Chapter V: Oneness of God and Trust in God
Abu Hamzah Khorasani said: I started for pilgrimage in a year. While I was travelling I fell down in a well. My mind sought help of others. I said : By God. I will not do it. When this was crossing m mind, I found two men passing by the well. One man said to another : Come and let us shut up the cover of this well, so that no man may fall into it. So they took bamboos and chatai and closed its mouth. I then wished to raise a cry. Sometimes after, an animal came and removed the cover from the mouth of the well and extended its foot into the well. I caught it and it took me out of the well. I found that it is a ferocious animal. Then it went away. Then there came a voice from heaven : O Abu Hamzah, is it not better that I have saved you through a beast of destruction ? I then began to walk singing :
Shame of Thee prevents me from expressing love, What I got from thee satisfied my thirst, ' "I find Thy kindness expressed in all my actions.
Thou hast shown me kindness in matters, open and secret.
Thou gave me news of secret thing to get Thy love.
Being fearful of Thee and trembling. I took to solitude.
That fear brought me near Thee, endeared Me to Thee.
Thou hast kept me alive engrossed in Thy love.
These are some few instances of God-reliance.
GOD-RELIANCE OF A MAN HAVING FAMILY. Know. O readers, that he who has got family has got permission to give up loneliness, as his God-reliance does not become perfect without two things — (1) power to keep patience without showing any anxiety in case of hunger for a week and (2) power to remain satisfied over destiny and God's provision. He will be able to bear the pangs of hunger till death even if his provision does not come because he knows that even though death and hunger are injurious in the world, they are better in the next world. He thinks that he is being led to the provision of the next world and that he is given such a disease for the sake of which his death will come and he will remain satisfied with it. He thinks also that
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whatever provisions is destined for him in the world, he will get.
His God-reliance becomes perfect with this thought. But he is not allowed to give trouble to his family members by his hunger, as he is allowed to teach them the rewards of suffering the pangs of hunger.