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Chapter II: Patience and Gratefulness

ood conduct and their greed and anger have been placed under control of intellect and Shariat. So these people become wise without education and receive good conduct without training.
Prophet Jesus and Prophet Ihya and other prophets are such type of people. Many boys are born opposite to them. They can acquire these virtues by education and training through spiritual guides. The second means is efforts by which these qualities can be acquired. For instance, if anybody wishes to acquire the virtue of benevolence, he must be habituated to make charity inspite of his unwillingness to spend money. Then it will be easy for him to spend. To acquire the virtue of modesty, one is to follow the actions of the humble for a long time. Then it will become easy after a place of time. He who finds pleasure in charity is called a pilanthorpist. the Prophet said : Prayer has been made a doll to my eyes. God says : It (Prayer) is difficult except to the God fearing. The Prophet saiu : Do divine service with contentment, if you can not do it, it is better to do it with patience inspite of unwillingness.

Acquisition of fortune by habits, to acquire fortune, it is necessary to stick to a thing always and it is not sufficient to hate sins. He must find pleasure in doing good deeds. The longer the life, the more firm and perfect will be its good.
When the Prophet was asked about good fortune, he replied :
'To stick to worships throughout life is good fortune.' For this reason, the Prophets and the friends of God disliked death as this world is the seed ground for the hereafter, the longer the life, the more the divine service, and the more the rewards, the more will be the soul pure and the character and conduct will be more strong and firm. The object of divine service is its effect on soul. The object of good character and conduct is to cut off the attachment of the world from soul and to confine them to the love of God. The greatest thing for the soul is its meeting with god. Good habits create light in soul which shows many wonderful things. He who finds pleasure in playing with pigeons stands throughout the day in sun's rays and does not feel tried. He who is accustomed to theft taken pride for acts of theft even though his hands are cut off and he is whipped. Those males who like to be females allow their hairs to grow long, paint the faces and mix with females with female dresses. They taken pride in that. These are acts of habit for which they take pride and find pleasure.

54 Good Conduct Vol-HI

Source: Imam Al-Ghazali, Ihya Ulum al-Din (Revival of the Islamic Sciences)
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