Malfuzat - Volume VII — Page 423
26 September 1905 423 this generation fail to appreciate these [special] days and come forth with enmity. In this very way, the people of this generation are wont to say that if we were in the time of the Noble Messenger, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, we would have served like this and shown this sincerity and done this and done that. But the [sad] truth is verily that if these people were there at that time, they would have given the very same treatment to the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, that they are giving me today. Being contemporaneous with this time is also an obstacle; it straitens the hearts of people. This, too, is a kind of trial. For the Security of Faith, It is Necessary to Keep an Eye on the Inner Self Dhun-N u n Mi s r i was an accomplished person and his fame had spread far and wide. A person heard about his excellence and went to meet him. He got to his home and called him, but received the reply that only God knows where he is; he might be somewhere in the bazaar. When he went to the bazaar look- ing for him, he found him shopping like an ordinary person. When he asked people, they pointed out who Dhun-N u n was. He found that he was a dark-skinned man of short stature, modestly dressed, and had no appearance of grandeur on his face. He was standing in the bazaar like ordinary people. He lost all his high expectation and said that he is just an ordinary man like us. Dhun-N u n asked him, ‘Why have you come to me when you obsess over external appearances?’ Dhun-N u n saw what was in his mind, so he said that setting your sight on the exterior prevents you from seeing anything. Faith remains intact when the eye is kept on the inner self.