The Concealing of Virtue

On hearing the views of certain friends in relation to various expenses, the Promised Messiah^as said: “Allah the Exalted knows well that I possess such tolerance as far as food is concerned that I can very easily eat twice a day on one paisa alone. Once, I was intrigued at heart to see the extent to which a human being can bear hunger. To test this, I ate nothing for six months—I would have a morsel or two every now and then. After six months, I estimated that I could extend this state of affairs to even six years. During this time, I continuously received my meals from home twice a day but I desired to keep this state of mine a secret. The difficulty that I bore in order to keep this secret was a burden that perhaps others could not bear due to hunger; I would distribute those two meals to two or three people in need. In this state, I would offer my five daily prayers in the mosque and none of the people who knew me could tell by any signs that I was eating nothing.”

(Malfuzat [English], Vol. 2, p.172)