset, I saw a tent from afar. When its occupant saw me from distance, they ran toward me and took me to the tent with hardness and violence.
By a misunderstanding, they presupposed that I was a spy! Since I did not know non-Arabic and they did not know any language other than Persian, no one was listening to me, no matter how much I shouted. Then they took me to the tribal chief. He asked me furiously, ‘Where are you coming from?’
‘Where are you coming from? Tell me the truth and I will kill you, otherwise!’, he said angrily. I cautiously told my whole story of leaving the holy city of Mashhad and getting lost.
He replied, ‘O, the lier Sayyid! No living thing will pass through these places you say unless it perishes and animals will tear him apart. In addition, the distance that you say can not be traveled by anyone during this period of time. Because normally there is a distance of three locations from here to Mashhad. And there will be several locations, based on the way you say! So tell the truth, otherwise, I will kill you with this sword.
Then he pulled his sword [out of the sheath] on me and suddenly a melon appeared from under my cloak. ‘What is this?’, he asked. I explained it in detail. There, all of them called, ‘There is no melon in this desert at all, especially this type; we have never seen before!’
Then a group of them consulted with others and talked a lot in their own language. They seemed to be convinced that this is a miracle, so they came and kissed my hand, placed me at the top of the gathering, respected me a lot, took my garments for blessing, and gave me clean garments. They welcomed me for two days and nights in the best way. Then on the third day, they gave me 10 Tumans and sent three people with me to take me to the caravan.