Malfuzat – Volume X — Page 353
1 May 1908 353 I could have set your house on fire. How much loss would you have suffered? So, I have done a favour to you and not vice versa. ’ This is only an illustration of not committing evil, but know it for certain that no one can present this kind of example before God Almighty. There, you will find the reward for what you earned. Allah the Exalted has likened abstinence from sin with drinking the kafuri elixir. The second stage after this is that man be made to drink the zanjabili elixir. The word zanjabil denotes dry ginger. It is a com- pound word derived from zana and jabal. The effect of ginger is that it increases natural vigour. The literal meaning of this word is to climb a mountain. The implication is that just as the arduous task of mountain climbing is made easy by the use of this tonic, similarly, it is very difficult to climb the mountain of virtue, but it becomes easy with the spiritual elixir of zanjabil. To carry out pure deeds sincerely and meritoriously, solely for the sake of Allah, is also a mountain and like a ravine that is very difficult to traverse. Not everyone’s foot can reach it. Look, in worldly matters there is an obvious outcome that is in mind, and effort is made for a specific matter. One works hard keeping a specific purpose and objective in mind. How hard one tries to succeed! What great hardships are endured to achieve respect and rank so much so that sometimes one becomes insane and crazy due to these efforts, and at times one gets sick and suffers from such ailments as ulceration of the lungs and emaciation, etc. When the ravines of worldly trails are so arduous, imagine how much effort and hard work is needed to cross the ravines of religious and spiritual objectives whose outcomes are still behind a veil of the unseen, and whose very existence or non-existence can be elusive to some sceptic minds. To imagine that we can reach God by the blow of one breath, and we can be