Book Name:Hirs kay Nuqsanaat or Qana_at ki Barkaat
Dear Islamic brothers! Contentment is one of the excellent traits among the most exalted traits of a human being. A content person succeeds in abandoning his desires, whereas a greedy person always keeps wandering here and there while becoming the slave of his Nafs. A content person gets is privileged to pay gratitude to Allah Almighty, whereas a greedy person starts mourning and complaining if any of his desire does not get fulfilled. Contentment becomes a sign of a person’s high spirits, intellectuality, nobility, piety and patience, whereas following desires makes a person fall prey to the traps of greed and miserliness and becomes a means of keeping a person away from spending in the path of Allah Almighty. In today’s bayan, we will hear about the harmful effects of greed and blessings of contentment. Let’s first listen to a parable regarding the destruction of greed.
An interesting and thought provoking parable has been mentioned on page 396 of the second volume of the book ‘Uyoon-ul-Hikayaat’, published by Maktaba-tul-Madinah, the publishing department of Dawat-e-Islami: There lived a strange type of snake in a house that used to lay a golden egg every day. The owner of the house was very happy to receive this free wealth. He had instructed the household not to reveal this to anyone. This continued for several months. One day, the snake came out of its hole and bit their nanny goat. The poison of the snake was so fatal that it caused the immediate death of the goat. The household were now afraid of what had happened but the owner comforted them, saying, ‘The profit we are reaping by the means of the snake is much greater than the price of the goat. So there is no need to worry.’ After some time, the snake bit their donkey that also died on the spot. The owner also got worried this time but he managed to control himself due to the greed of wealth. He said, ‘I am seeing that the snake is constantly causing us loss. However, I will observe patience as long its loss is limited to animals, but not after that.’
Two years had passed but the snake did not bite anyone. The household also forgot about the loss of their animals. Then one day, the snake bit their servant. The poor servant loudly pleaded his master for help but his body had decayed due to the poison before his master could reach him. Worried, the