If My slaves ask you about Me, I am near.

 A translation of this fatwa from Naseem al-Sham

Question:

Respected Sheikh Muḥammad Shuqayr,

By Allah, I love your words. Please. Is there any fatwa that allows a person to kill himself, even if it is by way of a drug? For a long time, I have not wanted to live. I have lived my whole life reluctantly. Everywhere I turn, I face tribulations. I have only experienced a few happy days in my entire life. Everything is difficult. I have responsibilities, I have to be patient. And so on and so forth. In my childhood, I decided to be devout and committed, because I was raised that way and I knew it was the best way. I have knocked on Allah’s door and I continue to do so. I memorised Allah’s book and I spent many years doing so, trying to get out of what I was in, or to improve the state of my affairs. I performed the ʿUmrah, and then the Ḥajj. Maybe it is accumulated sins. Maybe it is disobedience. I have not found a way out. I am always feeling remorse over my sins, and regret, and I cannot rid myself of it. Maybe an hour that I spend in the gatherings of knowledge helps me forget, but it all comes back as soon as I leave. I am not prepared to live anymore. I have become weary. There is no benefit in my life, whatever I do and whoever I am. I feel there is no point in doing anything. Please give me some guidance, and may Allah reward you. To Allah we belong and to Him we shall return.

Answer (Sheikh Rushdi Salīm al-Qalam):

Praise be to Allah and He suffice, and peace be upon His Messenger, al-Muṣṭafā.

To proceed:

It is not permissible for a person to kill himself, regardless of the reasons, because the spirit that is between your two sides belongs to Allah, the Unique, the Dominant. Allah, Mighty and Majestic is He, has created life and death as a trial and as a choice, so be patient with what Allah has tested you with. Give glad tidings to the patient, and Allah is with the patient. Know that Allah is Forgiving, Most Merciful; He accepts the repentance of His slaves. It is not from our Religion that we punish ourselves. We know that Allah accepts the repentance of His sinning slave if they repent and fulfil the conditions of repentance and turning back to Allah the Exalted. Attend more gatherings of knowledge, keep the company of the righteous, and open a new page between you and Allah; you will find that Allah is Forgiving, Most Merciful. And if you want something, do not ask anyone but Allah. “If My slaves ask you about Me, I am near. I answer the call of the caller when he calls on Me. They should therefore respond to Me and believe in Me so that hopefully they will be rightly guided.” [al-Baqarah 2:186]

[The answer is from Sheikh Rushdi Salīm al-Qalam because Sheikh Muḥammad Shuqayr is very busy these days.]

"Convert" or "Revert"?

 From the book The Big Step: How to Survive Islam in the Anglosphere

Another serious challenge you’re going to face, and this is the second half of this chapter, is getting over the “convert”, “revert” or “new Muslim” label.

First of all, “revert” is an utterly ridiculous and idiotic term. To revert means to return to a former habit, practice, belief, condition etc. Yes, every child is born on al-fiṭrah, i.e. the natural disposition of human beings, and Islam is the religion of al-fiṭrah, it is the religion that accurately corresponds to man’s natural disposition. The argument thus goes that by embracing Islam one returns to one’s natural disposition. Great. But who made the decision to leave in the first place? I never made the decision not to be Muslim or the decision to move away from my natural disposition. I never apostated. To me, this was a discovery, not a homecoming. A synonym of to revert is to retrogress, i.e. to go backward into an earlier and usually worse condition. Becoming a Muslim is supposed to be progress; I’m supposed to be gradually moving towards a better condition. I loathe this term and would prefer for it not to be used.

The term “new Muslim” is a temporary term. You can’t be a “new” Muslim for more than a year. Once you’re in the habit of praying five times a day, and you know enough basic Arabic to do so, and you’ve fasted an entire Ramadan, you should really stop referring to yourself as a “new” Muslim, and you should prevent others from doing so as well. You have to move on and start taking responsibility. How long are you considered a “new” employee when you start work somewhere? How long are you considered “new in town” when you move somewhere? Think about that. You do not want to fall into the trap of having a victim mentality and thus use the excuse of being a “new” Muslim for years and years when people ask you why you still haven’t learned the basics of your faith, or haven’t made much progress in general. This is a pathetic attitude to have.

“Convert” is an accurate term because it is a permanent truth. Instead of being raised by Muslim parents in a Muslim household, a convert has made the conscious decision to become a Muslim, and usually against the wishes and advice of his parents, family, culture, society and so forth. However, the usefulness of the term “convert” is just that, i.e. to distinguish you from those who were born and raised in Muslim households. Aside from that, the term “convert” is useless and we really should just talk about Muslims, regardless of how they got there. There are a few reasons.

For starters, not everyone who is raised in a “Muslim” household receives an “Islamic” upbringing. That’s why we have these funny terms in English like “practicing Muslim”, as if it’s a hobby like ballet or a branch of medicine. A child in this situation may be told that he is a Muslim, or that his family is Muslim, but that doesn’t mean that people in his family will pray, fast, go the masjid and so forth. A person in this situation faces three possibilities:

1. Follow the family and be a “secular Muslim”, i.e. Muslim in name only. You could also say “cultural” Muslim.

2. Realise that being a “secular Muslim” is not only contradictory but a complete waste of time, and thus he formally leaves Islam and no longer calls himself a Muslim.

