Do not deny yourself the little pleasures you can afford now. Let life test your abstinence with the many desires you cannot fulfil. Is it not good sense that having a strong will means obtaining what you want rather than abstaining from what you want?
This reminds me of a story:
Hodja’s wife bought some halwa. As it was the holy month of Ramadan, Nasreddin only had some of it, his preferred sweet, after sundown. The evening was too short to swallow it all. Quite a lot remained on the plate.
They went to sleep but the Hodja couldn’t close an eye, half of the night. The remaining halwa, in the kitchen, spoiled his sleep.
“There is halwa left” moaned he after a while.
“Don’t worry, it’s safe in the kitchen, covered with a napkin, the flies won’t touch it” said Khadija.
Soon Nasreddin started again,
“I didn’t finish the halwa!”
“Never mind, you’ll have it tomorrow night”
After another while, Hodja jumped out of the bed and run to the kitchen. He ate the whole lot, to the last crumb and went back to bed with a full belly and comforted at last.
“Why this gluttony” said Khadija “the halwa was all yours, safe in the kitchen”.
“No, woman, it was in my head. The right resting place for halwa is not in the head, but in the stomach where it belongs.”
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