Aslam

of his virtures. If an unbeliever does good in the world, I give him abundant wealth, remove from him calamities and give him rewards of his good actions in the world. At last he comes to Me with sins and I give him punishment for his sins. It has been reported that when the following verse was revealed: He who does evil will get requital of it - 4 : 120Q. Hazrat Abu Bakr said:
How can there be joy after this verse? The Prophet said: O Abu Bakr, may God forgive you. Why, will you not fall ill? Will not calamities fall on you? Will you not be sorry? These are the requital of your sins.

The Prophet said: When you see a man engrossed in sins and yet he gets his cherished objects, know then that He is delaying his punishment. Then he recited this verse; When they forgot what they were admonished with, I opened the door of everything for them till when they were engrossed in what they were given, I caught them all of a sudden. Hazrat Ali reported:
Shall I not inform you of such a verse of the Quran which is greatly hoped for? They said: Inform us. Then he recited:
Whatever calamity befalls on you, it is on account of what your hands have wrought and He forgives much - 42 : 80Q.

The Prophet said: No person swallows sips dearer than two sips to God, s'p of anger which he swallows with patience and sip of calamity over which he keeps patience. There is no drop dearer to God than two drops - one drop of blood which is shed in the way of God and one drop of tears which falls in prostration in the grim darkness of nigh t and which nobody sees except God. There are two steps of a servant very dear to God-one step taken for performing compulsory prayer and another step for keeping the tie of blood.

Caliph Omar-b-Abdul Aziz said at the time of the death of his

son: O dear son, my getting you in my scale of virtues is dearer to

. me than your getting me in your scale of virtures. In other words,

if you die before me, I would get you in my scale of virtues. The

son said: O father, what you love is dearer to me than what I love.

Some learned man said: God sends down calamity after calamity on a servant till he walks upon the earth free from sins.
The saint Hatem Asam said: On the resurrection day, God will bring before four classes of men four persons are proofs - (1)
Hazrat Solaiman before the rich. (2) Hazrat Ishaq before the poor,

f

Vol-I V THE BOOK OF CONSTRUCTIVE VIRTUES 1 1 1

(3) Hazrat Eusof before the slaves. (4) and Hazrat Ayub before ' the patients.

It is reported that Hazrat Zakaria flew from the unbelievers and took refuge to a tree. They found clue to this tree and cut the tree to two pieces by a saw. When the saw touched the head of Hazrat Zakaria, he raised a shriek. Then God revealed to him: O Zakaria, if you raise shriek for the second time I will remove your name from the register of prophethood. At this Hazrat Zakharia bite his teeth and kept patience till he was hewn to pieces.