Part 10

The eye that looks with contentment does not see flaws,

But the eye that is full of discontent sees all flaws

It was natrated that a man accompanied another and when he wanted to leave him he said, “Tell me about my flaws.” The man answered, “Ask anyone other than me for I have been conceiving you with the eye of contentment.”

If someone asks if flaws are concealed and a person does not regard them as flaws, then how can we identify them? The answer is that there are seven methods to overcome this:

The first method: A person should take the wisest, most prudent of all the people he knows as a friend, ask him to tel! him about his flaws and inform him that in doing so he does him a favor. Then, when this friend tells him about them he should rejoice in that, and should not show any sadness, so as not to encourage his friend to stop telling him about them. He should inform his friend, “If you hide anything from me I will consider you a cheater.”

The second method. He should search for what his neighbours, brothers, the people he deals with, to inform him about him, what they praise him for and dispraise him for.

The third method: He should find what his enemies say about him, for an enemy always tries to find the flaws of his enemy. Taking this point into consideration, a person will be able to benefit from his enemy in a way that he cannot benefit from his friend, and that is because an enemy mentions one's flaws but a friend hides them. Thereafter a person will avoid those flaws.

The fourth method. He should imagine that someone else has his characters, then he should choose what he likes of those characters and leave the objectionable ones.

The fifth method: He should reflect on the consequences and fruits of his different characteristics so that he comes to know the good that results from the good characters, and the bad that results from the objectionable ones. That is due to the fact that honest reflection is both very powerful and insightful.

The sixth method: To measure all his deeds by the Shas‘iah, have them reviewed by insightful persons, measure them in the scale of justice, for it can distinguish between what is better and what is wotse.

The seventh method: He should read the stories of those who acted upon their knowledge and then measure his actions against their actions, thus he would even regard the effects of a shortcoming as a flaw that he should avoid, let alone the performance of a bad deed.

Motivating a Low Endeavor

of the self, then no cure will have any effect on it. However

if it is acquired as a result of accompanying those with low endeavor or because of the predominance of the nature or desires, then its cure is attainable through many ways; some of them include: boycotting the people of low endeavor, disdaining them, accompanying those who have high endeavor. Then reflecting on the consequences, the destiny of those possessing low endeavor , and the destiny of those who are serious and hard working. As ‘Abdul Samad said, ‘A man who was known for his hard work died while people were still saying to him, ‘Die today so that you may live forever’, and this statement awakened me.’

i F THE DEFECTED ENDEAVOR is an established habit

Whoever thinks deeply about people of high endeavor will know that they are no different from him, when it comes to what they ate created from, them being human beings, however the love of idleness, leisure has aggrieved and chained him. So they have walked away while he stood still, if he had moved the foot of determination, he would have reached what they reached.

Motivating a Low Endeavor

If you like the characteristics of a person, then imitate him and you will be what you have liked. For there is no barrier before generosity and good morals if you come to them.

He who reads the biographies, stories of the righteous predecessors will find that most of the jurisprudents and scholars are from amongst the slaves, the weak, or those with low craftsmanship, but as their endeavors were high they succeeded. If people with low endeavor contemplate the consequences of their low endeavor, they would understand that their idleness is their enemy, however, they have favored low endeavor, hastening relaxation and leisure. Further, their regret for losing virtues, people’s disrespect, humiliation is indeed greater than every distress and adversity. In contrast, the people of high endeavor receive comfort through others dignifying them, and the elevation of their status in this world as well as in the hereafter, which removes the bitterness of the hardship endured. It is as though he who endured hardship never relaxed, and he who relaxed never endured hardship.

It was reported that Anas ibn Malik (radiyAllabu ‘anhn) narrated from the Prophet (3), “One of the inhabitants of the hellfire who had the utmost pleasure in this world will be brought forth on the Day of Resurrection and will be dipped into the hellfire. Then he will be asked, ‘O son of Adam! have you ever seen anything good?’ Have you ever enjoyed any pleasure?” He will say, ‘No, by God, O Lord. Then one of the inhabitants of paradise, who had the most miserable life in this world, will be brought forth and will be dipped into paradise. Then he will be asked, ‘O

Son of Adam! Have you seen any misery? Have you experienced any adversity? He will say, ‘No, by God, O Lord! I have never suffered from any misery and I have never seen any adversity.”

