JEDDAH – A Nigerian pilgrim has been praised as a role model for honesty after he returned the amount equivalent to N400,000 (about $1100) to Saudi owner; he found the sum in a toilet in Makkah.
The pilgrim, Musa Edostu, is from Niger State, Naija.com reported.
Nigerian newspaper, The Punch, reported that Edostu returned the amount to the Niger state pilgrims’ board operatives, who returned it to Zukalraini Saeed, the chairman of the Enugu state pilgrims board.
A member of the board, Abubakar Magaji, revealed that the amount alongside other items (handbag, passport and some keys), that were formerly missing, were returned to the owner.
Magaji was said to have appreciated Edotsu for his honesty at a time most pilgrims had run out of cash, adding that the pilgrim would be rewarded with $200 by the board.
Saeed commended Edotsu’s honest gesture and the operatives of the pilgrims’ board for displaying such “a high level of honesty by returning the money.”
Though his remarkable act happened in Hajj, Edostu is not the first Muslim to impress people for his honesty.
In 2008, a world-class violinist gave a free concert at a New York airport taxi stand to show his gratitude to an honest Muslim cab driver who reunited him with his lost 4-million-dollar violin.
In November 2014, a Muslim owner of a Burger King branch in San Jose returned to police a backpack which contained US$100,000 after finding it abandoned at one of the restaurant’s tables.
More recently, a Pakistani Muslim was highly praised for returning Dh50,000 he found on an ATM machine in Dubai.
More than 2.3 million Muslim pilgrims will begin leaving the holy city of Makkah, concluding peacefully the last of the solemn rituals of the soul-searching journey of hajj.
Muslims from around the world pour to Makkah every year to perform hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam.
Hajj consists of several ceremonies, which are meant to symbolize the essential concepts of the Islamic faith, and to commemorate the trials of Prophet Abraham and his family.
Every able-bodied adult Muslim who can financially afford the trip must perform hajj at least once in a lifetime.
Muslims who perform hajj properly return to their homes having all their sins washed away as promised by Prophet Muhammad.