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Chapter IV: Poverty and Renunciation

It has been narrated that Hazrat Ibrahim bin-Adham was a great ruler of Khorasan. One day he looked down from his lofty palace and saw that a man was eating a loaf in his hand in the courtyard of his palace and after this he fell asleep. Hazrat Ibrahim told one of his servants : When he gets up from sleep, take him to me. When he awoke from sleep, the servant took him to the king who said to him : O man, have you eaten bread in hunger ? The man said : Yes. He asked him : Have you been satisfied with it ? He said : Yes. He asked: Have you slept with comfort? He said: Yes. Then Ibrahim said within himself :
What shall I do with this world ? If I get this much, I should remain satisfied. Once a man was passing by the side of Amer-bin-Qais when he was eating vegetables with salt. He told the sage : O servant of God, are you satisfied with these small things ? The sage said : Shall I not give you information ■of a man who remains satisfied with a thing more insignificant -than this ? he said : Inform me. The sage said : He is the man who remains satisfied with this world in lieu of the next world.
The saint Muhammad-bin-Wa'se use to pick up dried bread mix it with water and eat it with salt and say : He who is satisfied with this little food in this world is free from being needy to the people. The great saint Hasan Basari said : God cursed those for whom He look oath but who did not believe it.
Then he read the Quranic verse - "There is provision for you in the sky and what you have been promised with." By the heaven and earth, that is certainly true. The companion Abu Zarr was once seated amongst the people when his life came to him and said : Are you seated amongst these people while there is nothing in the house to eat ? He said : O darling, there is a great problem before me. None but the God fearing can be free from it. Being satisfied with this word, she retired. The saint Jun-Nun said : He who does not have patience at the time of hunger is near disbelief. Once a saint was asked : What is your wealth ? He said : To harbor good ideas openly, to cherish hope in mind and not to hope for what is in the hands of the people. It is reported that God revealed in one of the ancient scriptures : O son of Adam, if you get the whole world, you will get nothing but the quantity of food that is necessary for you, when I give you from the world the quantity of food that

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Vol-IV POVERTY AND RENUNCIATION 155

is necessary for you, I put its account on others and do you good.
For this reason,apoetsaidaboutsatisfaction:-

Seek what you wish from God, not from men,

Be satisfied in joy,

there is honour therein.

On friends and relatives,

don't be burden.

Rich is he who hopes from God, not from men.

Another poet said :

This hoarded wealth is not for you,

but only for your heirs,

Only that wealth will remain for you which you spend.

Spend money with youthful vigour and with faith

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