THE FORTY-FIFTH DISCOURSE On blessings and trials

Know that people are of two kinds. One kind is like he who is blessed with the good things of the world, whereas the other kind is like he who is tried with what his Lord has decreed for him. As for he who receives the good things, he is not free from the blemishes of sin and darkness in the enjoyment of what he is given. Such a person indulges in luxury on account of these things,, when all of a sudden the decree of God comes and darkens his surrounding through various kinds of misfortunes and calamities in the shape of diseases and sufferings and troubles on his own life and property and on the members of his family and on his offspring so that life becomes miserable through them, and it appears as if he had never enjoyed anything. He forgets the comforts and their sweetness. If the affluence continues together with wealth and position and male slaves and female slaves and security from enemies, he is in a state of blessing as if calamity has no existence for him. If he is in the midst of calamity, it seems as if happiness has no existence. All this is due to ignorance of his Master. Thus if he had known that his Master is absolutely free to do whatever He likes, and changes and transforms and sweetens and embitters and enriches and impoverishes and raises and lowers and gives honour and abases and gives life and causes death and gives a man precedence and pushes him to the background — if he had known all this, he could not have felt secure in the midst of happy worldly circumstances and could not have felt proud on account of them, nor would he have despaired of happiness while in a state of calamity. This wrong behaviour of his is due also to his ignorance of this world, which is in reality the place of trials and bitterness and ignorance and pain and darkness, and of which the rule is trial, and happiness only an exception. Thus the worldly life is like a tree of aloes of which the first taste is bitter whereas the ultimate consequence is sweet like honey and no man can get at its sweetness unless he has first swallowed its bitter taste, and no one can reach the honey unless he has first showed patience with its bitterness. So whoever has shown patience in the trials of the world is entitled to taste its blessings. To be sure, a labourer is given his wages after his forehead has sweated and his body has become tired and his soul has become troubled and his breast has become contracted and his strength has departed and his self has become humiliated and his vanity has become broken through the service of a creature like himself. Thus, when one has drunk all this bitterness in full then follows for him good food and fruits and dress and comforts and joy even if they are small. The world, therefore, is a thing of which the first part is bitterness like the top part of some honey kept in a vessel mixed with bitterness, so that an eater cannot get to the bottom of the vessel and eat the pure honey out of it until after he has tasted the top part of it. So, when the servant of God has persevered in the performance of the commandment of God, the Mighty, the Glorious, and in keeping away from His prohibitions and in submitting before Him and in surrendering himself to the decrees of destiny, and when he has drunk the bitterness thereof and has lifted the burden of it and has struggled against his own low desires and has discarded his own objectives, God gives to him, as a result of this, good life and loving attention and comfort and honour, and He becomes his guardian and feeds him just as a suckling baby is fed without any effort on his part, and without his bearing any trouble and strain in this world and in the hereafter, in the same manner as an eater of the bitter top part of the previously mentioned honey relishes the bottom part of the contents of the vessel. So it is proper for the servant who has been favoured by God not to feel secure from the trial of God by being enchanted by the favour, nor to feel sure as to its perpetuity and thus become forgetful of gratitude for it and relax its restrictions by discarding thankfulness on account of it. The Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) has said: "Happy worldly circumstances is a savage thing: so restrain it by thankfulness." Thus, thankfulness of the blessing of wealth is to acknowledge it to the Giver of it Who is bountiful, that is God, to mention it to one's ownself in all conditions of life, and to appropriate His favour and generosity and also that one should not feel like having any claim on God nor should one outstrip His bounds in this matter nor should one discard His commandment in the matter; and after this by fulfilling the obligation to Him in respect of Zakat and expiation and votive offerings and alms and by redressing the sufferings of the oppressed ones and helping the needy who are in difficulty and whose circumstances have changed from good to bad, that is to say, whose times of happiness and hopefulness have changed into hard and difficult ones. Thankfulness for the blessing of comfort in the limbs and the organs of the body is to use them in carrying out the commandments of God and in restraining oneself from things forbidden and from evil and sinful acts. This is how to protect blessings from passing away and to irrigate its plant and to accelerate the growth of its branches and leaves; and to help the beautification of its fruit and to sweeten its taste and to assure the safety of its end and to make its eating tasteful and to make its swallowing easy and to make it yield comfort and to enable it to maintain its growth in the body and to make its blessing manifest itself on the organs of the body through various kinds of acts of obedience to God such as will render one nearer to God and keep him in His remembrance, and will further make the servant enter in the life hereafter and the mercy of God, the Mighty, the Glorious, and will earn for him an abiding life in the gardens of paradise in the holy companionship of prophets, siddiqs (the truthful ones) and shahids (witnesses) and the salihs (the righteous) — a beautiful company are these. But if one docs not act like this and becomes enamoured by what appears of the outward beauty of such a life and becomes engrossed in the enjoyments of it and becomes contented with the glitter of its mirage and the sparkle of its lightning-like appearance, all of which are like the blowing of cool breeze in the morning of a hot summer day and like the softness of the skin of a serpent and scorpion; and becomes forgetful of the deadly poison which has been reposed in it and of its deep deception and craftiness — all of which have as their aim to catch him and imprison him and to destroy him — such a man should be given the tidings of rejection and of speedy destruction and poverty with abasement and humiliation in this world and of chastisement in the long run in burning hell-fire. As for the trial of man — sometimes it comes as a punishment for any violation of law and any sin which has been committed; at others, it comes with the object of removing the defects and refining the nature of man, and at still others it comes to raise a man in spiritual rank and to take him to high stages where he may join the people of spiritual knowledge who have experience of different states and positions, for whom the grace of the Lord of the creation and humanity has been allotted beforehand, who have been made to travel in the fields of calamities riding on the conveyance of tenderness and kindness and whom He has soothed by the breeze of kind observation and loving watch in their movements and repose, because such a trial was not meant for destruction and for hurling them in the depths of hell; on the contrary, by means of these trials God has tested them for selection and choice and has brought out from them the reality of faith and has refined it and made it distinct from polytheism and boastings of self and hypocrisy and has made a free gift, as a reward for them, of various kinds of knowledge, and secret and light. So when these people have become cleansed outwardly and inwardly and when their hearts have become purified, He places them among the specially selected and the favourites of His court and companions of His mercy in this world and in the hereafter — in this world through their hearts, and in the hereafter through their bodies. Thus their calamities are in fact purifiers of the dirt of polytheism and breeders of connections with people and with the means of the world and with desires and wishes, and are instrumental in melting the boastfulness and greediness and the expectation of returns for obedience to commandments in the shape of high positions and stations in paradise and gardens of heaven. Now, the indication of trial by way of punishment is want of patience on the arrival of these trials and bewailing and complaints before people. On the other hand the indication of trial by way of purification and removal of weaknesses is the presence of graceful patience without any complaint and expression of grief before friends and neighbours and without any disgust with the performance of commandments and acts of obedience. And the indication of trial for the exaltation of rank is the presence of pleasure and amity and composure of mind and peacefulness with regard to the act of God, the Lord of the earth and heavens, and to completely lose oneself in this trial till the time of its removal in the course of time.