Chapter II: Patience and Gratefulness
The Prophet used to remain hungry without want. In other words, be kept himself hungry willingly. The Prophet said: God glorifies before His angels about one who eats little and drinks little in the world and says: O angels, look to My servant, I am trying him in the world by food and drink. He gave them up with patience. O angels, bear witness, 1 will raise him up to paradise in proportion to the less number of morsels he eats. The Prophet said: Don't make your heart dead by taking excessive food and drink as the heart is like a field of crops. When there is excessive water in a field, crops are damaged. He said: The son of Adam
70 The Book of Destructive evils Vol-III
does not fill up anything more obnoxious than excessive food to keep his backbone erect is sufficient for him. If he is not able to do it, then one-third of his belly is for food, one third for drink and one-third for breathing.
SIGNS OF ABDAL: The Prophet said: Those who keep patience in hunger, thirst and calamities for long will stay on the Resurrection Day near the Almighty God. They are God-fearing hones men without shoes. They car not be recognised on sight. If they remain absent, they are not searched. The undeveloped paces know them and the angels of heaven keep them encircled.
They are the best of the people in the earth and best in divine service. The people spread out their soft beds, but they use their heads and knees as beds. The people destroy the character and conduct of the Prophet but they preserve them. The world in which they roam weeps for them if they are lost. If none of them lives in a country, God is displeased with it. They are not greedy for the world just as a dog is greedy over corpse. The live by eating leaves and vegetables, put on torn rags and are disheveled in hairs and laden with dust. The people think that they are diseased, but in fact they are not so. Some think that they have lost intellect, but it is not so. Their attention is towards the actions of God who removed the attachment of the world from them.
They wander among the worldly men as men without interest, but there is endless honour for them in the next world.
O Osamah, when you see them anywhere, know that for the inhabitants of the place, they are safeguards and God will not punish the people among whom they live. The world is happy for them and the Almighty is pleased with them. Take them as brethren for yourselves, perchance you may get salvation on that"
account. If you can die when your belly remains hungry and your spleen thirsty, it will be better because you will have an honourable place on that account and the angels will be happy at the advent of your soul. God also will shower His blessings on you.