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Showing posts from November, 2023

Porvisions for years ahead

 Why do you seek from Him provision for years ahead, which you may not live to see?  You ask that He provide you in advance with maintenance for your wife and children, who do not yet exist!!!  Provisions for your basic needs alone are not enough for you. Rather, you want to be provided in advance with basics and with luxuries for an indefinite period for which you have no guarantee of life. Not only do you not render service to Him in advance but you fail to make a personal accounting of your neglect of His service in the past times when He never neglected to provide you with your needs.  pg 461

H'shem has promised you

"How could we be held responsible now for duties due at a time that we may never live to see?  We are bound to perform a definite service only at a definite period.  When that time comes, we will be obligated to render the service"    Thus, too the Creator may He be exalted has promised you for every definite period a certain provision and in return for it you are bound to a definite service.  Just as He does not demand service from you before its time, so should a sense of shame restrain you from asking for (the granting of) provision before its time.  pg 461

Repay the Creator

 How much more so is this the case in regard to the Creator to Whom man is so truly indebted that if all the good works of all the people throughout history were to be credited to one individual, all these would not suffice to repay the Creator for even one of His favors to him.  How, then, can this brazen individual not be ashamed to ask of the Creator that in addition to past favors, He should grant in advance fresh favors?  This will only increase his debt, while he may never be able to fulfill those vows of service he has already made because his days will be over, and his life ended.  pg459

Who takes a pledge from his fellow

One who takes a pledge from his fellow will do so only if he has no outstanding debts to this fellow and the latter has no claim against him, in which case he is justified in taking it. But if he has outstanding debts to this fellow and knows that the latter has real claims against him, he should not under any circumstances ask him for a pledge. It would not be right to take it from him even if he volunteered to give it.   

What will suffice

 When a person receives a pledge from his fellow, there is a limit to it; his demand is limited.  But there is no end to what an advocate of this outlook seeks because he does not know what will suffice to support himself and his family in basics and luxuries for the rest of their lives, Even if he has far more money than he needs he does not feel secure because their lifespans are hidden the measure of their days is unknown.  He is ignorant of what he is akin for since his needs seem unlimited and immeasurable to him. pg 459

Be like a servant

 What a thought!!  For a servant to serve his master on condition that he be paid for his services is considered disgraceful as they said, "Be not like servants who serve the master on condition of receiving a reward but be like servants who serve the master not on condition of receiving a reward" all the more so if he dared to ask for a pledge to secure his maintenance before beginning to serve him. pg457