The Limit of Sahoolat

However, sahoolat (ease) has a limit. It is not based on your idea of it. It is seen that creatures of comfort—those who are preoccupied with comfort and luxury—destroy their power of practical deeds. Also, we see that with too much ease and comfort a person becomes redundant. He can’t move around. The pleasure of his life flies out through the window.

In the kitaab, Tazkira-e-Arab [Anecdotes of the Arabs] it is written that a person who was a voracious eater but with a dearth in intelligence (katheerul akl qaleelul ‘aql) once gobbled up one whole camel. When he went to his wife he couldn’t manage. She replied:

كَيْفَ تَصِلُ اِلَىَّ وَقَدْ حَالَ بَيْنِيْ وَبَيْنَكَ الْبَعِيْرُ

Translation: “How can you reach me when a camel rests between you and me?”

This is the result of being gluttonous and guzzling food, which people think to be joy and pleasure.

Another episode comes to mind. In the city of Roorki two Molvi Sahebs came to give bayaans. The two had eaten till their bellies had become bloated. When the two met, they made mu’aanaqah [embraced each other]. Before neck touching neck, the one’s stomach touched the other’s stomach. My maternal uncle [mamajee] who was very witty, exclaimed: “Moulana! This is not mu’aanaqah [embracing]. This is mubaatanah [bellying].”

In short, enslavement to comfort is bad. Such a person is useless in the Path of Sulook [Sojourn to Allah Ta’ala]. Aarif-e-Shiraazi says:

Translation: “One nurtured in pleasure and comfort cannot traverse the Path of Sulook. Divine Love is the lot of the energetic and hard-working.”

It is for this reason that the Europeans, in spite of being the most comfort-loving people [perhaps superseded by their American counterparts in our times], but they do  understand and have experience of this world, and they know the consequences [i.e. the harms] of being immersed in pleasure. They are therefore exercise conscious as well. They are thus not redundant like the noblemen and princes of Muslim countries. So, they [the kuffaar ruling the world in this era] do not intend bringing a calamity upon themselves [by only indulging in luxuries and pleasures].

But the ease of easy things and the pleasure of pleasurable things will only be enjoyed when one is not jaded and worn-out. To be worn-out is a museebat [calamity] in itself. So, to maintain the pleasure, intelligent people resort to physical exercise and bear physical exertions.

Thus, the ease which is desired is that ease which is in the parameters of equilibrium. In the Shariat of Muhammad (Sallallahu alaihi wasallam) just such an ease is taken into consideration, safeguarding the moderate path.

(Awdul Eid)