The meaning of this hadith is that exhaustion and the bearing of hardship will end, only comfort remain. On the other hand comfort and ease will end, and only remorsefulness remain. For life is just a season [that will end], the loss is blocked, yielding is urgent, and some of this is enough to disturb the sluggard.

position is sound and healthy. Whereas disease and de-

fects are extraneous, every child is born upon the fitrah (natural disposition), which is further explicated in knowing that discipline is ineffective except in an intellectual, thus it does not benefit a mule, and a wild animal that is looked after while young, will not leave hunting when it matures. And you know of the famous story, ‘who informed you that your father was a wolf?’.

T HE BASIC PRINCIPLE is that mankind’s nature, dis-

Know that within every human being there exists three capacities: A lingual capacity, a lustful capacity, and an anger capacity. That said, he who Allah honored by bestowing upon him the love of knowledge should care for perfecting his ‘lingual self’, by which Allah favored him over all animals, and with which he shared a common characteristic with angels. He should make this self capacity predominant over the other two capacities. So that it becomes like the rider, his body becomes like the horse, because a rider should be predominant over a horse due to his elevation, so he be able to lead it wherever he likes and he should be able to slaughter it if he so wishes. Likewise the lingual capacity should

be predominant over the other two capacities, using and ceasing to use them as it likes and whoever is like that truly deserves to be called a human being.

Plato said: “A true human is he whose ‘lingual self is stronger than the rest of his other types of selves, because if lustfulness is excessive, a person becomes an animal. If a person releases his Hawa, lives an unrestrictive life, then he becomes displaced from his centre, hence he wil! become worse than an animal, because that is actually the nature of animals, but, in his case, he has contradicted his [humanly] nature. And when the anger capacity is excessive, humans’ traits become as that of wild and beastly animals. Hence, one should tame his inner self by opposing !ustfulness, controlling anger and following the lingual capacity, so as he may become like the angels and avoid worshipping lust and anger.”

Section One: How to Discipline Oneself

Know that discipline of the self is achieved through lenience and moving from one state to another. This should not be done violently but rather leniently, and then he should combine both hope and fear. He strengthens this discipline by keeping good company, leaving bad company, studying the Qur’an, beneficial stories, thinking about paradise, hell and reading the biographies of wise people and ascetics.

Some of the righteous predecessors would desire a sweet treat, and so they would promise themselves to eat it. If they prayed the

night prayer they would allow themselves this reward.

Sufyan al-Thawti used to eat whatever he desired and then when he woke up in the morning he would say: “The black man has fed

his child!” Scholars and exegetes have always been and continue to be lenient to the self until they have owned and subjugated it.

A neighbour of Malik ibn Dinar said, “One night I heard him saying to himself, ‘That’s how you should be!” The next morning I told him, “There was no one home with you, so who did you say that to?” He said, ‘Myself asked me for some bread, it insisted so I restrained it from eating for three days, then I found a dry piece of bread, when I was about to eat it I said, ‘Wait I will get soft bread’ so it [his self] said, ‘I am contented with this.’ So I said, ‘That’s how you should be!”

Know that if the self knows that you are serious it will also be serious and hardworking, if it knows that you are indolent it will become your master.

A horse rider knows the characteristics of his horse, so he exhausts it repeatedly, by making it sense fear.

From among the practices of discipline of the self is bringing it to account for every statement, for every action, for every negligence and sin. When its discipline is over, it will appreciate the exhaustion it endured.

Thabit al-Banani said, “I endured the night for twenty years [by praying] and [then] I delighted in the night for twenty years.”

Abi Yazid said, “1 kept driving myself to my Lord while it cried, until I drove it while it smiled.”

I still laugh and weep every time I look Until its eye is tainted with my blood

Nevertheless one should not forget the rights of the self, which is giving it its gratifications that do not oppose the object of discipline. For if it is prevented from its aims in general, the heart will become blind, worries will disperse, and the slave will become constrained. And know that the estimation of the self with Allah, May He be exalted, is greater than the estimation of the acts of worship. This is why He has permitted the breaking of the fast for a traveler; however it is only the people of knowledge who understand this.