Aslam

(2)Remember the condition of a sleeping person. He sees in dream the sting of a serpent and feels also its pangs. Even it occurs that he rises up suddenly with a loud shriek, removes the sweat of his face and shifts else where. He suffers pangs as a man in wakeful state suffers pangs of snake-bite. You see his body in a peaceful state and do not see any serpent around him. Yet it is a fact that he sees the serpents and feels their sting but it is not true in your case.- Therefore there is no untruth in the saying of the • Prophet.

(3)You know that a serpent itself cannot give you pangs, but the poison which it throws in you gives you pangs. The poison itself is not pang, but the reaction which is creates in you gives

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you punishment. If the reaction is caused without poison, it is sufficient as a punishment. The explanation of the punishment cannot be made without the relationship of a material object according to long established practice as pleasure of cohabitation cannot be explained without the relationship of a woman. The enjoyment of cohabitation can be also gained without cohabitation with woman. Similarly punishment can be meted out with agencies or material objects of punishment. The pangs which appear at the time of death, are like the pangs of snake-bite without the material figure of snake. The change of nature gives pangs just as separation of the objects of love or its death gives pain in mind. So death means that what was the objects of love before death has turned into objects of punishment soon after death. He who cuts off all connections from the world and does not love but God and remains anxious to meet with Him, gets release from the prison house of this world and mixes after death with his Beloved. Thus he gets happiness which is never cut off and is ever-lasting. The greater the properties of the world one possesses, the greater will be his punishment in the next world. The thing left at death, will be a cause of punishment and repentance.

If you neglect your good deeds and remain engaged is arguments and dialogues, you will be like the man mentioned below. A certain king arrests a man and keeps him in confinement for the purpose of cutting his hands and ears and taking out his eyes. The arrested man thinks all the nights weather the king will do these things with sword or with knife or with razor, but he never thinks of warding off the basic punishment. This is his s'heer ignorance. So a man must think how to ward off punishment after death but not in what way the punishment will be meted out or happiness awarded. To enquire about this is to spend time in vain.

CONDITION OF A DEAD MAN EXPRESSED IN DREAM