Chapter IV: Poverty and Renunciation
Hazrat Abu Hurairah said: Three persons will enter paradise without account — (1) He who wish to wash his piece of cloth without getting another to put on, (2) he who has not got two pots to place on the oven, (3) and he who wishes to have drink but is' asked : Which kind of drink do you want? In other words, he who commits no excess in food, drink and dress will enter paradise without rendering account. It is reported that when a poor man came to Hazrat Sufiyan, he said to him : If you are a rich man, I will not allow you to come near. When his rich disciples saw him sitting near his poor disciples and distant from his rich disciples, the latter wished to be poor. The saint Muammel said : I saw the poor more honoured than the rich in the assembly of Sufiyan Saori. A certain sage said : If the unfortunate man feared Hell as he fears poverty, he would have got salvation from both. If he hoped for paradise as he hopes for riches, he would have got them both. If he feared God secretly as he fears men openly, he would have been fortunate in both the worlds.
Hazrat Ibn Abbas said: He who respects riches and dishonors poverty, is cursed. Loqman advised his son : O darling, do not hate a man dressed with old cloth, as your Lord and his Lord is the same. The saint Ihya-bin-Ma'az said : To love the poor belongs to the conduct of the prophets. To sit in their assembly belongs to the conduct of the vituous. To flee from their company is the sign of the hypocrites. What Muwayiah, Ibn Amer and other persons gave as gifts to Hazrat Ayesha amounted daily to lacs of dirhams. She used to distribute them to the poor, yet her over- garment had stitches. Her maid told her : If you kept one dirharm, I would have purchased therewith meat for you and you could have broken fast therewith. He said : If you had reminded me of it, I would have done it.
The Prophet used to give her advice and say: If you wish to live with me in paradise, live the life of the poor and shun the society of the rich. Don't part with your overgarment till it is stitched. Once a man came to Ibrahim bin adbam with ten thousand dioramas. The man requested him to accept it Ibrahim said to him : Do you wish that by accepting the ten thousand dirhams, I would cut off my name from the register of the poor I shall never do it.
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STATUS OF THE TRUTHFUL AND SATISFIED POOR MAN