nate them. But when a confused high official arrived and an incident occurred, he hid the Words he had written. He also temporarily gave up copying them out in the hope that he would not suffer any difficulty or hardship at the hands of the worldly and would be safe from their evil. But as a mark of his error of temporarily ceasing to serve the Qur’an, for a year he continuously suffered the calamity of having a thousand-lira fine hanging over him, which he had to pay. Then the moment he formed the intention to write out more copies and returned to his former position, he was cleared in the case, till finally, praise be to God, he was acquitted. He was poor and needy, and was saved from paying a thousand liras.
The Second: Intending to gain the good opinion of the worldly and the new officer, a courageous, serious, and bold friend of mine of five years’ standing unthinkingly and involuntarily did not meet with me for several months, despite being my neighbour. He did not even pay me a visit during Ramadan or the Festival. But the village question turned out exactly the opposite of what he had intended, and he lost his influence.
The Third: A hafiz who used to visit me once or twice a week became the prayer-leader, and so that he could wear the turban, deserted me for two months. He did not even visit me during the Festival. But contrary to his intention, and contrary to usual practice, he was not allowed to wear a turban, even after seven or eight months.
There have been numerous incidents like these, but I have not mentioned them so as not to offend the people concerned. Each of them is only a sign, but when they are put together one perceives a strength. It gives one the conviction that – not directed towards myself, for I do not consider myself worthy of any favour, but purely in respect of serving the Qur’an – we carry out that service under dominical protection and through divine grace. My friends should think of this and not be carried away by groundless fears. I have explained these things to them privately because our service is a divine bestowal, and because it is the cause of thanks not pride, and because the Qur’an commands:
But the bounty of your Sustainer rehearse and proclaim.(93:11)
Eighth Matter
[This forms the footnote to the third example in the Third Point about the fifth of the obstacles to making independent judgements of the divine law (ijtihad), in the Twenty-Seventh Word.]