Part 32

190 * AL-FAWA'ID: A Collection of Wise Sayings

as the words of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), “The dearest deed to Allah is the performance of prayer at its due time.”“6

And his hadith, “Shall | inform you about the best of your deeds, the most virtuous and pure in the sight of the Owner, the heaviest in the (scale of} your grades and better for you than confronting your enemy while you fight them and they fight you?” Thereupon they said, “Yes, Messenger of Allah”, then he said, “Remembering Allah.” *” And his hadith, “You should know that the best of your deeds is the performance of prayer...’ and so on.

Furthermore, abandoning a sin is a deed, which is refraining oneself from an action. That is why, Allah, the Almighty related love to the undertaking of commands by saying,

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which means, “Verily, Allah loves those who fight in His Cause in rows (ranks)...” (As-Saff, 61:4)

which means, “verily, Allah loves A/-Muhsinin (the gooddoers).”

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which means, “And be equitable. Verily! Allah loves those who are equitable.” (Al-Hujurat, 49:9)

which means, “And Allah loves As-Sabirin (the patient ones,

which means, “And Allah likes not mischief.” (Al-Baqarah,

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which means, “And Allah likes not prideful boasters.” (Al-Hadid,

which means, “But transgress not the limits. Truly, Allah likes not the transgressors. [This Verse is the first one that was revealed in connection with Jihdd, but it was supplemented by another].” (Al-Baqarah, 2:190)

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in public except by him who has been wronged.” (An-Nisa’,

which means, “Verily, Allah does not like such as are proud and boastful.” (An-Nisa’,4:36)

192 * AL-FAWA'ID: A Collection of Wise Sayings

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which means, “All the bad aspects of these (the above mentioned things) are hateful to your Lord.” (Al-Isra’, 17:38)

which means, “That is because they followed that which angered Allah.” (Muhammad, 47:28)

The previously mentioned verses lead us to understand that the deeds that please Allah, the Almighty are meant for the sake of their own virtue. That is why He preordains what He hates because it leads to what pleases Him.

He has also preordained wrongdoing, disbelief and wickedness

due to what results from them like fighting in the Cause of Allah, martyrdom, repentance, invocation, submission, manifesting His Justice, Forgiveness, Revenge and Glorification, in addition to showing loyalty and hostility for His Sake, and other deeds. They are dearer to Him than removing their causes.

Therefore, it should now be clear that undertaking what pleases Him is dearer to Him than avoiding what He hates.

Point four clarifies that: obeying a command is meant for the sake of its own virtue, while abandoning a sin is meant to be done for the completion of the command. Allah, the Exalted, informed us that the prohibition of intoxicants and gambling is because they hinder man from remembering Allah and performing prayer. So, the prohibited acts are simply those that hinder man from obeying commands or perfecting them.

Point five clarifies that: obeying commands is a form of maintaining faith, while abandoning sins is a form of protecting faith from being disturbed. Maintaining faith is worthier than the

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act of protection, because the more the power of faith becomes stronger, the more it can push away evil elements, and when it becomes weak, the evil elements will prevail.

Point six: obeying commands is a revival, nourishment, adornment, joy, delight of the eye, pleasure and grace of the heart, while abandoning sins without obeying commands, would not benefit anything and shall abide in the Hellfire for ever.

Point seven: whoever undertakes both the prescribed and the forbidden deeds would either be saved if his good deeds exceed his sins, otherwise he would be saved after being punished for his misdeeds. Therefore, his abode would be salvation by virtue of obeying the commands.

On the contrary, whoever abandons both the prescribed and the prohibited deeds would be ruined, and would never be saved except by obeying the command, which is monotheism.

It could be argued that he would be ruined due to committing the prohibited, which is polytheism. This could be responded to by saying that it is enough to be ruined by abandoning monotheism, which has been commanded even if he does not commit polytheism, and moreover, when his heart becomes void of monotheism, and has not adopted monotheism, he would be ruined even if he does not worship anything with Allah. And if the worship of other than Him is added to that, he would be punished for abandoning monotheism, in addition to committing polytheism, which is prohibited.

