Three conditions are tokens of the
servant’s happiness [sa’adat al-abd], and the signs of his success in this
world and the next. No servant is without them, but is always shifting from one
to the other.
These are:
1. When blessed, he gives thanks (Shukr);
2. when tried with difficulties/trials,
he perseveres (Sabr); and
3. when sinful, he seeks forgiveness (Tawba).
1. Shukr for blessings: The first condition is the
blessings which come to the servant from Allaah سُبحانه
وتعالى, one after another. What secures them
is gratitude [Shukr], based on three supports: (a) inward
recognition of the blessing; (b) outward mention and thanks
for it; (c) and its use in a way that pleases the One to
whom it truly belongs and who truly bestows it.
Acting thus, the
servant shows his gratitude for the blessing—however brief.
2. Sabr in trials: The second is the trials from
Allaah سُبحانه وتعالى which
test the servant, whose duty therein is patience [sabr] and forbearance: (a) to
restrain himself from anger with what is decreed; (b) to restrain
his tongue from complaint; (c) to restrain his limbs from offenses, such as striking one’s face in grief, rending one’s clothes, tearing
one’s hair and like acts.
Patience, then, rests
on these three supports, and if the servant maintains them as he should, affliction will become benefaction, trial will change to
bounty and what he disliked will become what he loves.
For
Allaah سُبحانه وتعالى does
not try the servant in order to destroy him. Rather, He سُبحانه
وتعالى tries him to put his patience and
devotion [al-ubudiyya] to the test.
For the servant owes
devotion to Allaah in affliction as in ease. He must have as much devotion in
what he hates as in what he loves. And while most people offer devotion in what
they love, it is important to do so in the things they hate. It is by this that servants’ ranks are distinguished and
their stations determined.
Ablution with cold
water in searing heat is devotion. Sexual relations with one’s beautiful and
beloved spouse is devotion. Spending money for her, for one’s children and for
oneself is devotion. It is devotion no less than ablution with cold water in
the bitter cold; giving up vice to which one’s soul is driven without fear of
people; and giving charity in hardship.
But there is a great
difference between the [two kinds] of devotion.
He who is
Allaah’s servant in both states, maintaining his duty in both comfort and
adversity, is the one to whom His words refer, ‘Is
not Allaah sufficient for His servant?’
With complete
devotion comes complete sufficiency, and with less comes what is less. Let him
who discerns some good give praise to Allaah,
but let whoever finds something other than this blame
no one but himself.
These are the servants over whom Allaah’s Foe has no control. Allaah سُبحانه
وتعالى said [to the Devil], ‘Lo! As for My servants, you have no power over them.”
And when His Foe [Iblees] learned that He would not let His devoted servants
yield to him or give him control over them, he proclaimed, ‘Then by Your Might, I will surely beguile them all save for
Your sincere servants among them. And Allaah سُبحانه
وتعالى said, ‘And
Iblees found his calculation true, for they [all] followed him save a group of
true believers. And he had no warrant whatsoever over [any of] them save that
We might know the ones who believe in the hereafter from those who doubt it.’
Allaah
سُبحانه
وتعالى will not yield to His Foe control over
His faithful servants. They are in His protection and His care. If the Devil
robs any of them, as the thief robs the heedless man, this cannot be avoided,
because by heedlessness, passion and anger is the
servant tried. It is by these same three doors that the Devil comes to him.
Try as he may to protect himself, the servant is bound to be heedless and given
to passion and anger.
3.
Tawba after sinning: Adam, the
father of all humanity, was the most discerning of creatures, their superior in
wisdom, and the most steadfast. Yet the Foe kept after him until he made him
fall into that which he fell. What then of someone with the reason of a moth,
whose intelligence compared to that of his father [Adam] is like a spittle in
the ocean? Still, the Foe of Allaah obtains nothing from a faithful person
except by robbing him in [a moment on inattention and carelessness. And when he
causes him to fall, the servant may think that he can never again face his
Lord, that this fall has carried him away and destroyed him. Yet behind it all is Allaah’s grace, mercy, clemency and
forgiveness.
For if
Allaah intends what is good for His servant, He will then open for him the
doors of repentance [al-tawba] and remorse, abasement and humility, dependence
and need; the doors of the request for Allaah’s help and protection; the doors
of perpetual humility, supplication and the approach towards Him by means of
whatever good works he can manage—so that his wrong may become a means to
Allaah’s mercy. For the Foe says,
‘Alas,
I left him without causing him to fall!’
This is what one of
the early believers [Salaf] meant when he said, ‘A person may commit a sin
by which he goes to heaven and a good deed by which he goes to hell.’
‘How?’ someone asked. He replied, ‘Having committed
the sin, he is ever watchful in fear, regretful, timorous, lamenting, shamed
before his Lord, his head in his hands and his heart rent. The sin that brings
him all that we have mentioned, wherein lie his happiness and salvation, is
more beneficial to him than numerous devotional acts. Indeed, it becomes the
means by which he enters Heaven.
[On the
other hand], he may perform a goodly deed and constantly laud it before his
Lord, wax proud, boast, become vain and haughty with it, as he says, ‘I did this,
I did that.’ His self-importance, pride and arrogance provide him only with the
means to his own ruin. If Allaah intends then what is good for this miserable
person, He will try him through something that breaks [his pride], abases him
and reduces his self-importance. But if He intends otherwise, He will leave him
to his self-importance and pride, and this misfortune is what leads to his
ruin.’
{From Ibnul Qayyim al-Jawziyyah’s
‘The Invocation of God’ (Al-Wabil al-Sayyib)}
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