Part 16

The moans of sinners [regretting their sins] is more beloved to Allah than the exaltation of His glorifiers.

The obedient is guided through his deeds, the sinnet is humiliated because of his sins, and the mistaken plays the strings of his fearing Allah and chants the songs of shame.

It is amazing how the Possessor of the creation (ie. Allah) asks His slaves to drop a tear though He created the seven oceans;

“And to Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens

Mankind is in Need of Allah, The Most High

Nevertheless He sends a message to you saying,

aa AS “Who is it that would loan Allah a goodly loan.” [a+Hadid 57:11]

Indeed, Pride is His Garment! and He is the One Who says [to His slaves]: “I was hungry but you never fed me.”? He cuts off the necks of tongues by using the Sword of

“He is not questioned about what He does, but they will be questioned.” [al-Anbiya’ 21: 23]

So no one (should) ever object then, when He comes in Grace saying to His slaves: “Is there any one tequest anything so I fulfill it for him’?

He cannot be encompassed by anything yet He is in the heart of those who draw near to Him in humility; He is unseen by the eyes but appeats to the hearts.

' Reported by Muslim (2620)

? Reported by Muslim (2569). This statement is used metaphorically to mean, as explained in the hadith itself, that Allah blames His slave for not feeding those who asked him for food when he knew they were hungry.

SEEDS OF ADMONISHMENT AND REFORM

I wonder at you! Allah draws near to you though He is in no need for you, whereas you are arrogant with Him though you are in need of Him. When you are far, He draws you near to Him and when you ate negligent, He reminds you. He did not favor any other creation over you but nevertheless you still favour everything over Him. Lower the head of your regret before the commencement of the day at which you ate blamed because then you will not have the face to answer any of that.

The Supplication of the Pious

HEN THE PIOUS NOTICED how this worldly life \ X /conttols those who follow it and how the devil leashed the souls, they turned to the sacred yard of invocation and supplication similar to how a hunted animal runs for his safety, in fear, to the sacred Masjid.' You see them walking while they wear the garments of sufficiency and putting on their face the mask of self-content so that “An ignorant [person] would think them self-sufficient because of their restraint.”

They sleep as less as a submerging person would sleep and eat as less as a mourning mother would eat on the day of her calamity

because what sorrows damage, is more than what consolation builds.

1 This is because it is not allowed to kill animals in the Masjid al-Haram in Makkah

SEEDS OF ADMONISHMENT AND REFORM

Only those whose hearts are insightful can recognise them; for the declaration of their high rank is written on their foreheads in a foreign language that only those who know it can read. They observed the consequences of actions with the eyes of their hearts and so they could not find any obstacle keeping them away from their goal [i.c. Paradise] except their self so they searched for a trick with which they can suppress it; a trick that neither Ibn Hind? (radiyAllabu ‘anba) nor Von AlAs} (radéyAllahu ‘anhuma) would even know of. As they implemented it they succeeded to bottle up their self in a manner that is more violent than of Ibn Tamaljam* for indeed they have bodies of men and hearts of lions.

As the stormy wind of thoughts is instigated and so it turned over the lands of hearts upside down. Then the seeds of strong will and endeavours have been thrown inside the lands and watered with the rain of hard work upon which life revived in the branches of good relation [with Allah] and so the blossoms of this relation flowered. When they see the remembrance of Allah, the fragrance of light spreads out, which has a smell that is better than musk that empowers the souls of those who seck the pleasure of their Lord.

? Mu‘awiyah: Ibn Aba Sufyan ibn Sakhe ibn Harb ibn Umayyah ibn ‘Abd Shams al-Qurashi al-Amawi, He accepted Islam in the year of the Conquest and witnessed Hunain and al-Yamamah, He was one of the scribes who would write the revelation and died in the year 60AH.

* ‘Amt ibn al-‘As: Ibn W2’il al-Qurashi as-Sahmi. He accepted Islam during the year of Hudaybiyyah and was the one who conquered Egypt. He died in the year 43AH.

* Tcould not find his information. [Translator]

The Supplication of the Pious

No worthwhile results can be achieved unless there is an element of risk involved! So, you whose endeavors are feeble, know that profit is gained only by riding the stormy seas because the precious pearls lie at their bottom; knowledge is attained by sacrificing sleep, and loftiness is sought through self-denial.

