Part 53

A Precious Gem: The Best Kinds of Remembrance

Among those who remember Allah are those who begin remembering with the tongue even if he is negligent. He

continues to do so until his heart is involved too. Others do not agree with that and do not start while in a state of negligence, but instead wait until the heart is ready. He begins with his heart and then involves his tongue in remembrance. The first supplication goes from his tongue to his heart and the second from his heart to his tongue without empting any of the contents of his heart. He just waits until he feels that the utterance is ready to be verbalized. When he feels that his heart will utter, then the heart’s utterance would pass to verbal utterance. Then he would engross himself in that until he finds that every part of his being is supplicating Allah. The best and more useful kind of supplication is what the heart and tongue are involved in, to be from among the prophetic supplications, and whoever is reciting it feels its meaning and aims.

Chapter: The Most Useful and the Most Harmful of People

The most useful person is the one who allows a person to implant goodness inside him or to do him a favor, as this help is the means to attaining benefit and perfection. In fact, both the giver and the receiver benefit. from this. The most harmful of people are those who overpower you until you disobey Allah. Such people only help you to harm yourself and decrease your morality.

A Precious Gem: Forbidden Pleasure

Forbidden pleasure is combined with ugliness and it will cause pain after the moment has passed. If you feel strongly inclined toward it, you should think abcut the pain it will leave behind. It is necessary to compare the two matters and discover the difference between them. Suffering pain while worshiping Allah is combined with a good soul that will bear the fruit of pleasure and relief. When the soul finds it heavy and thinks to stop the pain and then compares the end results of the two

matters, he will surely prefer the way of hardship. If you feel pain because of deeds, you should think about the happiness, joy, and pleasure you will gain, then the pain will seem easy to bear. If you get hurt because of abandoning some kind of forbidden pleasure, you should think about the pain that follows itand compare the two kinds.

To make the correct choice, you must know the reasons and consequences of each act and then choose that which is more deserving and useful. Whoever succeeds at doing this, would choose the better and prefer it. Whoever thinks about this Worldly life and the Hereafter, would know that he will never gain either of them except by hardship. He should bear this hardship in order to gain the best and more lasting of them.

A Precious Gem: There is Right and Wrong in Everything

When Allah created man, He established an order and a system for each organ, and He ordained orohibitions for each organ, granted a blessing for fulfilling each of them, and Specified a kind of pleasure and benefit that results from each one. If the servant acts while using each organ for the sake of Allah and avoids the prohibitions, he would be praising Allah for granting him the blessings of each organ and would complete the potential benefit and pleasure from each one. But if he neglects the orders of Allah and His prohibitions, Allah will not allow him to benefit from any of them and moreover, He will make it a cause of pain and harm.

Each organ of the body has the duty to worship Allah at ail times, which will bring one closer to Him. tf he keeps himself busy with worship, he will be close to Allah, but if he is busy with his desires, seeking relief, or being idle, he wilt fail. The servant is constantly fluctuating between being close to Allah and being far from Him. Allah, the Exalted says,

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which means, "To any of you that chooses to go forward (by working righteous deeds), or to remain behind (by committing sins)." (Al-Muddathir, 74:37)

Chapter: The People of Paradise and those of Hellfire

Allah, the Exalted created all things with a harmony between order and prohibition, and giving and preventing, so they became two parties: one party that neglected His order, ignored His prohibitions, failed to praise Him or be grateful to Him, and was dissatisfied when He prevented them from something they wanted. Such people are His enemies and their enmity increases or decreases according to the situations that confront them. Another party said: we are Your servants. If You give us an order we will hurry to fulfill it, if You prohibit us from something we will restrain ourselves, if You give something to us we will praise and thank You, and if You prevent us from something we wanted, we will ask You and supplicate to You. There is nothing between man and Paradise except the veil of this worldly life. When death tears down that veil, the pious people will remain forever in pleasure and happiness. When the evil ones face death, the final veil will also be torn down and there will be nothing between them and the hellfire. When death tears down this veil, they will remain forever in pain and regret.

The armies of this Worldly life and the Hereafter confront within your heart and want to know to which you belong. If you look sincerely within your heart, you will notice which one you prefer and you will fight against the other. No person can remain stagnant between them; you belong to one of them. The first group restrains desires, takes the advice of the mind, empties the heart so it can think about the aim behind their

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creation, the body performs what it was ordered to do, and it uses time to do what will benefit it in the Hereafter. It defeats their short life by rushing to perform good deeds. It lives in this worldly life while its heart is far removed ‘rom it. It lives for the Hereafter before going to it, it cares for Allah and obedience to Him, and seeks to perform that which will increase their rank in the hereafter, so Allah paid in advance by granting them the pleasures of Paradise; is close to them and fills their hearts with love and longing for Him and empties their hearts from whatever fills the hearts of others like loving this life and sadness and grief for losing it. So they feel a sense of ease with the same things that others fee! are difficult. They love what others hate, and live this life with their bodies but their souls are with the Exalted.

Chapter: Some Qualities of Monotheism

Monotheism is fine, chaste, clean, and pure. An evil thought, word or action affects its standing in the heart of man, and just a moment, a word, or a hidden desire confuse it. And if its owner fails to hurry and remove this effect by doing its opposite, it will become stronger and turn into a habit that is hard to be removed.

These effects and impressions sometimes take place quickly and also vanish quickly, while others happen fast but are slow to vanish, and others are slow to happen and fast to vanish.

Some people have a strong sense of monotheism and are able to withstand the effects of evil like a great amount of water that catches only a little dirt. The person whose sense of monotheism is not so strong, will be easily deceived and his weakness will bear the harmful effects that strong monotheism does not.

A place that is marked by purity will show its owner the cause of its being soiled, so he has the chance to hurry and remove it but the place that does not reach this level of purity will not do

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that. Faith and monotheism go hand in hand and if they are very strong, they would defeat evil in a way that weakness cannot. The person who has good character will be forgiven for sins that the one with bad character will not be forgiven for. Having a sincere intention, a strong will and perfect obedience change evil effects just like lying, a bad intention, and weak obedience change good words and deeds according to their ways.

A Precious Gem: Only the Heart that is Founded on Monotheism Will Comprehend the Precious Qualities of Allah

Abandoning desires for the sake of Allah will rescue the servant from the punishment of Allah and will guarantee one to obtain His mercy. The precious qualities of Allah, the treasure of piety, pleasure, longing for Him, joy, and the happiness found in being close to Him will never happen to the heart that cares for anyone or anything besides Allah even if he was among the people of worship, piety, and knowledge. Allah, the Exalted refused to put His precious qualities into the heart that associates others with Him and whose intention is to follow other than Him. Instead He entrusts His precious qualities to the heart that considers poverty as wealth as long as it is close to Allah, and wealth as poverty if it is not close to Allah. It will consider honor as humiliation and humiliation as honor, as well as pleasure as punishment and punishment as pleasure. As a whole, the servant who possesses such a heart neither knows the meaning of life without Allah nor the meaning of death, pain, sadness, grief, and distress that is associated with being far from Him. The pious servant will gain two kinds of Paradise: the Paradise of this worldly life and the Paradise on the Day of Resurrection.

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A Precious Gem: Al-Inabah and Al-I'tikaf

Inabah is devotion of the heart to Allah, the Exalted like devotion of the body inside the mosque without leaving it. That is to say, devotion of the heart is to love and glorify Allah and devote the actions of one’s body to Allah by worshipping sincerely and following His Messenger. Whoever does not devote his heart to Allah alone, would devote it to different kinds of images. Allah says that Ibrahim (Abraham, peace be upon him) said to his people,

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