Miftah-ul-Janna (Booklet for way to Paradise)

and knowledgeable person, on the other hand, will like people
who help him to become a cultivated person. In short, good people
will like good people. Evil people will like evil people. How a
certain person is will be judged by observing the people he likes
and prefers to make friends with. We should treat everyone with a
similing face and with sweet words, friend and foe alike, and
Muslim and non-Muslim alike, with the exception of people of
bid’at. The most useful favour to be granted to people and the
most valuable present to be given to them is to talk plesantly with
them and to smile at them. When we see people worshipping an
ox, we should feed straw to the mouth of the ox, thereby
forestalling their enmity towards us. We should not dispute with
anyone. Disputes will impair friendships and exacerbate enmities.
We should not be angry with anyone. Anger will cause neuralgia
and heart diseases. A hadîth-i-sherîf dissuades: “Do not become
wrathful!” (In this hadîth-i-sherîf the blessed Prophet advises us to
avoid anger.)
A person will be a good (and useful) one if he conceals four
things:
1– His poverty;
2– His alms;
3– His afflictions;
4– His troubles.
Paradise pines after four people:
1– A person whose tongue makes dhikr.
2– A person who is a hâfid-i-kalâmullah.
3– A person who feeds people.
4– A person who fasts in the blessed month of Ramadân.
Every person should never cease from the seven utterances
written below:
They should say the Basmala-i-sherîfa whenever they are to
start doing something (good, useful, or permissible). (To say or
make the Basmala means to say, “Bismillâh-ir-Rahmân ir-
Rahîm.”)
They should say, “Al-hamd-u-lillah,” whenever they are
through with something (good or useful or permissible).
They should add the utterance, “Inshâ-Allah,” whenever they
say, for instance, “I will go to (a certain place).”
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