Chapter II: Patience and Gratefulness
In the above matters, mankind is of four classes. (1) The minds of one kind of people remain busy with the remembrance of God and do not look to the world except for the bare necessaries of life. They are included within the class of the truthful. This rank cannot be attained without efforts for a long time and without patience for long at worldly pleasures and temptations. (2) The second kind of people remain busy with the worldly affairs and they remember God with tongue and not with heart. They are included within those who are ruined. (3)
The third kind of men remain busy with religion and world bui religion remains strong in their minds. They will enter Hell but they will soon be rescued therefrom, because religion was strong in their minds. (4) The fourth kind of people remain busy with religion and world but the world is strong in their minds. They shall have to reside long in Hell, but they will be rescued ultimately therefrom.
LAWFUL THINGS: Some say that to enjoy lawful things is lawful, but why should it be a cause of drifting away from God? The answer is that love of the world is the root of all evils. Those things which are outside necessary things are included in the world and they become causes of being away from God. Hazrat Ibrahim Khawaj said: Once I stayed in the hillock of Lakam. I saw there some pome-granates hanging in a pomegranate tree and was inclined to eat some of them I took some and found them sour on testing. Then I threw them and went away. I found a man lying on the way side and many wasps were biting him. I saluted him but he replied and said: O Ibrahim. I wondered how he had come to know of my name and asked him. How do you know me? He said: Nothing is concealed from one who knows God. I said: I understand then that you are a chosen one of God. Why then do you not pray to God to save yourself from the biting of wasps? He said: You are also a chosen one of God. Why they do you not pray to save yourself from the greed of eating pome-granates? The wounds of the sting of wasps will be disclosed in the next world in the form of greed for pomegranates and give you pain, but the sting of wasps will end in this world. Then I went away leaving him. The sage Sarri Sakti said:
My mind has been wishing to eat walnut dipped in honey for the last forty years, but I did not eat it upto this date.
Vol-IH The Book of Destructive evils 61