Advice of Scholars - SUPERIORITY OF THE POOR PEOPLE WHO ARE PATIENT

Hadrat Imâm-i Rabbânî says in the  38th letter of the third volume of his Maktûbât:

It was informed that the poor ones of this Ummat would go to Paradise half a day before the rich ones. This half day is equal to five hundred worldly years. For, one day expressed by Allâhu ta’âlâ is as long as a thousand worldly years. It is declared clearly in Hajj Sûra that this is so. Allâhu ta’âlâ, alone, knows why it is that long. For, the next world does not have the night, the day, the month or the year, which exist in the world.

The poor people having the privilege of going to Paradise earlier are those poor people who obey the Sharî’at and who are patient. To obey the Sharî’at means to do what the Sharî’at commands and to avoid what it prohibits. And there are grades, degrees in poverty. The highest of grades is obtained in the rank of fanâ. A faqîr who is in this grade knows everything other than Allâhu ta’âlâ as poor, needy. [There is not a creature who does not need Allâhu ta’âlâ, that is, who is not poor before Him. ] He forgets all creatures. He remembers none of them.

He who has attained all grades of poverty is superior to the one who has attained a few. It is for this reason that the state of a person who has reached the grade of fanâ and who is poor, needy outwardly is better, more valuable than that of a person who has reached the grade of fanâ but who is not poor outwardly.