All Praise and Gratitude Are Due to God.
The God-fearing in this world are the people of distinction. Their speech is to the point, their dress is moderate and their gait is humble. They submit to God with obedience. They keep their eyes closed to what Allah has made unlawful for them, and they put their ears to knowledge. They remain in the time of trials as though they remain in comfort due to their satisfaction with the act of God. If there had not been fixed periods of life ordained for each, their spirits would not have remained in their bodies even for the twinkling of an eye because of their eagerness for the reward and fear of chastisement. The greatness of the Creator is seated in their heart, and so, everything else appears small in their eyes. Thus, to them, Paradise is as though they see it and are enjoying its favors. To them, Hell is also as if they see it and are suffering punishment in it.
Their hearts are grieved, they are protected against evils, their bodies are thin, their needs are scanty, their souls are chaste, and their supporting Islam is great. They endured hardship for a short while, and in consequence they secured comfort for a long time. It is a beneficial transaction that the Generous Lord made easy for them. The world aimed at them, but they did not aim at it. It captured them, but they freed themselves from it by a ransom.
During a night they are upstanding on their feet reading portions of the Qur’an and reciting it in a well-measured way, creating through it grief for themselves and seeking by it the cure for their ailments. Their griefs are stirred as they weep for their sins and the pains of their wounds and in-juries. If they come across a verse creating eagerness for Paradise they pursue it avidly, and their spirits turn towards it eagerly, and they feel as if it is in front of them. And when they come across a verse, which contains fear of Hell they bend the ears of their hearts towards it, and feel as though the sound of Hell and its cries are reaching their ears. They bend themselves from their backs, prostrate themselves on their foreheads, their palms, and their toes, and beseech Allah the Sublime for their deliverance. During the day they are wise, learned, virtuous and God-fearing. Fear of Allah has made them thin like arrows. If any one looks at them, he believes they are sick, although they are not sick, and he says that they have gone mad. In fact, great concern (i.e., fear) has made them mad. If they remember the sublimity of God the Exalted and the stability of His omnipotence, in addition to the mention of death and the horrors of the Day of Resurrection, their hearts are dreaded, their views are agitated, and their minds are bewildered. If they feel fearful, they hurry to God through good acts.
They are not satisfied with their meager good acts, and do not regard their major acts as great. They always blame themselves and are afraid of their deeds. When anyone of them is spoken of highly, he says: “I know myself better than others, and my Lord knows me better than I know. O Allah do not deal with me according to what they say, and make me better than they think of me and forgive me those shortcomings which they do not know. You are the All-Knowing of the un-known.”
The peculiarity of anyone of them is that you will see that he has strength in religion, determination along with leniency, faith with conviction, eagerness in seeking knowledge, courtesy in lenience, clemency in almsgiving, understanding in awareness, knowledge in forbearance, moderation in riches, devotion in worship, gracefulness in starvation, endurance in hardship, mercy for the exhausted, fulfillment of the right, leniency in earning, desire for the lawful, pleasure in guidance, hatred from greed, piety in straightforwardness, and abstinence in appetites. The approval of him who ignores him does not deceive him. He does not stop judging his deeds. He performs virtuous deeds but still feels afraid. In the evening he is anxious to offer thanks to Allah. In the morning his anxiety is to remember Allah. He passes the night in fear and rises in the morning in joy—fear lest night is passed in forgetfulness, and joy over the favor and mercy received by him. If his self refuses to endure a thing, which it does not like, he does not grant its request towards what it likes. The coolness of his eye lies in what is to last forever, while from the things of this world that will not last, he keeps aloof. He transfuses knowledge with forbearance, and speech with action.
You will see his laziness aloof, his activity uninterrupted, his hopes simple, his shortcomings few, heart fearing, his spirit contented, his ignorance absent, his affairs simple, his religion safe, his desires dead, his anger suppressed, his mannerism pure. He does not brief about what is kept secret with him. He does not conceal the testimony against the enemies. He does not do any practice ostentatiously. He does not leave anything shyly. Good alone is expected from him. Evil from him is not to be feared. Even if he is found among those who forget Allah, he is counted among those who remember Him. He forgives him who is unjust to him, and he gives to him who deprives him. He behaves well with him who behaves ill with him.
His forbearance is not absent. He does not neglect what adorns him. Indecent speech is far from him, his utterance is lenient, his evils are non-existent, his virtues are ever present, his good is ahead, and mischief has turned its face from him. He is dignified during calamities, patient in distresses, and thankful during ease. He does not commit excess over him whom he hates, and does not commit sin for the sake of him whom he loves. He does not claim the possession of things that are not his. He does not deny others’ rights that are obligatory upon him. He admits truth before evidence is brought against him. He does not misappropriate what is placed in his custody. He does not call others bad names. He does not oppress or threaten others. He does not cause harm to his neighbor; he does not feel happy at others misfortunes. He hurries to the right. He fulfills the trusts. He is slow in ill deeds. He enjoins good and forbids evil. He does not enter into the worldly pleasures wrongly and does not go out of right.
If he is silent his silence does not grieve him, if he laughs, he does not raise his voice. He satisfies with what is his. Malice does not agitate him. Whims do not overcome him. Stinginess does not prevail him. He does not desire for what is not his. He associates with people so as to learn. He keeps silent so as to be safe. He asks so as to understand. He does not listen to the good wording so that others will not find themselves neglectful in comparison with him. He does not speak of his good actions so as to avoid taking pride in it before others. If he is wronged, he endures till Allah takes revenge on his behalf. His own self is in distress because of him, while the people are in ease from him. He puts himself in hardship for the sake of his next life, and makes people feel safe from himself. His keeping away from others is by way of asceticism and purification, and his nearness to those to whom he is near is by way of leniency and mercifulness. His keeping away is not by way of vanity or feeling of greatness, nor his nearness by way of deceit and cheating. He follows the example of the past men of virtue and he is the example of the coming people of virtue.