Avoid the forbidden (Haram)
When I was with my teacher (Sheikh), he put me to work for wages.
I used to work loading and unloading ships.
After working hard all day, whatever I earned, my teacher would only keep enough for two meals and donate the rest to charity.
One day I asked the reason for this wisdom.
He smiled and said: You do this work for eleven months, after that I will give you the answer.
I kept doing the same work for eleven months.
When my stipend was completed, one day the teacher said: Go to work today, when the work starts, pretend to be sick, don't work all day, take your wages in the evening and come back.
I followed the Sheikh's instructions.
I pretended to have a stomach ache all day, took my wages in the evening and came to the teacher.
The teacher said: Now keep the money for two meals and donate the rest to charity.
Believe me, that was the first day in eleven months that my heart did not want to donate to charity.
I ate my fill that day, but still my hunger did not end.
That night I locked my room for the first time.
I slept on a soft bed but could not sleep well.
The next day I smelled a bad odor from my body.
For the first time I had to apply perfume on my clothes.
Even in prayer, I did not feel the same pleasure as before.
I told my teacher about my whole condition.
He laughed and said: Son, this is the effect of the forbidden (Haram).
The forbidden (Haram) takes away the essence of blessings from a person's life and does not let a person remain human.
My teacher said that the forbidden (Haram) increases hunger, increases sleep, creates odor in the body, narrows the heart, shrinks the thinking and takes away peace from the soul.
Then he said: Remember, one day of the forbidden (Haram) torments for forty days.
In those forty days, a person is inclined towards lying, gossiping, greed arises in the heart, there is a tendency to deceive others and the anxiety to become rich increases.
I got scared and asked: What should I do if I want to avoid these bad effects?
He said: Fast and remain silent. These two will purify you from within.
Then he said: I am telling you what I have learned after forty years of asceticism.
This universe is a box with a heavy lock of secrets, and that lock opens with a name, and that name is Halal (lawful).
You keep increasing Halal (lawful) in your life, the doors of the universe will automatically open.
I asked: What is the identification of the forbidden (Haram)?
He said: Every thing in the world that creates greed in the heart after seeing, hearing, tasting or touching it, is the forbidden (Haram).
Avoid this forbidden (Haram), because it turns a person's existence into a graveyard, hollows it out from within, takes away all the honor, dignity and radiance of the face. Then neither at home, nor in the neighborhood, nor in the society, does a person have any value left.