He who seeks glory ought to pursue it eatnestly because when a person searches for pearls he must dive to collect them. When Abi Bakr (radiyAllahu ‘anhn) forsook everything for the sake of Allah and His Messenger, he earned the praise of Allah and His Messenger [i.e. being pleased with], and when ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib (radiyAllabu ‘anhn) divorced this worldly life thrice to ensure he would never return to it, he deserved Paradise to yearn for him [as its inhabitant].

Believing in the Divine Decree (a/Qadar)

heart disposed towards accepting sincere advice and guides a voice of admonition to echo in his mind during its periods of leisure and inactivity, just as rain is led to the barren land

I F ALLAH DECREES GOOD for a petson, He makes his

“He rode thereby crops of varying colors.” [alt-Zumar 39: 21]

However, if Allah turns away from a person, He throws him into an ocean of heedlessness, so that whenever he opens his eyes he only see layer upon layer of darkness, one on top of the other. The means of safety are prepared for the chosen one, while the destiny of the wretched is chained with inadvertence. How wishful is the one doomed as he hopes to reach out [to Allah] but far removed is this wish when fate denies him this wish just as it denied many before him.

The created is a target and fate is a set of arrows and the One

Believing in the Divine Decree (al-Qadar)

who you know [i.e. Allah] is the shooter; so what is the way out? If pillars of fate shake, even the necks of the favored will be troubled; if He is angry at some people their good deeds will never benefit them, but if He is pleased with someone then his bad deeds will not cause him any harm at all. As the storms of fate are instigated, the ocean of divine obligations [upon humans} sptings, and space of existence pitches its inhabitants, thus roots of Lineage are uprooted and tents of arrogant are pulled out, the Palace of Cesar is torn down and the strength of Abi Talib’ is dismissed, the work of Abi Jahl’ is in vain, and the army of Chosroes? is defeated, all the while, the robe of

BAZS “T turn to You in repentance.”

sprouts. Afterward, when dawn commences and the ocean calms down, it appears that [the highly esteemed] Aba Talib has drowned whereas Salman [the Persian]’, stands on the shore of safety, and while al-Walid ibn al-Mughirah’ was leading his people toward 1 Aba Talib: ‘Abd Manaf ibn ‘Abdul-Muttalib ibn Hashim, an uncle of the Prophet (34), who looked after him after his father and grandfather died, loved him like one of his sons, let him preach Islam freely, and protected him from.

the evils that the leaders of Quraysh might have done to him. He did not, however, embrace Islim, and died in the eighth year of the Prophet's call.

2 Aba Jahl: ‘Amt ibn Hashim ibn al-Mughirah al-Makhziimi al-Qutayshi, one of the greatest enemies of the Prophet (9g). He was killed at Badr in the year 2H.

2 The title of the king of Persia

* Salman al-Farsi, the noble Companion of the Prophet (3).

> One of the highly esteemed leaders of Quraysh who was known of his

SEEDS OF ADMONISHMENT AND REFORM

the loss, Suhayb [the Roman]* has just arrived from the roman territory [to embrace Islim], and while Abii Jahl laid down in the back of the abandoned, Bilal’ calls out: Praying is indeed better than sleeping.

intelligence and wisdom. He admitted the miraculous of Qut’an nevertheless, he denied it and continued insulting and mocking the Prophet (). Therefore, Allah dispraised him in the Qur’én in many dyat.

” Bilal ibn Abi Rabah: see page 130

The Punishment of being Completely Occupied with the Dunya

HIS WORLDLY LIFE IS LIKE the river of Talit', over which the virtues have made a pronouncement that

sare fe. the Og . Splat ee bs So “So whoever drinks from it is not of me, and whoever does not taste it is indeed of me,”

However, when people positioned themselves in a state like that of Ibn Umm Maktim? (radiyAllahu ‘anhu), they were given a small amount of latitude,

rick cere 22 ee sa Sey, See his story with Bani Israel in Surah al-Bagarab, 2: 247-251.

? One of the companions who was blind yet always enduring all hardships to fulfill his duties and do the good. He was also the one who gives the first Adban of Fajr during the months of Ramadan at the time of the Prophet (3g).

SEEDS OF ADMONISHMENT AND REFORM

“excepting one who takes [from it] in the hollow of his hand.”

Whereas the heedless ones could not wait, and so they drank their fill from it. Thus, when it was the time to participate in the war against self-desires, they responded with words of self-defeat

st SEG MSISLY “There is no power for us today against Goliath and