Discourses of Hakimul Ummat Hazrat Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi (Rahmatullahi Alaihi)
Discourse Number: 552
Understanding spiritual diseases alone is not sufficient.
In response to a question from a Maulavi Sahab, he said:
Currently, a major mistake some spiritual leaders make is that they think knowing the cure for spiritual diseases is enough, while nothing can be achieved without action.
An example of this is like a person who said: I eat penny's worth of ghee every month.
The scenario is that he would place the ghee in front of him, take a piece of bread, sit down, and say, 'I'm going to eat it,' but he would neither eat nor drink. When the month would end, he would consume it on that day.
A disciplined person met him and said, 'You seem to be wasting money by claiming to eat a penny's worth of ghee every month. My practice is when I smell the aroma of food cooking, I stand beneath the wall of the house with bread, sniff, and keep smelling, and then eat the bread.
So, some people follow the same ritual: they know the spiritual treatment but do not practice it. They are content that they will do it when they wish. So, what's the benefit?
The significant thing is action, and knowledge is its prelude. Therefore, one should not boast about knowledge; even specific mystical sciences are inferior to action.
Hazrat Junaid Baghdadi was seen by someone in a dream, who asked him, 'What happened to him?'
He replied, 'All knowledge, sciences, and researches proved futile; only brief voluntary prayers (Tahajjud) were beneficial.'
See! Only action proved to be effective. Although these sciences are not entirely useless.
Sometimes sciences about the subject increases insights which are the preludes of action, but still, they are unintentional, and the essence is to remain engaged in fulfilling the action. Whoever accomplishes it is fruitful, and the rest is just lip service.
And research without action is an example of such uselessness, like a person being employed in a mint, making coins and notes all day, but in the evening, he is dismissed after screening. Understand here what he gets is a salary. Only that is fruitful, and everything else is in vain.
Discourses of Hakimul Ummat: Part 7, Page 43
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