Part 47

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not fulfill the obligation? If it was hard for you to leave sins, exert your effort to make them love Allah through mentioning His blessings, favors, benefits, and attributes of perfection. The hearts are naturally disposed to love Allah, and if they were deeply attached to Him, leaving sins would be easy. Yahya bin Mu'adh said: the wise person when seeking this worldly life is better than the ignorant one who leaves it.

The wise man calls people to Allah while they are still enjoying their worldly life and the answer would be easy but the pious person calls them to Allah through leaving this worldly life. Weaning human beings is hard when they are used to being fed from this breast (this worldly life), but we should choose the better and greater suckling mother; as milk influences the nature of man. The milk of a bad mother results in a bad child. The best kind of suckling is what is had after starvation. If you have the power to bear the pains of weaning, get a reasonable amount, as some kinds of indigestion cause death.

Chapter: Three Precious Gems

There is a great difference between observing duties while in difficulty, and observing them while in a good condition.

Verily, the real servant of Mine is the one who remembers Me at the time of distress (fighting).

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which means, “O you who believe! When you meet (an enemy) force, take a firm stand against them and remember the Name of Allah much (both with tongue and mind), so that you may be successful.” (Al-Anfal, 8:45)

It is not astonishing to see someone in good health, free and performing religious deeds, but the astonishing thing is to see

someone who is weak, unhealthy, has many irons in the fire, does not have a Stable condition and at the same time observes his religious duties, without failing to perform anything he is supposed to do.

Chapter: Knowing Allah Knowing Allah, Exalted be He, is of two kinds:

One: awareness of confession, which includes all people: the righteous and the wicked, the obedient and the disobedient.

Two: awareness that necessitates being shy of Him, showing love to Him, being aware of Him in the heart, yearning to meet Him, fearing Him, turning to Him and repenting to Him, being at ease with everything concerning Him and fleeing from creation to Him.

This is the special awareness that is on the lips of all people. Their various levels can only be counted by the One Who informed them about Himself and made them aware of some of His knowledge that He concealed from others, and each one of them indicated this awareness according to his status and that which had been disclosed to him.

The most knowledgeable in creation about Him said, “! do not count any praise for You, You are as You have praised Yourself.” &* He also said that on the Day of Resurrection, Allah, the Almighty would reveal to him some words of praise that he is not able to pronounce now.

Concerning this awareness, there are two large sections:

Section one: thinking and meditation on all the Qur’anic Verses, and the special understanding about Allah and His Messenger (peace be upon him).

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Section two: thinking about His Visual Signs, and meditating on His Wisdom in them, His Strength, His Courtesy, His Kindness, His Justice, His Fairness and always maintaining His creation with justice. in a few words: to be knowledgeable of the meaning of His Beautiful Names, their Majesty, their Perfection, His Uniqueness, and their connection with the creation and the orders of Allah. He would then be an expert concerning His Commandments and Prohibitions, an expert concerning His Fate and Destiny, an expert concerning His Beautiful Names and Attributes, an expert concerning religious judgments and the judgment of this worldly life, and that is just as it is in the Qur’anic verse,

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which means, “That is the Grace of Allah which He bestows on whom He pleases. And Allah is the Owner of Great Bounty.” (Al-Hadid, 57:21)

Chapter: Licit and Illicit Gains There are four ways of gaining wealth:

Wealth gained by obeying Allah and spent in the way of Allah, and that is the best wealth.

Wealth gained by disobeying Allah and spent in disobeying Allah, and that is the worst.

Wealth gained by doing harm to a Muslim, and spent in doing harm to a Muslim, that is also the worst.

Wealth gained licitly, and spent on lawful desires, and that is neither for him nor against him.

These are the principle ways of gaining wealth and spending them.

There are some other ways that branch out from them:

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Wealth gained rightly, and spent illicitly.

Wealth gained illicitly, and spent rightly. Therefore, spending it is its expiation.

Wealth gained in a doubtful way, and its expiation is to spend it on dutifulness to Allah.

