Malfuzat - Volume VIII — Page 226
Malf uza t - English translation of Urdu Volume 8 226 The State of I h s a n Next is the stage of i h s a n [benevolence]—one who observes justice and does not transgress its limits; Allah the Exalted gives him the ability and strength, and he progresses further in virtue so much so that he does not merely execute justice, but rather does much greater good in return for a little good. Nevertheless, even in the state of i h s a n, there is still a weakness, and that is that at one point or another, the doing of this good- ness is made known. For example, a person feeds someone for ten years, and it so happens that on one occasion, that person disagrees with him, so he tells him that you have been surviving on our scraps for ten years, and thus nullifies this good deed. Actually, there is a kind of hidden hypocrisy even in a benevolent person, but the third stage is free from all kinds of impurity and pollution, and that is the rank of it a -e-dhil-qur ba [give like the giving of kin to kin]. The State of It a -e-Dhil-Qurb a The rank of it a -e-dhil-qur ba corresponds to a natural condi- tion; that is, a stage at which good deeds are done by a person as if there is a natural urge to do them. An example of this is a mother nursing her baby and nurturing it. The thought does not even occur to her that the child will grow up and earn a living and serve her. She would not stop feeding the baby even if a king ordered her and told her that she would not be blamed for not nursing her child even if it dies thereafter; instead, she would likely hurl some abuse upon such a king. For the reason that nurturing her baby is an inherent obligation upon her, it is not based on hope or fear of any sort. In the same way, when