Our community should not lose hope. The things just mentioned are not severe hardships. I truthfully say that God Almighty has eased our difficulties, because the pathways of our spiritual quest are different from those of others. The state of our spiritual quest does not arch our backs, or require us to lengthen our nails, or stand in water or sit in seclusion for extended periods of time, or freeze our hands in a certain position until they become lifeless, or ruin our physical appearances. By adopting such practices, in their own fancy, there are some who seek to become godly. But I observe that let alone finding God, these people even cease to remain human beings. However, this is not the manner of our spiritual quest. In fact, Islam has prescribed a very easy way and it is the wide and spacious path that is described by Allah the Exalted as follows:
اِهۡدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الۡمُسۡتَقِيۡمَ
Guide us in the right path.
Now when Allah the Exalted has taught us this supplication, He has not done so without providing us with the relevant means. Instead, on the one hand, where He has taught us this prayer, on the other hand He has also provided the means for its acceptance as well. As such, in the following chapter, He alludes to this acceptance where He states:
ذٰلِكَ الۡكِتٰبُ لَا رَيۡبَ ۚۖۛ فِيۡهِ ۚۛ هُدًي لِّلۡمُتَّقِيۡنَ
This is a perfect Book; there is no doubt in it.
This is a spiritual feast, as it were, with all the necessary arrangements made in ad- vance. Therefore, if a person makes use of the faculties with which they have been endowed, they can most definitely become a saint. I declare with certainty that many people are born in this community who possess immense power and who are replete with light, devotion and loyalty. No one should consider themselves deprived. Has God Almighty published some list of saints, so that one should think that they cannot be among them? God Almighty is remarkably generous. His generosity is a very deep ocean that can never be exhausted. No seeker or searcher has been left deprived. Therefore, you ought to wake during the night and offer supplications and seek God’s grace. There are numerous opportunities to offer supplications in the Prayer—the bowing position, while standing and sit- ting, and in prostration, etc. There are five Prayers that are to be offered in twenty four hours: Fajr, Zuhr, Asr, Maghrib and Isha. Above and beyond these there is the Ishraq Prayer and Tahajjud. All of these are opportunities for supplication.
(Malfuzat [English], Vol. 2, pp. 66-67)
