Way of The Seekers — Page 89
89 THE qualification What is required is not that a person should do to others what he wants others to do unto him. This is what the Bible says, which to my mind is not quite right. What I emphasize is that one should not say or do to others what one would not like said or done to oneself, presuming the circumstances are similar. 3 To avoid extremes. For instance, some would either completely stop offering nawafil (voluntary prayer) or would offer nawafil to the exclusion of all regard for domestic duties. Once a case was reported to the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) to the effect that a certain person was given to observing fast during the day and offering nafl (voluntary prayer) throughout the night. Summoning him, the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) admonished him: Your self too has Its right over you and you have an obligation to your wife also. 4. To act in accordance with the particular divine attribute which the act invokes. How can one determine which evils one suffers from? 1. By self-examination: When one comes to know what are the various virtues and vices, one should conduct a self- scrutiny in order to identify the vice from which one suffers and the virtues that one does not practice. 2. By consultation with a sincere friend: One should consult some sincere and close friend who should be asked to study one’s overt behavior. Of course, he should not set out on a hunt for secret vices. That would in itself be an evil. The function of the friend should be to point out the faults in one’s overt actions, faults of which one may not be fully conscious. 3. By self-identification: Even a friend is likely to overlook a friend’s faults. To remedy this, one should have recourse to a third method. One should try to identify in one’s own person the virtues and vices that one is able to identify in