…so his parable is as the parable of the dog...

…so his parable is as the parable of the dog; if you attack him he lolls out his tongue; and if you leave him alone he lolls out his tongue; this is the parable of the people who reject Our communications; therefore relate the narrative that they may reflect. (7:176) *** *** Will you not take a lesson? Will you not be warned? Adulteration brought calamity on the perfumer The author of Muntakhabut Tawarikh writes that, in Kerbala, there was a perfumer who was famous for his piety and fear of God.

When he fell ill and his illness prolonged, a friend went to see him and found that nothing remained in his house and everything was sold out. A straw mat, which used to remain under his feet, was now serving as his pillow. The businessman had come down in such a condition. Meanwhile his son came and said, “O father!

Today we have no money to purchase your medicines.” The sick man removed the mat from under his head and, giving it to his son, said, “Sell this also and let us see whether I recover or not.” The visitor asked, “What is all this?” The sick man replied, “In Kerbala, I was an agent of a limejuice company of Shiraz. I was importing limejuice and selling it profitably. Once, Kerbala was caught in a widespread typhoid fever and doctors announced that lemon water was the best remedy for it.

On the first day, I did nothing. On the second, I told myself, ‘Why should I sell limejuice so cheap when there are so many buyers?’ So I doubled and then multiplied its price and the people were forced to purchase it. Seeing the shortage of limejuice I thought that all the stocks would be sold out even at that high price. So I added water to it and also prepared artificial limejuice. In this way, I gathered a lot of money, but after sometime, thereafter, I fell ill and became bedridden.

For my treatment, I had to spend all I had earned from limejuice business. You can see that now the only straw mat I had, is also gone. Let us see if I can recover from my illness after this.” …most surely there is a lesson in this for those who have sight. (24:44) *** *** It is not that this is only by way of punishment. Sometimes a slight punishment is given so that others may take lesson; otherwise the real chastisement is after death. Just think how many are destroyed in the path of passions?

O dear youth! You should control your eyes right from the start.