Chapter II: Patience and Gratefulness
The above view is opposed to open Shariat or religious law now prevalent in the society, as it is difficult to asertain the limit of necessity. A certain amount of wealth may meet one's necessity but it does not meet the necessity of another. So necessity differs in different persons. Therefore it is said to be lawful for the common people to hoard up if Zakat is paid, but the Zakat giver is said to be miser according to the above view. So only payment of Zakat is not the limit of charity, as the Quran says : If He wants this from you and then compels you, you would be miser — 47 : 37 Q. The thing which has got no wrong is justice. It is also justice for a servant not to take beyond what is necessary for him in his walk of worldly pursuits from the wealth of the gifts of God. Every servant of God is a sojourner to reach the Almighty by using a conveyance. He who takes excessive load in his journey and does not give his fellow travellers what is necessary for them is an oppression. He gives up justice and works opposed to the plan and purpose of God and thus exposes ungratefulness for the gifts of God bestowed on him. It has been well established by the Quran, Hadis and good conscience that' the thing in excess of the necessity of a traveller to God will come as a burden or punishment on him both in the world and in the next. So God says : There are very few among My servants who are grateful. The devil was pleased to hear this verse : You will not find most of them grateful. Those who do not understand the basic and subtle meaning of these verses do not understand their implications.
Question: By this argument, it is understood that in everything there is an object and plan and man's action is either an instrument to fulfill that object or is opposed to it and that any action which leads to God's plan is gratefulness and any action which goes against it is ungratefulness. But these actions of men are in fact the actions of God as they cannot move without the will of God. When man have got no freedom of will apart from the will of God is there any meaning of their being grateful or ungrateful?
Answer: The answer is buried in the deep ocean of spiritual knowledge. He who can understand the language of birds can understand it. There is an special attribute of God cut of which new creations come into being in the world. That is an attribute which cannot be seen by the eye of language and there is no such
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Vol-IV THE BOOK OF CONSTRUCTIVE VIRTUES 87