Aslam

So he who commits sin having faith is like the eater who eats food injurious to health. Thus it continues till he meets with sudden death. Similar is the condition of the sinner. When you give up the food in this world mixed with poison as injurious, how much necessary is it for you to give up sins which are injurious in the next world. He who eats poison and becomes repentant, disgraces it from his stomach by vomiting it at once:
When this is necessary in this temporary world, how much necessary is it to give up sins which are detrimental to the immortal soul ? To repent for sins during life time is necessary because sin like poison will destroy the ever-lasting happiness of the next world. If the next world is destroyed, one shall have to enter burning fire and receive other punishments. Worldly happiness in comparison with that of the next world is very trifling. There is no end of time in the next world. Once poison begins to work, the physician cannot cure it. The sinner falls within the meaning of this verse (36 : 8): I have put a bar in front of them and a bar behind them and covered them up so that they cannot see — 36 : 91. Spiritual knowledge is the root and worldly knowledge is its branch.

It is now clear to you that faith has got many branches and when a man commits fornication, he does not remain a believer.
The screen which falls on faith is also a branch. At the time of death, it will fall from the basic faith as a man advances towards death if he loses one limb but still has got life. There is no existence of faith, without its branches if there are branches, they indicate that there is the existence of the root, but the existence of the root only does not indicate the existence of the branches. So spiritual knowledge is the root and worldly knowledge is its branch. Both are linked together. One cannot go without the other.

Repentance is compulsory on the part of every Muslim in every condition, as God says : O believers, be repentant to God all together so that you may get salvation — 24 : 31. By this verse, all are called to be repentant. Tauba means to come near God from a distant path and to return from the path near the devil. Wisdom does not become perfect unless passions, angers and all other vile vices which are the instruments of the devil and which misguide

Vol-IV THE BOOK OF CONSTRUCTIVE VIRTUES 15

men are brought under full control. Wisdom becomes perfect at the advent of 40 years of age and it begins after the age of maturity and takes its root at the age of seven year's.