“You gave Zakat on your legs this year.” He asked a strange question. I stopped in confusion, the beautiful garden of London Regent Park was spread out in front, the evening was slowly falling in the windows, the greenery of trees, flowering plants. I smelled of rain. We were walking slowly in a few moments on the beautiful track inside the park, he was telling me stories of evenings in the suburbs of Geneva, Switzerland. He had returned from summer vacation a week ago. The evening was also beautiful, the scenery was fantastic, and the conversation was full of life. As we walked, we reached the highest corner of the park, from where part of the city of London was visible, but as we walked, knowing what came to his mind, he stopped and asked a pointless question. Have you paid the Zakat of your eyes? There was both surprise and worry in my silence. Baba ji touched the tip of the shoe with a fragrant, sophisticated, and pleasant stick and laughed and said, “Well then you have given your arms, hands, eyes, The tax of the ears and the tongue would have been given.”
My worry turned to fear, I realized, Babaji belongs to those whose minds stop working at this high corner of such a beautiful park. I looked back and forth like a frightened bird, far and wide. There were no human beings, only thick trees, bushes, and the city of London at the foot of the park in front. A shiver ran down my spine, I thought they were going to move forward, snap my neck and throw me into a bush. They sensed my condition, laughed and slowly started walking back. I started walking behind them at a little distance.
“Three years ago,” his voice hit my hearing like a rock that tumbled down a slope, “Three years ago, when a man asked me this question, I had the same feelings as you are thinking about me now, but consider Did I know, I was crazy before this question, you will also come to the same conclusion”. My doubt turned into reality; I was convinced that Babaji had really gone crazy. In my life, I had never heard such nonsense from his mouth. Stop for a while and look up at the sky and say, “Look! Whatever we earn in social life, the government receives its share, this share it spends on making the environment better, more favourable than before. So that we can earn more, live better, this part of the government we call taxes. Religion also asks for a part of our annual savings, our earnings, it is called Zakat. We pay taxes every year, We take out Zakat, it is our duty and our responsibility, I am right!
He stepped forward and put his hand on my shoulder to confirm it, I saw a strange kind of horror in his eyes, I immediately nodded yes. He laughed and waved the stick in the air like a sword and walked on. We forget our real duty, our real responsibility. I felt his voice confused with the bushes, we have legs, they are a miracle of nature, a great reward, a great blessing. I also saw people living life without legs, believe me, calling this life a life and a human being, the heart fills with sorrow and the words with blood. We have arms, the glass of our life is half empty without them, we have hands, we cannot call life without them, just think! A person who cannot feel the coldness of ice with his fingers and the warmth of a hot cup, how incomplete, how incomplete his life is, our eyes.
Pointing to the British Telecom Tower in front, he said, “Look, how many thousands of colors, how many millions of reflections of nature are there from the top of this tall tower, can life be considered complete without these colours and reflections?” No, of course not, until I see the twinkle in my granddaughter’s eyes, I don’t feel myself. The colors of flowers, the flying spray of rain, the rainbow that appears in front of me decorated with beautiful colours, the beautiful sky that changes curves and the circles that shake and tremble in the lakes chasing each other are life for me. If these eyes were not there, the hands would have to touch the colors, but even so, we could never be aware of the beauty of these colors, the meanings of the rising sun and the deepening evening should become one. Let the sun, which emits more than twelve trillion forty billion 87 million rays in an hour, set in the two-millimetre pupil of our eye.
We have ears, just listen! Your ears are listening to the whispers from these rustling wind trees, the rustling of the leaves and the heart-stirring music is telling you something, see the butterfly fly from the daisy flower, hear the rustling of its wings, there is life in that rustling. . Flowing in front of the steps of the park and the sounds from the busy city are reaching you and your ears are identifying them, just think! Think for a moment, all these voices become mute, your ears become stone, you cannot hear anything, you can see water, you can see foam flying from its existence, but you cannot hear their voice, then your How deaf, how dumb life is. Where does the intense feeling of incompleteness stop your way, people attract you with their hands instead of voice and you think of stumbles and stutters as sound, and this which the creator has given us language, this is our thought, our idea an identity and Provides a picture to understand. It gives them enchanting beauty, gives them a shape and gives them a body. It gives them clothes of words, similes, and metaphors. If there is no language, then there are no words. , neither can I tell you anything nor can you hear anything from me. After saying that, they became silent and closed their eyes and drowned in what thought!
I was drifting in the stream of his thoughts when I heard again, my friends these legs, these arms, these hands, these eyes, these ears, and this tongue are our real reserve bank, all our life’s earnings, all our wealth. It is collected in it. If one of these lockers is locked forever, our money, our earnings will be lost, we will be poor, we will be bankrupt and ruined. A poor person is not one who has nothing to live on in the future, a poor person is one who has no feet or is deprived of other body parts. Pay the tax of your feet, legs, arms and eyes, take their zakat. If it is not taken out, nature will collect this tax, this zakat in the same way as the governments collect it through extortion.” He became silent and I looked at him and he turned his face to the other side with tears in his eyes. They were trying to hide from me, and I felt as if someone had suddenly handed me a bailiff’s notice to seize my house and all my assets.
How should we pay this tax or zakat? The first time I dared to ask? “Yes,” he twirled his wand, “a wheelchair, a wooden leg, an arm, an eye operation for a blind person, a hearing aid, quietly paying for the medical expenses of a white-collar patient, a poor widow. Bearing the expenses of a girl’s marriage or taking responsibility for the maintenance of an orphaned child, is the zakat of this reserve bank of life and a lot of thanks and a lot of repentance for this earnings, charity for this fund” They became silent, they said something. He thought and then slowly said in a cold voice, “How foolish we are, those who earn in the world, we keep paying its taxes all our lives, but the wealth that our creator gives us as a reward without any effort or compensation. We do not even give thanks for what nature gives us. Alas, we have eyes, but we do not see the blindness of the blind, we do not see the colors of the countless blessings of our Lord! If you are able to see and understand the colors of God, then you will find your own cradle narrow while embracing the colors of your creator. There will be abundance of these colors in your mind’s treasury when you distribute these colors among your brothers and sisters without discrimination. will make it your slogan”. Listen to what Allah is saying in His Word:
So, which of the blessings of your Lord will you deny?
اے چشمِ شوق خونِ جگر لا اچھال کر
سنتا ہوں ان کواشکِ ندامت پسند ہے
Oh passion of my eye, bring the blood of my liver
I hear they love tears of regret
