Aslam

The medicine of every disease is to apply the opposite thing to the root cause of the disease. The medicine of greed is satisfaction with little and patience. The medicine of long hope is the remembrance of death too much and to think of sudden death of contemporaries. Similarly the medicine of miserliness is to remember its condemnation by the Quran, Hadis and wise men and to spend money in charity without which the disease of miserliness cannot be removed. Another nobel method of removing it is to remove one evil by another evil. In other words, spend money to acquire name and fame and to be knownin the society as a great philanthropic man. Though the motive is an evil, yet it will habituate you to spend money. So acquire the will of show by removing the evil of miserliness. So a lesser evil is sometimes good to remove a greater evil. The weak evils become the object of food of the strong evils, till there remains only one strong evil after all the evils are crushed. This is just like some worms eat up the dead body of an animal. The strong worms eat up the small worms after meat is finished, till there remains only one strong worm which also dies in the end for want of food.
Miserliness orders boarding of wealth. When it is not hoarded but rather spend again and again inspite of unwillingness, there occurs the death of miserliness and expense becomes the habit and no difficulty is felt in spending.

The medicine of miserliness is based on knowledge and action. To know the evil of miserliness and rewards of charity and generosity is the medicine based on knowledge. To give in .charity inspite of unwillingness is the medicine based on action.
A king was presented a most valuable cup made of rare pearls.
The king was greatly pleased to get it and asked a wise courtier how he liked it. The courtier said : I consider it as a great danger

200 The Book of Destructive evils Vol-III

and perchance it will throw you into want and distress. The king said : How can it be ? The courtier said : If it is broken, it' will be an object of your great repentance as the like of it will not be found.
If it is stolen by a thief, you will feel its want very keenly. By chance the cup was broken or it was stolen. The king then felt very much worried and said that the saying of the wise courtier was correct. This event is applicable to all things of the world.

DUTIES ABOUT WEALTH: For the above reason, wealth is good from one point of view and bad from another point of view.
Wealth is like a snake. The charmer takes out its poison after catching it. A lay man will be struck with poison if he catches it without knowing its charms. So whose goes to catch the snake of wealth before knowing its charms, it becomes and object of ruin.
There are five charms of the poison of wealth. Every rich man should know them.