Chapter VI: Love, Longing, Contentment
Hazrat Urwah-bin-Zubair's leg was once separated from its joint and he said: All praise is due to God who took from me one limb. By your glory, You have taken it and You have left the other, You have given me disaster and you have forgiven me. He was reciting this invocation that night. Ibn Masud said: Poverty and solvency are two riding animals. I don't care on which I ride. If I ride on poverty. I keep patience. If I ride on solvency, I spend. Abu Solaiman Darani said: I earned rank except contentment in every stage. I got only breath from the stage of contentment. From that stage. I can say that; if God admits all the people in paradise and throws me into Hell, I will remain satisfied. One Aref was asked: Have you reached the limit of contentment from Him? He said: I have not reached the last stage of contentment, but I reached its one stage. Had I been made bridge over Hell and the inmates of paradise crossed over it to paradise, I would have liked His decree and been satisfied over His distribution to the effect that Hell should be filled up by me in lieu of other people in order to prove my oath true. This is the saying of such a man who knows that love removed his anxieties and caused even to forget the pangs of Hell.
Hazrat Rozbari said: I once asked Abu Abdullah of Damascus for the explanation of these words of a man who was
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saying this: It would have been better if his body is cut to pieces by scissors. Had all the people obeyed Him, how good it would have been. He said: O gentleman, if it is said by way of honour and glory. I don' t know its meaning . If it is said by way of advice • to the people, I know it. Thereafter he fell down senseless.
Imran-bin-Hossain once fell ill of dirrahoea. He was upon his back for three years and he could not rise up or sit. A drain was cut for the passage of his stool and urine. Motarref and his brother All began to weep after seeing his condition. He said: Why are weeping? They said: We weep to see you in such a great disaster. Motarref said: Don't weep as I love what God loves. Then he said: I inform you such a word which if you do, God will do you good but keep it secret up to my death. The angels come to see me in my illness. I take pleasure to see them. They tender me Salam, and I hear their Salam. Know from this that this is not a punishment to me but it is the means of invaluable fortune. He who sees it in his disaster, how can he not remain satisfied with it? He said: We want to see Sowaid-bin-Motaber in his illness. We saw his face covered with a cloth. His wife said to him uncovering his cloth from his face: May our family members be sacrificed to you, shall I give you food and drink? He said: I am confined in bed for a long time. My body is lean and thin. I give up food and drink for many days. Still I don't think it good that I should do divine service less than a nail than it.