Chapter II: Patience and Gratefulness
(1) Once Hazrat Abu Bakr said to a bird: O bird, how good it would have been if I would been a bird like you and not a man!
(2) Abu Zarr said: Would that I would have been a tree fit to be cut. (3) Hazrat Osman said: Would that after my death, I would not have been resurrected. (4) Hazrat Ayesha said: Had I been a thing to be forgotten. (5) It has been reported that when the Prophet once read the Quran, he fell in swoon out of fear and for several days he did not recover. One day he took a handful of dirt and said: Alas! Would that I would have been earth. Would that I would have been a thing not t6 be mentioned. Would that my mother would not have given birth to me. (6) Two black spots fell in the face of Hazrat Omar as a result of his shedding tears. He said: The anger of one who fears God is not expressed. He who fear God does not do what he likes. One day he recited: When the sun would be lifted, when the books of deeds would be spread".
When he reached upto this verse, he fell into swoon. One day Hazrat Omar was passing by a house in which the owner was reciting the chapter Tur (52). He was over hearing it. When he reached this verse: Surely the punishment of your Lord must come to pass and there is nobody to prevent it-(52):8Q). he alighted from his ass and stayed for long after leaning against a wall. When he returned home, he suffered from illness for a month.
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Vol-IV THE BOOK OF CONSTRUCTIVE VIRTUES 141
Haziat Ali said: I saw the companions of the Prophet but I did not see them before in the condition in which I see them today. Their hairs are dishevelled, their dress mixed with dust.
They spend the whole night in prayer and recite the verses of God. They stay on their foreheads and feet in divine service.
When the day dawns, they are engaged in Zikr in such a manner as the trees are moved by storm. Their eyes shed tears, so much so that they wet their clothes. Thereafter he did not laugh till he was struck with dagger.
Hazrat Ihya used to weep much. One day a man recited the following verse: When they will wait before their Lord-have you considered it? At that time he gave such a loud shriek that he fell ill and suffered for four months. The people from the town of Basra used to come to see him.