Point eight: concerning he who is called to faith, if he says, “I neither believe nor disbelieve, | neither love nor hate and | neither worship Him (Allah) nor worship other than Him,” he will be a disbeliever by virtue of abandonment and renunciation. However, if he says, "i believe in the Messenger, | love him, | have faith in him and do whatever he orders me, but my desires, will and nature are controlling me in such a way that |

cannot abandon what he has prohibited me. | know quite well that he has prohibited me to do certain deeds, but | cannot quit them.” In this case, he would not be considered a disbeliever, and his judgment is not like that of the first one, for he is obedient to some extent.

Point nine: both obedience and disobedience are basically related to the command and subsequently to the forbidden, in other words, the obedient one complies with the command while the disobedient one abandons it. Allah, Exalted be He, says,

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which means, "who disobey not, (from executing) the Commands they receive from Allah." (At-Tahrim, 66:6)

And Misa (Moses) said to his brother,

which means, "O Hardin (Aaron)! What stopped you when you saw them going astray; "That you followed me not (according to my advice to you)? Have you then disobeyed my order?" (Taha,

On his death, ‘Amr bin Al-'As said, "O Allah! | am the one whom You commanded, but unfortunately, | disobeyed (Your order), but (I testify that) there is no god but You.”

The purpose of sending messengers is to obey them. By obeying the messengers we automatically comply with His orders. Abandoning what has been forbidden is the completion of obedience and accordingly, if the prohibited deeds are abandoned while the command is not obeyed, surely he would not be obedience. On one hand, he would be considered obedient as he obeyed the command, but on the other hand he

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would be considered disobedient because he performed a prohibited act. Thus he is completely different from the one who abandoned the command.

Point ten: complying with a command is an act of worship, a duty and a means of closeness to Allah, and that is the reason why man was created. Allah, Exalted be He, said,

which means, "And | (Allah) created not the jinns and humans except they should worship Me (Alone)." (Adh-Dh€ariyat, 51:56)

In this verse, Allah, Exalted be He, informs mankind that the purpose of their creation is to worship Him and to know Him. In the same way, He sent them His Messengers and revealed His Divine Books so that they might know and worship Him. Therefore, worshipping Allah and Knowing Him is the purpose for which they have been created. Abandoning prohibited acts is not an end in itself, however, the act of complying with a command is required.

Point eleven: prohibition means that certain acts are not to be performed i.e., it is a not-to-do command; whereas a command requires an action to be followed, i.e., a to-do command. Therefore, the reality of prohibition returns to compliance to the command, and in this way the prohibition contains a ‘to-do’ command to be followed.

Point twelve: Muslim scholars have different views concerning the significance of performing a prohibited action. (1) The majority of scholars stated that the significance lies in keeping oneself away from the prohibited action and to maintain selfcontrol. They based their argument on the premise that a ‘todo’ command focuses on matters that exist while a ‘not-docommand’ focuses on matters that do not exist.

196 * Al-FAWA'ID: A Collection of Wise Sayings

(2) The scholar Abu Hashim and others viewed that abiding by prohibitions signifies avoiding an action. The result of this is to keep that action in a state of non-existence, even if the action has not yet occurred to him, as well as keeping his intention clear to keep away from it. If the significance of avoiding prohibited matters was just to keep away from the prohibition, the person would be a sinner if he did not undertake it.

(3) The judge Abu Bakr says that prohibitions are preordained and what is important here is to keep the act in a state of nonexistence.

(4) Another group of scholars say that a command to keep away from something basically means to do the opposite action, for it is a preordainment. Allah only prohibits man from depravity for the sake of abstinence, and that is what is commanded, and He prohibited him from wrongdoing for the sake of justice, which is necessary to be followed, and He prohibited him from lying for the sake of telling the truth. This is the case for all prohibitions.

According to them, the core matter of a prohibition is the command for the opposite of the prohibited act; the command has then returned to the fact that required a deed to be performed.

The correct view is that an ordainment can be classified into two categories: that which is sought for the virtue of its own self, and another that is pursued for the sake of something else. If the person did not feel like doing an evil deed or his own self did not urge him to do it, and the act remained in the original state of nonexistence, he would not be rewarded for keeping away from the prohibition.