An Astonishing and Instructive TawāfuqThe providential harmony of events occurring by the will and power of Allah.

This treatise on frugality was copied by five or six different scribes, three of whom were inexperienced. Although they worked in separate locations, copied from different manuscripts, wrote in different hands, and paid no attention whatsoever to counting the alifs (ا) in the text, every copy contained 51 alifs when the concluding supplication was excluded and 53 alifs when it was included.

Remarkably, these numbers corresponded exactly to the year in which the treatise was originally written: 51 (1351) according to the Rumi calendar and 53 (1353) according to the Hijri calendar. Such a precise correspondence can scarcely be attributed to chance. Rather, it may be understood as a subtle indication that the blessing concealed within frugality had reached the level of a karāmahA miraculous event granted by Allah through a righteous believer who is not a prophet.. It is therefore fitting that this year be described as “the Year of Frugality.”

Indeed, two years later, this karāmahA miraculous event granted by Allah through a righteous believer who is not a prophet. associated with frugality was further confirmed by the events of the Second World War, when widespread famine, devastation, and waste compelled much of humanity to adopt a life of frugality.