There is a special connection between the two verses which I recited at the beginning. Allâh says that He has revealed the procedure to become a wali and a pious person in the first verse, namely to stay in the company of the saints. By living with the saints, you will also become a friend of Allâh. My Sheikh, Shâh Abdul Ghani (Rahimahullâh) used to say, "Hakeem Akhtar! You obtain mangoes from the mango sellers, sweetmeats from the sweetmeat sellers, kabâbs from the kabâb sellers and clothing from the cloth merchants. Similarly, you obtain Allâh from the friends of Allâh." You can read a hundred thousand books but you will not attain Allâh. If you go to buy clothing from the sweetmeat sellers, what will they say? "Take this person away to the Agha Khan Hospital. He is gone mad." If you ask the cloth merchants for sweetmeats, what will they say? You ask the cloth merchants for material and the sweetmeat sellers for sweetmeats but you only request taweezes from the Ahlullâh. Is this what the Ahlullâh are for? Are they merely there for giving you a taweez. If you did not obtain Allâh from the Ahlullâh, then you have not honoured them at all. You have not appreciated them. Dr. Abdul Hayy used to recite the following couplet:
This is the only way to meet them.
Create a path to the ones who meet Him.
If one is not sincere, then some people merely stay with the saints to eat sumptuous chickens. They feel that wherever the Peer Sâhib is, there they will get chicken. There was a person who was a student of Aligarh. My Sheikh made him join me. He ate chicken for several meals in Bandah Darul Uloom near Kanpur, the institute of Moulânâ Siddiq Sâhib. Incidentally he slept on the bed next to me at night. He said to me, "The couplet which you recited, namely,
This is the only way to meet them.
Create a path to the ones who meet Him.
has made me also compose a couplet." I asked him what verse he composed in contrast to mine. My couplet teaches us that in order to reach Allâh, we have to go to the Ahlullâh. Create a path towards them. He said that his verse was not of the same calibre as mine but nonetheless I should listen to it because it was good. This is the only way to eat chicken. Create a path to the ones who eat it.
I present a couplet of Allâmah Sayyid Sulaimân Nadwi (Rahimahullâh) which I have just remembered all of a sudden. Do not estimate your value by looking at your bungalow, your cars and your business. See how much love you have for Allâh. He says:
We remained like this or like that. There we have to see how we will be. Listen to the condition of the world of beauty. A poet has very aptly said, The inferior reached very high stages and the superior became inferior. That is, forms have become ugly and the beauty has perished. The back bent and became like a bow. Someone became a grandfather and someone a grandmother.
