THE SIXTH WORD

بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحٖيمِIn the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate

اِنَّ اللّٰهَ اشْتَرٰى مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنٖينَ اَنْفُسَهُمْ وَاَمْوَالَهُمْ بِاَنَّ لَهُمُ الْجَنَّةَIndeed, Allah has purchased from the believers their lives and their wealth in exchange for Paradise. — The Quran 9:11

If you wish to understand what a profitable trade there is in selling your life and possessions to Allah, and what an honourable rank one reaches when becoming His servant and soldier, then listen to the following parable:

Once, a sultan chose two people from among his subjects. He entrusted each of them with an estate containing useful things such as factories, machines, horses, and weapons. However, because a stormy war was underway, nothing remained unharmed. Either everything was destroyed, or everything underwent change and disappeared. Out of his supreme mercy, the sultan sent his honoured envoy to those two soldiers with a most gracious decree. Through that merciful decree, the sultan addressed them as follows:

“Sell to me what I have entrusted to you, so that I may preserve it for you and it will not be lost in vain. When the war comes to an end, I shall return it to you in an even better form. Moreover, I shall give you a very high price for what has been entrusted to you, as though it were your own property. Also, the machines and tools in those factories will be used in my name and in my workshop. They will increase a thousandfold in both value and yield, and I shall give all the profit to you. Furthermore, you are powerless and needy, so you cannot bear the costs of those enormous works. I shall undertake all expenses and requirements, and I shall give all the income and earnings to you. Until the time of demobilization, I shall leave the entrusted possessions in your hands. Indeed, these are five aspects from which you may profit.

However, if you do not sell to me what has been entrusted to you, you see that no one is able to preserve it. As happened with others, it will slip from your hands. It will be lost for nothing, and you will be deprived of the great price. Moreover, all those delicate and valuable tools and measuring instruments will completely lose their value, because the proper materials for them will not be found and they will remain inactive. You will suffer difficulty and hardship in managing and preserving your possessions, and you will also be punished for betraying what was entrusted to you. Indeed, these are five aspects in which you will suffer loss.

Moreover, selling those possessions to me means that you will become my soldiers and act in my name. Instead of being ordinary prisoners or wanderers, you will become free and faithful soldiers of an exalted sultan.”

After those two soldiers had heard the decree, the sensible one said: “I shall gladly sell it, and I shall also be thankful a thousand times over.”

The other was an arrogant, egocentric fool with a pharaonic nafsThe aspect of the soul associated with lower desires and negative traits.. He had no awareness of worldly disasters and calamities and imagined that he would remain forever on that estate. He said: “No! Who is the sultan? I will not sell my possessions, nor will I disturb my comfort.”