Chapter VIII: Self-Examination and Self-Accounting
(33) The great saint Safwan-b-Solaiman used to pray so much that his waist was attacked with rheumatism. He used to take so much pains in divine service that if he were told that
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Resurrection would come tomorrow, he would not have been seen to do more divine service. During winter season, he used to sleep on the roof in order to feel the intensity of cold and during summer, he used to sleep within a room in order to feel the intensity of heat. He used to pass sleepless nights and he died in prostration. He used to say: O God, I love to meet You. So love to meet me.
(34) Qasem b-M ohammad said: On rising at dawn, I used go to my niece Ayesha and salute her. One day I went to her in the morning and heard her reading the verse in the forenoon prayer: God has bestowed favour on us and saved us from the punishment of the enemies. She repeated the verse and made invocations. I became tired at this, but she was deeply engaged in her prayer. I went to the market and thought that I would come back if I got leisure. I returned and saw her in that condition reciting the verse again and again and weeping.
(35) Muhammad-b-Ishaq said: The saint Abdur Rahman-b-Aswad came to us in order to bid us farewell for going on pilgrimage. I saw a disease in his leg and he prayed standing on one leg and even prayed the morning prayer with ablution which he made at the time of Isha or night prayer.
(36) Hazrat Ali said: The signs of religious men are the • following - Their colour turn yellow as an effect of passing sleepless nights, their eyes turn yellow as an effect of shedding tears, their lips become dry as an effect of fasting and the signs of God-fearing people appear on them.
(37) Hazrat Hasan Basari said: What is the condition of those who make efforts in religion? Their face is the most beautiful, as they remain isolated with their Lord and get light from His light.
(38) The saint Amer-b-Abdul Qais used to say in his invocation: O Lord, you have not asked me anything when You created me. So you will not ask me anything when you will take away my life. You have created such an enemy for me who runs in me as the running of blood, who sees me but whom I don't see. You have told me: Hold fast to Me. O God, if you do not hold me fast, how can I hold fast to you? O God, there are innumerable troubles and anxieties in this world and there is account in the next world. So where is peace and happiness?
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