The means of life

 Almighty Allah has created all the things of the world and its adornments for the comfort and convenience of human beings and to test them so as to see who is infatuated by them and turns away from Allah Most High.  That’s why one should keep the means of life as sparse as possible and fulfill the needs of life through them.  Be content with your means and worry about the hereafter.  Increase your love for Allah Most High.  Be aware!  The destination of those who go against the desires of the self is paradise.  The person who gathers things to befriend and adorn his worldly life will be destroyed.  In the house of Hadhrat Malik bin Deenaar (May Allah shower His mercy on him), there was nothing except a jug and a mat.  The Seeker (Salik) can be saved from destruction only if his life is like this.

 

        The more the means of the world increase, one’s avarice will also increase.  The world is like brackish water, the more you drink it the more will your thirst increase.  The needs of the human beings are like rubber.  The more you pull it, the more will it lengthen and the more you compress it the compact will it be.  The abundance of worldly means draws the heart towards them, which is like hemlock for the beginner.  A small deed of the Seeker who has sparse means of living is better than a mountainous deed of the seeker whose means of living are abundant.

 

Translation of couplet:

 

This pride and egoism should be expelled from the mind

After this should one step into the lane of the beloved

You are busy in this world and want to improve your hereafter

Throw these tantrums in your father’s house!

 

Another couplet:

 

That you desire Allah and the material world which is lowly,

Is a mere thought, something that won’t happen and rank lunacy

 

The Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) told Hadhrat ‘Aisha (May Allah be well pleased with her):  If you desire to live with me then take only so much from the world that a rider takes as his provision.

 

If someone went to Hadhrat Abudharr Ghifari (May Allah be well pleased with him) and glanced at his house, he wouldn’t be able to see anything of the world in his house.  On asking, he would say:  If the Lord Almighty left us in the world, we would also fill our house with worldly possessions, but He desires that we should lead a traveler-like life in the world and depart.

[Excerpted from Mawaaiz-e-Hasana, Vol. 1]