Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume I — Page 404
! ! 404 َّو ُﺻ ًّﻤ ﺎ َﻋ َﻠ ۡﻴ َﻬ ﺎ َﻳ ِﺨ ُّﺮ ۡو ا َﻟ ۡﻢ َر ِّﺑ pِۡ ِﺑ ٰﺎ ٰﻳ ِﺖ ُذ ِّﻛ ُﺮ ۡو ا ِا َذ ا ا :َِّ ۡﻳ َﻦ َو ُﻋ ۡﻤ َﻴ ﺎ ًﻧ ﺎ “ … those who, when they are reminded of the Signs of their Lord, fall not down deaf and blind thereat. ” (Holy Qur’ān, Ch. 25 : V. 74) This verse means, w hen Allah ’s commandments and guidance are revealed to them, they do not ignore them , but immediately act upon them and they listen very carefully to Allah ’s guidance. I have seen men sit and listen for hours , and not one sound comes from them, but women cannot bear to be quiet and after some time, they begin to talk. Frankly, they have no interest in religious matters. I n our country , th ere is a well - known story of a pious man , who went to the m osque to say his Salāt. The Imam ’s mind was anxious and while leading prayers, the thought of fifteen rupees [local currency] came to mind. On the one hand the people follow ing b e hind him in the prayer were thinking that he was reciting Surah Al - Fatihah , but in truth, the Imam was thinking of how he would take tho se fifteen rupees and go to Delhi and buy different things with it and [ i nvest the money ] , until he had made a sum of five thousand rupees. When he went into ruk ū‘ , he thought of how when he had made five thousand rupees , he would go to Bukhara and buy some horses, and then sell them for twenty thousand rupees. He then thought of going back to Delhi and making forty thousand rupees from the twenty thousand. God Almighty disclosed the Imam’s thoughts to the pious man through a kashf [vision] and the man ended his Salāt in congregation and began to say his own prayers. After finishing the prayer, the Imam told this pious man , “Y ou have become a nonbeliever, for if you had been a Muslim , you would have said your prayers in congregation with us. ” The pious man replied , “ I am very weak, and I cannot travel much. You went to Delhi and from there to Bukhara. You bought horses and travelled back to Delhi. I could not keep up with you in this journey, so I took leave from you. ” The Imam was ashamed and apologized to him ,