Chapter IV: Poverty and Renunciation
Once the Prophet saw a screen in the door of Hazrat Ayesha's room. He looked at it and said : Whenever I see it, it reminds me of the world. Send it to the family of so and so. One night Hazrat Ayesha prepared a new bed for the Prophet. Before this he used to make his sheet two fold and sleep thereon. In that night, he only changed sides and could not sleep. At dawn, the Prophet said to Ayesha : Spread out my old sheet and take this bed from me. It kept me all night awake. In this way, the Prophet passed another sleepless night when he got at that time five or six dinars.
In the latter part of the night, he took them and gifted them away.
Hazrat Ayesha said : He then slept such a deep sleep that I could hear the sound of his nose. When he got up from sleep, he said : If I met God storing up these coins, what He would have thought of Muhammad ?
Hazrat Hasan Basari said : I saw ten companions, each of whom had only once cloth and had no cloth to spread on the earth for sleep. Whenever any one of them wished to sleep, he placed his back on the ground, placed cloth on his person and slept.
(5) Another necessary thing-Marriage. Many persons say that if one person gets married or takes several wives, he goes out of the limit of renunciation. The Prophet was the greatest of saints and- yet he loved wives. Shall we then go without marriage? The saint Aynah supported this. He said: that ' Hazrat Ali was the greatest among the companions but he had four wives and twelve slave girls. To us, what the saint Abu Solaiman Darani said is the correct opinion. He said : Whatever thing keeps your mind turned away from God — properties and children, is the sign of your misfortune. When women keep your mind away from God. It is better then to remain unmarried. Not to marry then is included within renunciation. But when passion runs high, to marry is compulsory. If you do not then marry, it will not be renunciation. If one knows that his wife not keep his mind turned away from the remembrance of God, it does not go out of renunciation, as the object of marriage is the birth of children and preservation of human species. By this, merits are acquired for increasing also the followers of the Prophet. A
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Vol-IV POVERTY AND RENUNCIATION 191
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