A man and the carpenter he had hired were restoring an old farmhouse and had just finished a rough first day on the job. Everything that could go wrong did, and at the end of the day the carpenter’s pickup truck refused to start. The man told him he would drive him home and on the way they spoke about all the unforeseen complications on the job they had encountered. When they reached the carpenter’s house, the carpenter invited his boss in to meet his family. As they walked toward the front door, he paused briefly at an oak tree with low lying branches, touching the tips of branches with both hands. They entered the house and the carpenter underwent an amazing transformation. He had the biggest smile and he hugged his two small children and his wife like he didn’t have a care in the world.
A short time later, the carpenter walked the man to his car and as they passed the tree, the man asked him about what he had seen him do earlier. “Oh, that’s my trouble tree,” the carpenter replied. “I know there will always be issues during the workday, but I don’t want troubles to come between me and my family. So I just hang all my troubles on the tree every night when I come home, leaving them for God to take care of. Then in the morning I pick up whatever troubles are hanging on the tree.” He smiled as he said, “When I come out in the morning to pick them up, there aren’t nearly as many as I remember hanging up the night before.”
According to Aisha RAA, “Whenever the Prophet was alone with his family at home, he was the easiest of men, often smiling and laughing.”