Aslam

(4) Stealing oi conduct: You steal in your conduct what you see in the conduct of others. In other words, you follow their conducts. This is a secret disease from which even the wise men are not free, not to speak of the heedless ones. If one sees major sins being committed constantly around him, he takes them as of little consequence. For this reason, if you always look to the gifts of the rich, you will consider your own gifts as little. For this reason, you should take to the assemblies of the poor and the destitutes . You should look to the conduct and character of the religious people and not of those who are irreligious and commit sins and transgressions. The Prophet said : Mercy descends at the time of the discussion of the pious people. .To be able to reach paradise and to have sight of God mean mercy. It means that the beginning of mercy is good deeds and the beginning of good deeds is desire and the beginning of desire is discussion of the character of the pious men. Curse means to remain distant from God. The sins are the roots of being distant from God. The cause of curse is to go away from the remembrance of God and to be busy with the worldly comforts. When such is the effect of discussion of the lives of pious and the sinners how is the condition when the pious and the sinners are met with ? The Prophet said : A bad friend is for you like the hammer of a blacksmith. If the spark of the fire of heated iron does not even touch you, its vapour touches you just as its vapour touches you even when you do not know. The Prophet said: A good companion is like a seller of perfume. If he does not give you perfume, you get its fragrance. For this reason, it is unlawful for a man to disclose the faults of a learned man for two reasons. The first reason is that it will be back-biting him and the second reason is that the people will dare to commit the sins of the learned man when they see him committing them always. This is the machinations of the devil. God says with regard to those who oppose the devil. They hear words and follows what is good. The Prophet gave example of bad people. He said : The man who hears the words of wisdom and does not act but what is evil is like the person who says to a shepherd : Give me a stout and

144 The Book of Wordly Usages Vol-II

strong sheep from your flock. He then says : Choose the best one from the flock. Then he takes a dog by its ear from the flock. He who searches the faults of a leader is likewise. Seeing his bad deeds constantly, his abhorrence of evils drops from his hear.