6. A number of our people have narrated from Sahl ibn Ziyad from Ja’far ibn Muhammad al-Ash’ari from ‘Abd Allah ibn Maymun al-Qaddah from Abu ‘Abdillah who has said the following:

“Abu ‘Abd Allah has said, ‘If one serves food to a believer to satisfy his hunger, no one of the creatures of Allah will be able to find out how much reward he will have in the hereafter for such service, not even the angels close to Allah or a prophet Divinely commissioned to preach can find out except Allah, Lord of the worlds. ’ The Imam then said, ‘Among the means of forgiveness of sins is feeding a hungry Muslim.’ Then he read the words of Allah, the Most Majestic, the Most Holy: ‘. . . in a day of famine, the feeding of (9:14) an orphaned relative (9:15) and downtrodden destitute person, . . .’” (9:16)