called Ayyaz. Sultan Mahmud loved Ayyaz verymuch because of his
greatwisdom. From time to time, Sultan would test Ayyaz with various
things to see how much love Ayyaz had for him. One day, Sultan Mahmud
gathered the most bitter fruits from his garden andcalled Ayyaz.
Sultan told Ayyaz to eat them. Ayyaz took the fruits in his hands and
kissed them and then started eating them without any hesitation.
Sultan observed that Ayyaz was eating the fruits with great pleasure
and the bitter taste was not affecting him in any way. Now Sultan
started thinking that he might've picked the wrong fruits, so, he took
one of the fruits from Ayyaz to find out. As soon as Sultan took a
bite, he was overwhelmed by the bitterness of the fruit and started
screaming for water. When Sultan settled down, he asked Ayyaz why he
was unaffected by the fruits. Ayyaz said "You only see the bitterness
of the fruitsbut you don't see the one who gave them to me? They were
given to me bythe king himself!"
My dear friends, today we find some commandments of Allah to be bitter
and hard to follow. However, we should rather follow themwith great
love because they were given to us by the King of all kings, Allah.
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