And just as reward, punishment, praise and dispraise are connected to spending wealth, in the same way, they are connected to gaining it. Moreover, a man will be asked about his expenditure, where he gained it, and on what he spent it.

Chapter: Consolation of the Believers There are different ways of consoling the believers: Consolation with wealth. Consolation with high rank. Consolation with body and service. Consolation with advice and instruction. Consolation with supplication and seeking forgiveness for them. Consolation by sympathizing with them.

These forms of consolation are according to the faith of the servant. Whenever the faith is weak, the consolation would also be weak. But whenever the faith is firm, the consolation would also be so. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was the person who consoled his Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) the most, and his followers’ consolation is according to the degree in which they follow him.

Some people once visited Bishr Al-Hafi on a very cold day. He had no clothes on and was shaking. They said, “O Abu Nasr, what is this?, he said, “Il remembered the poor people and the cold weather they are suffering from, and as | have nothing to

console them, | decided to sympathize with them in their cold weather.”

Chapter: Unawareness Causes Hardship

Being unaware of the way leading to Allah, its difficulty and purpose causes many problems and has little benefit, because the person may exert great effort in performing supererogatory duties, while neglecting a religious obligation. He may preoccupy himself with a deed connected with the body, while having something else in the heart, or a deed of the heart, without any action from the body. He may have great determination concerning a deed, without observing its purpose. He may perform a deed without being cautious of its evil consequences, while performing the deed and after performing it.

He may undertake a deed without acknowledging Aliah’s Kindness in it, by feeling that he participated in the fulfillment of the deed, and not by the Grace of Allah. It may be a deed where he failed to observe his heedlessness in it, and excuse for it. It may be a deed where he did not give its due in full like advice and kindness, while thinking that he gave it its due. All these decrease the fruit of the deed, in addition to a lot of trouble. It is Only Allah Who grants success.

Chapter: The Journey to Allah, Exalted be He, and its Obstacles

When the servant is determined to follow the way that leads to Allah, Exalted be He, he would be confronted with tricks and hindrances. Initially, he may be deceived by lusts, sovereignty, pleasures, spouses and clothes, and if he yields to them, he would give up, and if he rejects them and does not yield to them and was sincere in his cause, he would be tried with his children, by receiving more importance among people, by people supplicating for him, by people seeking blessing from

him, and so on. If he yields to them, he would not be able to continue on the way to Allah, and that would be his share. And if he is able to reject them, and does not yield to them, he would be tried by miracles and discoveries.

lf he yields to them. he would cease to continue on his journey to Allah, and that would be his share. If he does not yield, he would be tried by renunciation, the pleasure of being with Allah, the honor of solitude and giving up worldly pleasures. If he yields to that, he would be quitting the purpose.

And if he does not yield to that, he will continue, keeping an eye on his duty to Allah, and that which pleases Him, in order to be His true servant, no matter how or when. Whether this situation was the cause of his difficulty or rest; whether he enjoyed it or suffered from it, and whether it made him be with people or isolated him from them.

He does not choose for himself, except that which his Lord and Master chooses for him. He must approve of His Order and fulfill it according to his ability. His own self is less important to himself than placing its rest and pleasure over the pleasure of His Master and His Order. This would be the servant who would have reached the end of the journey, and was able to fulfill His orders and nothing was able to prevent him from his Master. And it is only through Allah that real success is achieved.

Chapter: Kinds of Grace There are three kinds of grace: Grace that is present, and the servant is aware of it. Grace that is expected and hoped for. Grace the servant is enjoying but does not feel it.

If it pleases Allah to perfect His Grace upon His Servant, He would make him aware of His Present Grace, and grant him

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the ability to be grateful as a preservation of this grace, for it disappears with disobedience; but with gratitude, it remains. He would also make it easy for him to perform deeds that would bring forth the expected grace, and make him see the causes that ruin this grace, and help him to stay away from them. In no time, it would come to him in abundance. And then, He would make him aware of the grace he is enjoying but not feeling.