Chapter V: Oneness of God and Trust in God
(4) The fourth class of beggats kept themselves concealed in a corner of the courtyard and went out of the sight of the servants.
They said : If they enquire of us and give us, we shall remain satisfied with one loaf only. If they forget us, we shall bear the pangs of hunger at night. We may then get the posts of ministers and keep near the emperqr.
The servants went to the beggars from every corner and gave everybody one loaf. Then it continued for days together. After some days, those beggars who kept themselves concealed in a corner of the courtyard and who did not fall to the notice of the servants passed a long time hungry. Two of them said : Had the servants seen us, we would have loafs and thus our hunger would have been appeased. The third beggar kept silent up to the next morning and got the post of minister. Thus is the simile of all men.
The meaning of the courtyard is this world's life, the meaning of the door of the courtyard is death, the meaning of the indefinite promised subject is the day of recurrection, the meaning of the promised post of a minister is the provision of martyrdom for God-reliance on account of hunger. It will continue upto the day of resurrection, as the martyrs are alive
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before their Lord and are provided with provisions. He who keeps company with the servants depends on cause or.
intermediary. The servants stand for the causes or the means.
Those who keep seated before the servants in the open courtyard .
are those who keep themselves in mosques and monasteries in towns and villages. Those who keep themselves concealed in a corner are those who travel in jungles relying on God. Causes follow them and provisions come to them without search. Men are divided into these four classes. Ninty per cent adopt the means and causes. Out of the remaining ten, nearly seven persons live in towns and are well-known. The remaining three sojourn in jungles, Out of these three, two are displeased with causes and only one reaches the limit of nearness. This was the case in the earliest period of Islam, but at present there is not a single man out of every ten thousand persons, who can give up the means and causes.