Aslam

Every religious man should have a list of vices of destruction and the virtues of salvation. He must look to the listed vices and virtues daily. If he can free himself from the following ten vices, he can save himself from the other faults as these ten are the bases of evils. - (1) miserliness (2) pride, (3) self- aggrandisement, (4) show of honesty, (5) hatred, (6) excessive anger, (7) heavy food, (8) excessive sexual intercourse, (9) greed for wealth, (10) greed for name and fame. The bases of virtues of salvation are also ten - (1) Repentance for commission of sins, (2) patience at dangers and difficulties, (3) satisfaction over decree (4) gratefulness for gifts received, (5) fear and hope, (6) renunciation of the world, (7) sincerity in actions, (8) good behaviour with the people, (9) love for God and (10) humility before Him. He who has got the ten vices mentioned above shall think how to remove at first one of them. If it is given up, one vice goes away from the list. Think next of removing another vice and express gratefulness for

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removal of the first one. In this way, he shall remove the ten vices from himself and acquire the ten virtues in their stead.

These are the fields of thought for the pious, so far as the learnings are concerned.

THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD

The second field of thought is about God's glory, mightiness and power. To think about the existence of God is prohibited as the Prophet said: Think over the creation of God, not of His being, as no human intellect cant grasp about His being. It is not possible to see Him with these physical eyes, just as it is not possible to look at the sun incessantly. A bat cannot look at the scorching rays of the sun and hence it keeps itself concealed during day time. When darkness appears at night, it can see. The condition of the truthful is just like a man who looks at the sun at a glance, but if he continues to see at it, he has chance of becoming blind. Similarly to look at Him creates blindness and he becomes perplexed. So to think of God's being is prohibited. God is above space, time and free from direction. He is not within the world, nor outside it. He is not imminent or transcendent. He has got no hands, feet or bodily organs. He has got no body. He has got no weight, length and breadth and occupies no space, He is above time. So He does not take time to create a thing. He only says 'Be', and so it at once comes into being. So man cannot conceive of such a Being. Yet he must believe the existence of such a Being called God. If a fly could have intelligence like a man, it would have thought that God has got wings, hands and feet and has got power to fly. Likewise a man thinks Him to be so. So the Prophet said: Speak to men according to their intelligence.