Chapter VII: Intention, Sincerity and Truth
Thereafter the saint went to his place of worship and spent the night. At dawn, he found two dinars near his head and took them. Next day also, this happened. This continued for three days.'On the fourth day, he did not find the dinars near his head became very much enraged, and took his journey to cut down the tree. The devil came to him in the form of an old man and said : ' Where are you going? He said : I am going to cut down the tree. The devil said : By God, you will not be able to cut it down, you will also not find your way to go there. Thereupon the saint fell upon him but the saint became just like a sparrow between his ■ two legs. The devil then sat upon his chest and said : If you want to live, get away from here or else I will cut you to pieces. The saint being helpless looked to and fro and said : O gentle man, you have defeated me, Let me now go The devil said : Question me now how you have first overpowered me and thereafter I have overpowered you. The devil said : At first you became enraged for the sake of Allah alone and your sole intention was to get success in the hereafter. So God make me subservient to you. But how you have become engaged for your worldly pro pedsi ties and desires and so I overpowered you.
This story shows how a man with a pure and unadulterated intention can win and how a man with a motive other than that can lose and be overpowered. This proves the Quranic word : Except those who work sincerely for Allah. For this reason the great saint Maruf Karkhi used to beat himself and says : Take recourse to form intention, you will then get salvation. The pure soul Eakub said : He who keeps his good deeds concealed as he keeps his sins conceded is a man of pure intention. Solaiman said : He is blessed who takes one step in the way of Allah. The second Caliph Hazrat Omar wrote to Imam Abu Musa Ashari : Allah is sufficient for a man whose intention is pure. A certain saint wrote to his brother : Make your intention pure, then a small amount of action will be sufficient for you. Ayub Saktania said : To make intention pure in an action is more difficult than the action itself. The saint Motarref said : He who is pure will be made pure. A
VoMV THE BOOK OF CONSTRUCTIVE VIRTUES 327
man was asked in dream : How have you seen your action? He said : I saw the action which I did for Allah. Even I saw the reward of af walnut seed I removed from the path way.