Blessings of Khilafat — Page 163
Objects of Human Life 163 them a thousand times, the scale would not bend at all. Why? Because they place no intent behind their words. From their tongues, they utter that ‘God is Holy’, but in their hearts they pay no real attention to what they are doing. They do not thank Him in return for His bounties; rather, all they do is mere lip service to Him. As you can see, to only do things out of habit can, at times, cause great harm, and result in unimaginable consequences however good those habits may be. Let alone a good habit, even the harm of an ill habit is negated when somebody becomes accustomed to it. Those who make it a habit of eating it can eat even a full gram of arsenic, but someone who is not used to eating it can die just by consuming a grain or two. Therefore, when things become habitual, one loses the ability to distinguish between good and bad. In the Holy Quran, Allah the Almighty states: 17 That is, when the skins of the dwellers of hell are burnt, God will give them other skins so that they may taste the punishment. By saying so, God explains that once accustomed to something, one becomes numb to it, and so it does not remain as beneficial as it previously had been. A headache is a very painful thing, yet one who is accustomed to it, doesn’t feel it as much. 17 S u rah an-Nis a’ , 4:57