Aslam

CHAPTER HI FEAR AND HOPE

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Fear and hope are like two wings by which the friends of God can fly to every praised place and can cross the ways of the next world and reach the Almighty.

What is Hope? Hope is'a station out of the stations of religion and a condition of those who search. This hope is perfected by state knowledge and action. Knowledge is cause and state is its fruit. State again leads to action. Out of these three, state is called hope. Take an example. When you meet a hateable thing, you meet with three states what is at present what was before and what is hoped to remain in future. It is only a thing that is hoped for. If the future hoped for object is disliking, it produces pain in your heart which is called fear. To wait for a dear thing is called hope.

This world is a seed ground for the next world. Mind is like earth and faith is like seed and divine service is like cultivation of the earth of mind. To purify mind is like canaldigging and the water flows towards the canal. The mind that is addicted to the world is like hard soil in which no seed can grow. The Resurrection Day is the day of reaping crops. He who sows seeds now can expect to reap fruits in the hereafter. If anybody sows seeds in a barren uncultivated land and does not water it, he entertains unnatural hope to get crops. So to wait for a dear thing is called hope. So whoever sows the seeds of faith in his heart waters it with the water of divine service, purifies the region of heart from the thorns of bad conduct and awaits the mercy of God to establish it upto his death, his waiting is called hope. That is good and real hope. The Prophet said: He who leads his life according to his low desires and yet hopes for paradise is a fool.
God says: After them, such a nation became their successors who destroyed the prayer and followed their low desires. Soon they will will meet misguidance. God says: Those who have got faith those who migrated and fought in the way of God can hope for God's mercy-l:218 Q. In other words they are fit persons to hope for God's mercy. This means that those who act to the contrary can not expect to have God's mercy as they do not walk in the ways of God. Ihay-b-Ma'az said: To me that person is more a fool who hopes for forgiveness but remains engrossed in sins

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without doing virtuoes acts, who hopes for the fruit of paradise after sowing the seeds of Hell, who hopes for the rank of the pious by doing sinful acts.