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   Later, although it had no connection with this and there was no reason for it, we both began walking till we reached the top of the mountain. There was a little water in the ewer, and we had a small piece of sugar and some tea. I said to him: "Brother! Make some tea!" He set about making it and I sat down under a cedar-tree overlooking a deep ravine. I thought regretfully to myself: we have a bit of mouldy bread which will only just be enough for us this evening. What shall we do for two days and what shall I say to this ingenuous man? While thinking this, I suddenly turned my head involuntarily and I saw a huge loaf of bread on the cedar-tree in among the branches; it was facing us. I exclaimed: "Siileyman! Good news! Almighty God has sent us food." We took the bread and examining it, saw that no bird or wild animal had touched it. And for twenty or thirty days no one at all had climbed to the top of that mountain. The bread was sufficient for us for the two days. While we were eating and it was about to be finished, righteous Siileyman who had been the most loyal of loyal friends for four years, suddenly appeared from below with more bread. The Fourth: I bought this sack coat I'm wearing seven years ago second-hand. In five years I have spent only four and a half liras on clothes, underwear, slippers, and stockings. Frugality and divine mercy and the resulting plenty have sufficed me. Thus, there are numerous things like these examples and numerous sorts of divine blessings. The people of this village know most of them. But do not suppose I am mentioning them out of pride, I have been forced to, rather. But do not think they were due to my goodness. These instances of plenty were either bestowal to the sincere friends who have visited me, or a bestowal on account of service to the Qur'an, or an abundance and benefit resulting from frugality, or they have been sustenance for the four cats I have which recite the Divine names "O Most Compassionate One! O Most Compassionate One!", which comes in the form of plenty and from which I benefit too. Yes, if you listen carefully to their mournful mia-owings, you will understand that they are saying, "O Most Compassionate One! O Most Compassionate One!" We have arrived at the subject of cats and it has recalled the hen. I have a hen. This winter every day almost without exception she brought me an egg from the treasury of mercy. Then one day she brought me two eggs and I was astonished. I asked my friends "How can this be?" They replied: "Perhaps it is a divine gift." The hen also has a young chick she hatched in the summer. It started to lay at the beginning of Ramadan and continued for forty days. Neither I nor those who assist me have any doubt that, being both young, and in winter, and in Ramadan, this blessed situation was a Divine gift and bestowal. And whenever the mother stopped laying, it immediately started, not leaving me without eggs. Double click for meaning of the world. | |||
