Aslam

Bashar Hafi was asked: For what thing have you got this rank? I kept my condition concealed before God. Its meaning is: I prayed to God so that He may keep my actions and affairs secret. It is reported that he saw Khizr and said to him: Pray to God for me. He said: May God make your divine service easy for you. I said: Pray more for me. He said; May God keep it secret from the people, so that you may not look to them. A certain sage said: I felt a grim desire to see Khizr and prayed to God so that I may see him to get neccessary religious instructions from him. Thereafter I saw him. He did not ask me anything. I said: O Abul Abbas teach me such a a lesson that I may recite it and that I may live hidden from the people so that nobody can know my religious tendencies. Khizr said: Say, O God throw on me your thick screen. O Lord, make me an object of your secret things. Keep me secret from the hearts of your creation. Then he disappeared I did not see him further. After that I was not eager to see him Then I used to Read this invocation every day. It is said that owing to this invocation, so much disgrace and disregard were coming on him that even the Zimmis were laughing at him and engaging him everywhere. They used to place burden on his shoulder and he used to carry it to the destination. The little boys used to play with him.

Such is the condition of the friends of God. They are to be searched among these people. The proud people search them among those persons who take decent dress and who are well-known for their learning, piety and fame, but God keeps His friends hidden as He says: My friends live in My tent. Nobody knows them except Myself. The Prophet said. There are many persons with dishevelled hairs and laden with dust and covered with only two sheets and havjng no honour. If they say . about something with oath of God. God shows it as true. The conceited man keeps himself away from the fragrance of these things. He remains satisfied with his own qualities and with his own learning and actions. So he keeps himself distant. He who considers himself humble and does not take seriously if anybody dishonours him, is a broken hearted man. He will have then no sense of dishonour. Such heart can hope to get preliminary fragrance. He who is not able to become the friend of God, will love the friends of God and should have faith in them. Jesus Christ said to Band Israel: Where does crop grow? They said: In earth. He said: I tell you with truth that wisdom does not grow except in an earth-like heart.

Vol-IV THE BOOK OF CONSTRUCTIVE VIRTUES 313