Part 20

SEEDS OF ADMONISHMENT AND REFORM

haste.' The companions used to be offered wealth that was lawful, but they would refuse because of their contentedness with their state. O you poor people, embellish your poverty with the jewels of silence [i.e. do not grumble about your poverty or make a spectacle of it] for the poor who is patient receives the honout to be among those in the company of Allah. Endure the thirst of indigence; a free woman would prefer to starve, rather than eat from money she earns from selling her body.’ It is indeed an insult to the Master when His slave asks help from someone other than him; therefore always ask help only from your Master. O you heedless ones, who ate so focused thinking about the means that you neglect to think of the One who creates the means and causes: it is He, the one Who gives, Who can also deprive and prevent, therefore

“do not set up rivals to Allah” [al-Bagarah 2: 22]

Whenever you are in need of anything, your action should be to immediately head to the niche (mibrab) and offer prayer, and suffice with serving your Lord, for he who serves Him shall never be neglected or forgotten by Him. It is He Who said: “Whoever was so preoccupied in My remembrance to ask Me [for his needs], I shall provide him bettet than what I provide those who ask Me.”?

‘This is a metaphoric employment of a situation as he refers to how the father of the Prophet was travelling for trade but died without achieving it whereas the Prophet (3) did not indulge into worldly affairs yet ruled the world,

2 When the Prophet (8) said the injunction of not committing fornication, Hind said, ‘Does a free woman commit fornication?”

> Shu‘ab al-Tmén (572).

Woe to you, a truthful person who is needy abnegates all pleasures and temptations of this worldly life as he sees himself above them; as soon as he saw this worldly life rebuffing him, he in turn immediately boycotted it. His example is like a person who accidentally steps on a dead corpse whereupon he blocks his nose and quickens his pace; he then decides to walk on the road of contentedness where he finds a treasure that eluded even the likes of al-Isqandar. This is because his heart is wealthier and more ptosperous than Qariin even as his house is emptiet than the void in Misa’ (‘alaybi as-salam) mother’s heart [after she sent him away]. As the poet said:

He who weats the robe of contentedness will surely be rich even in destitution and will find fecundity even in a place of aridity.

When the poor are resurrected on the Day of Judgment they rush to the doors of Paradise to enter, but the Angels stop them saying: Hold on! Today is the Day of Judgment [i.e. you should wait until you are being judged], upon which they display the sleeves of humility and reveal their deficiency, saying: and do you teckon we have anything to be judged for? And then proceed!

Dispraise of Tireless Desire for Wealth

gain this worldly life, although this life is actually en-

slaving you: why do you collect that which separates you [from your Lord] and join that which tears you apart?! Woe to you: you are focused on building a palace while, in fact, you are demolishing a country! Seek advice so that you may recognise the shortcomings of this life.

() YOU, WHOSE TIME IS FULLY occupied working to

The malady of human beings is vain desires, and its treatment is found in firmness. When an ailment has already reached a very advanced stage, then cauterisation is the best course of action; you cannot prevent the harm of a bad neighbour simply by shunning him. Money is like water; the mote you have of it the more you shall drown in it. The spider suffices with a corner in the house to build its home, but the assiduity of the fly to take it ended with its becoming food for the spider. All the while, the voice of exhortation tells you; though people make effort to seek their provision in this life, but many a time it is the provision that seeks out and lands on the doorstep of its rightful owner instead.

Dispraise of Tireless Desire for Wealth

Woe to you, divorce your false hopes so you can become the heir to your own wealth. The most deprived ones are those whose hard work benefits only others without benefiting themselves. The greatest good deed that a miser may do is to give charity, because by giving charity he actually combats two devils; the smaller of the two being Shaytan and the greater being his desires and its troops among whose ranks are the lion of covetousness, the dog of desires and the swine of gluttony.

Forward chatity with outstretched hands; but if you are unable to, then at least restrain your hands from oppressing others. Liberate your tongue to indulge in the remembrance of Allah; but if you are unable to do so, then at the very least, restrain it from backbiting.

How long does a beggar stand on your door in humiliation with his tears flowing down his cheek, but you rebuke him by saying, all what you say is nonsense! Indeed, the words of the starving on the ears of the one with a full belly will sound like nonsense! Woe to you, did you not know that chatity is the mahr of Paradise! So stop piling up bags upon bags of money and be amongst those regatding whom Allah said,

“who is he that will lend unto Allah a goodly loan” {al-Hadid 57:11)

And if you give charity, beware of saying or doing what may offend or hurt the beneficiary of your charity; the longer your wishful hopes live the more the deaths among the poot.

