Malfuzat – Volume III — Page 305
305 the people boarded the vessel. There were seven passengers who might well-nigh have drowned, but the man who the first person had deemed a drunkard, plunged into the water and saved six of the seven passengers and left one. He then turned to the man who was witnessing this entire account and addressed him saying: ‘You thought ill of me, now there is one passenger left, go and save him. ’ It was then that the observer realised that he had stumbled and so he finally inquired as to the matter before him. The person sitting at the riverside said: ‘I was raised by God as a test for you. This woman is my mother, and what you deem to be alcohol is water from this river. I have been made to sit here by the will of God Almighty. ’ Therefore, thinking well of others is an excellent thing. One should not let this slip from their hands. It can never be impermissible to thank God Almighty for His grace and favour, so long as it is His pleasure that is purely intended, and only when a worldly display of pretension and ostentation is not the underlying motive. 1 1 Al-Hakam , vol. 7, no. 14, dated 17 April 1903, pp. 1-2