Malfuzat – Volume X — Page 532
Malfuzat - English translation of Urdu Volume 10 532 kindly towards her child. The love of a mother for her child springs from her natural and instinctive urge and not from any expectation of a return. You see, sometimes a mother is sixty years of age and has no expectation of service from her child because she can hardly expect that she would live to see him grow up and become accomplished. Thus, the love of a mother for her child, with- out expectation of some service or benefit from him, has been ingrained in human nature. A mother bears hardship herself but tries to provide comfort for her child. She lies down on the soggy area if the bed gets wet but places her child on the dry part. If the child gets sick, she remains awake all night and bears all kinds of hardships. Is there any element of artificiality or pretence in what a mother does for her child? Thus, [to paraphrase] Allah the Exalted says: ‘Strive to go beyond even the stage of ihsan [benevolence] and rise to the stage of ِئٓاَتْيِا يِذ ىٰبْرُقْلا ِئٓاَتْيِا يِذ ىٰبْرُقْلا. Do good to the creation of God with a natural and innate urge, without the expectation of any reward or ben- efit or service [from them]. Your service to the creation of God should not have any pretentiousness or artificiality about it. ’ At another place it is said like this: 1 اَل ُدْيِرُن ْمُكْنِم ًءٓاَزَج َّو اَل اًرْوُكُش اَل ُدْيِرُن ْمُكْنِم ًءٓاَزَج َّو اَل اًرْوُكُش Meaning that, it is the practice of a person who is godly and who has achieved lofty ranks, that his good deeds are purely for the sake of Allah. He does not even have the thought cross his mind that someone would pray for him or express gratitude to him for the good he has done. He does virtuous deeds purely 1. S u rah ad-Dahr, 76:10 [Publisher]