Manama: Saudis have heaped praise on a man who offered his newly built and fully furnished house to the wife and children of his dead brother.

The deceased, 43, had dreamed about building a new house for his wife and seven children, but he was diagnosed with blood cancer and had to undergo costly treatment.

“The money set aside to achieve the dream of building the house of a lifetime was spent on the medical treatment that lasted months,” a cousin said, quoted by Saudi news side Muwaten.

“The plan had been to build the house in Abha, next to the house being built by his brother.

"My cousin’s dream did not come true, but his younger brother, upon hearing about his death, sat with his own wife and discussed a suggestion to offer their new home to the bereaved family.

"His wife agreed as she too wanted to provide a decent home for the widow and her children."

The younger brother and his family decided to rent an apartment in the area.

“This is indeed an amazing act of selflessness,” a blogger, writing under the moniker of “In Love”, said. “It is obvious that the brother and his wife are strongly inspired by genuine Islamic values that encourage compassion and care about and for the others. May God bless this wonderful couple,” the blogger said.

Another blogger paid special tribute to the young brother’s wife.

“She is incredibly remarkable because she did not have to make the sacrifice,” Al Alami said. “Offering your own house when it is fully furnished and ready to accommodate you and moving to a much smaller flat and paying the rent is such a rare thing that it deserves our admiration. May God bless this exceptional couple.”

For Sentiments, another blogger, the decision by the couple to offer their home reflected “an extremely rare act of generosity”.

“I am sure that if you spend your life looking for people who do need a house, yet offer their own to another family and move into a rented flat, you will not find them easily,” Sentiments said. “We hear stories about people offering houses and even castles, but they usually have their own homes, castles, palaces. The exceptional selfless act of generosity is to offer something highly valuable when you need it badly.”

Source: http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/saudi-arabia/man-gives-home-to-bereaved-family-rents-flat-1.1228916