I wonder at those who greedily amass wealth, only to be dispos-

SEEDS OF ADMONISHMENT AND REFORM

sessed of it in a single stroke of misfortune! O you with a grieving heart, the agitation of your innermost self is apparent to the onlooker, because the secret emotion of your heart manifests itself through the expressions of your face. Had you heard my words with your heart, you would have paid heed at the time, but my words only reached your ears, and there is a big difference between two. The example of the former is Tha‘labah who jealously guarded his wealth, while the example of the latter is Aba Bakr (radiyAllahu ‘anha) who forsook all his wealth [for the sake of Allah]. Indeed there is difference between miserliness and forsaking worldly pleasures for the sake of Allah.

Reviving the Hearts with Tears

morrow on the Day of Judgment the sun will be brought

close to your head upon which the mouths of your veins will open so that each hair in your body will cry on its own. The sky will look like as if violently dusting off its sleeves because of the maelstrom of cataclysms, the stars shall be scattered apart, and then the horror of The Day arrives to rip apart the fabric of the universe.

() O YOU WHOSE EYES IN THIS life are tearless, to-

The blowing of winds in this life might shake trees, but the blowing of the horn shall shake everything in existence; one blow shall bring forth death, while the next blow shall revive. Let this not surprise you; do you not see this scene reflected in the present life, when the blast of winter cold causes trees to become as if lifeless effigies of themselves, followed by the puffs of spring that bring back the spirit of life to these dormant trees.

The winds of this life either rouse or fertilise; so is the blow of the horn on the Day of Judgment, which rouses the bodies and

SEEDS OF ADMONISHMENT AND REFORM

fertilises the spirits, so that they can come forth to read the book of their deeds. Al-Fudayl' was dead in his heart due to his ignorance, Ibn Adham had been killed by his desires, al-Subti* was ruined because of his wealth, and al-Shibli was from the foot soldiers of al-Junayd, but when the horn of providential guidance blew, the graves of their heedlessness split open, and they all issued forth with renewed life, as described by the ayah,

“thus Allah bring the dead to life” [al-Bagarah 2: 273]

Tt was on account of a single ayah that Al-Fudayl heard, whereupon his soul was touched by humility and tranquility, and Ibn Adham received admonishment by hearing a single reproachful reminder, upon which he left the city of Balakh? and headed to the region of Sham (consists of Syria, Jordon and Palestine). This is because the knot in their hearts was easy to undo because of which their hearts wete easily released, whereas your heart is full of convoluted knots!

As the river of admonishment arrives at the gardens of hearts, it meets with the dew of a few of these gardens and their waters

) Pudayl ibn ‘Ayad: Ibn Mas‘id al-Tamimi, Abi ‘Ali, the Shaykh of Makkah and one of the righteous worshippers. He was trustworthy and precise, noble, having wara’ and narrated many ahadith. He used to be in his early life far from religion then at one point he returned to Allah and abnegated all worldly pleasures until he became well known for his piety and worship. He died in the year 187H

2 He used to bea very tich man until one day he decided to indulge in worship-

ping Allah completely so he gave up all what he had and dedicated himself to worship Allah far from the eyes of people.

> Located in the region of Persia .

Reviving the Hearts with Tears

mingle together. When the pious used to review their good deeds, they would emphasise that not keeping the oath of disavowing worldly pleasures was tantamount to betrayal. That is why al-Fudayl used to cry constantly; to the extent that he used to weep even during his sleep, which used to wake up his family. And Ibn Adham and al-Sari used to urinate blood because of their fear of Allah.

When hearts pierce through the siege of desires into the spacious tracts of contemplation, tears will run as if rapid steed in the wide arenas of longing; as if

“By those [winds] sent forth in gusts.” [a/-Marsalat 77: 1]

When the stem of the produce of reflection is straight, the wells of tears begin to water the harvest, the exhales of sighs begin to reap, the hand-mills of hope [in Allah] start grinding, and the flames of concern [i.e. fearing Allah] ignite, upon which the heart receives its provision of nourishment for the journey of love it is about to embark upon,