Chapter VIII: Self-Examination and Self-Accounting
(28) The saint Abu Bakr Matui said: In my young days, I used to pray daily Chapter 'Qui Huallah' 30 to 40 thousand times. Whenever I saw the saint Mansur-b-Motamar, I saw, that some danger has befallen on him, his side has broken, his voice has become low, and his two eyes have been shedding tears. His r >ther used to say to him: What are you doing with your baser self? You are weeping the whole night and not taking recourse to silence. He used to say: O my mother, I well know what I am doing with my lower self.
(29) People asked Amer-b-Abdullah: How can you keep patience in passing nights without sleep and keeping thirsty in mid-day? He said: It is not a great thing to take day-time food at
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night and to take sleep of night at day time, but I have found nobody to sleep who searches for Paradise and who flees away from Hell. When the night came, he used to say: The heat of the fire of Hell has removed away my sleep. He did not sleep upto morning. When the day dawned, he used to say: The heat of Hell has removed my sleep. He used not to sleep in day time till the night came. At the coming of night, he used to say: He who fears God takes rest at dawn.
(30) A certain great man said: I passed four months in the company of Amer-b-Abdul Qais. During this time 1 did not find him to sleep either at day time or at night.
(31) A certain companion of Hazrat AH said: I prayed a morning prayer behind Hazrat AH. When he finished his prayer, he sat upon his right side and there was sign of sorrow upon his face. He remained in that position till the rising of the sun. Then he lifted his hand up and said: By God, I saw the companions of the Holy Prophet. I find none today who can be compared to anyone of them. They appeared at dawn with their hairs dishevelled, laden with dust and the hairs of their head not arranged. They used to pass the whole night in prostration and reading the Holy Quran. Pressure was put repeatedly on their feet and forehead. When they used to make Zikr, they become as the trees fall down in a day of storm, their eyes flowed so much of tears that wetted their cloths. At that time the people around them passed their nights heedlessly in sleep.
(32) It has been reported of Abu Moslem Khaolani that he used to keep a stick hanging in his prayer room and threaten his baser self therewith. He used to say to his self: By God, rise up, I will fight with you such a fight that will exhaust me. When he was idle, he used to take down the stick and beat his buttock and said: You are entitled to receive beating more than my conveyance. He used to say: Did the companions of the Prophet think that they alone adopted the religious affairs while we have got no share in it? By God, I will be a good partner in their affairs, till they knew that after them there was a man who was not in any way inferior to them in status.