Remembrance of Allah — Page 94
94 So much so that if one’s soul is involved in scattered thoughts it should feel remorse and think that with his mouth he is claiming to be a slave and servant of Allah the Exalted, but practically he is running here and there. 15. The Fifteenth Method— I tell this method for those people who cannot hold their resolve for very long. Just like an infant needs to be nursed at short intervals because he cannot bear hunger for very long and cannot digest all food together, similarly some people are in need of being provided support every so often. They should follow this method that when they stand up in qiy a m they should resolve to not let any thoughts come until the ruk u ‘ and when they go into the ruk u‘ they should say that they will not let thoughts intervene till they stand up. In this way, at each stage they should make a new resolve. This will give them such a power by which their scattered thoughts will go away. 16. The sixteenth Method— If a man falls prey to scat- tered thoughts, they will not stop chasing him, but if he con- fronts them and resolves not to let them in at all, they will stop. Therefore, they should be fought well, and whenever any thought encroaches, it should be stopped immediately. For example, if the thought begins to take hold that one’s child is lying ill—‘What will become of him?’—one should immedi- ately stop this thought by saying that the child is not going to get any better by him raising this thought in his mind nor is he going to get any worse if he does not raise this thought. So, he doesn’t bring up the thought at all. Continue this practice