3. Try to discover Islam outside of his family and local community.

The last one branches out into lots of further possibilities, because in such a case this person is not very different from a convert. They’ve made the conscious decision to be a Muslim, their family is most likely not supportive and therefore they have to go elsewhere. They could fall in with cultists and political activists, they could get swept away by a Sufi brotherhood, they might be enticed by the hippie converts and their affiliates, or they might come across some sincere believers and get the opportunity to study Arabic along with basic theology and fiqh.

As a side note, the last option is not likely in the Anglosphere, and that’s why I think “secular Muslims” should be honest and just leave the faith. Don’t raise children and tell them they’re Muslims but then never explain it to them or even demonstrate it to them. This will just make them easy prey for the various organisations that I’ve mentioned above.[1] They will feel horribly confused as they won’t know what to make of their parents. They might have thoughts like: “My dad says he’s a Muslim but he drinks alcohol”, “My mom says she’s a Muslim but she never prays.” With Islam, do it or don’t do it. Doing it doesn’t mean being perfect in all of one’s actions. Rather, it means being fully committed in the general sense. You may slip here and there or not feel ready to commit to certain things, but as long as you recognise and acknowledge that you have progress to make and that you’re working on it, you’ll be fine. The problem with “cultural” Muslims is the sense of satisfaction. They are lukewarm Muslims, in that they pick and choose what they want to “practise”, they are happy the way they are and, to make matters worse, they expect their children to follow their lead. If you claim to follow a religion, or a legal system or a constitution, and then you blatantly only follow that which suits your desires and interests, this is clear hypocrisy and your children will notice it. It’s much better to be honest and to admit that you are not a Muslim, or that you follow whatever you think is best.

Therefore, based on the aforementioned, if you’re a convert, don’t let any so-called “born Muslim” assert his authority over you. His Muslim name or the fact that he was raised in a Muslim household is no indicator of authority, but a conversation like this is typical:

‘Ma sha Allah, brother, how long have you been Muslim?’

‘Three years.’

“Ma sha Allah, brother, that is great. I have been Muslim for 30 years. I need to explain something to you…’

This is a preposterous argument. 30 years, or whatever figure someone gives you, is their age. It doesn’t mean anything. When a convert says ‘I’ve been a Muslim for X years’, it means that they have been conscious, willing Muslims for that period of time. A “born Muslim” thinks that simply being alive means the same thing, or at least he wants you to think that. Don’t fall for it. Instead, ask this individual how long he has been a committed believer. Ask him what he has studied, and whom with. It’s very likely that this “born Muslim” has been a committed believer for about as long as you have, maybe less.

Furthermore, if you converted to Islam in your teenage years, and there are plenty of people who embrace Islam in early adolescence, unless a “born Muslim” is from a scholarly family and grew up reading and memorising texts and studying with his parents, there is no way such a person can claim that being a Muslim longer than you have means anything, let alone scholarly authority over you.

Of course, as a convert, people will want to ask you how and why you became Muslim, and that’s fair enough, especially “born Muslims” who have been raised in more “cultural” or secular families. They want to understand how and why someone would choose Islam completely voluntarily, without any pressure from their family, community or broader culture. Your story may very well be inspiring and even include aspects that are beyond material explanation. Share your story and inspire people, absolutely, but don’t let your story define who you are.

---

[1] This is a typical example: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3457741/Heartbroken-hopeless-Parents-Scottish-jihadi-bride-Aqsa-Mahmood-tell-devastation-losing-ISIS-brainwashing.html (Accessed Dec 10, 2016)

 

The Big Step: How to Survive Islam in the Anglosphere (and all other Lulu print products) are available with a 15% discount through September 24, 2021. Please use the discount code INSPIRE15.

Book Release: The Approach to Human Civilization in the Qurʾān

By Imam Muhammad Saeed Ramadan al-Bouti, may Allah have mercy on him

Alhamdulilah, the translation of Imam al-Bouti's book is now available from Jamalon and Neel wa Furat.

Blurb:

This book contains – perhaps for the first time – the study of a comprehensive Qurʾānic structure for a unique social education that can promote the establishment of a sound, stable civilizational rebirth.

It also contains – again for the first time – an inquiry into the foundations of knowledge and its point of departure in the Qurʾān, which most people have neglected until today. This book, with all of the above that it contains, is placed in front of those who say, ‘We have looked and we have not found a comprehensive educational theory in the Quran.’

A summary can be found here and an excerpt is available here.

As for regional bookshops and distributors, Nawa Books in Singapore has the book.

UPDATE: Madani Propagation in the UK is now stocking the book.
UPDATE: Wondrous Islam in Canada is now stocking the book.
 
If you would like to stock or distribute the book in your region, please send me a message via the contact form on the right-hand side of this blog. If Dar al-Fikr do not have a distributor in your region, I can speak to them on your behalf, and with Allah alone is every success.

Related Posts:
Civilisation: A Preliminary Discussion
ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb's advice to Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ 


Insha'Allah, a virtual book launch will be available soon. A promo video is available here.

ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb's advice to Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ

From the book The Approach to Human Civilization in the Qur'an by Imam Muhammad Saeed Ramadan al-Bouti, may Allah have mercy on him, the full translation of which will be released soon, if Allah so wills

Look at his statement, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, {The nations will gather against you just as people gather together to eat from one dish.} They said, ‘Will we be few in number at that time, O Messenger of Allah?’ He replied, {No. You will be many, but you will be foam like foam on a river. Allah will remove the fear of you from the hearts of your enemies and throw wahn[1] into your hearts.} They said, ‘What is wahn, O Messenger of Allah?’ He replied, {Love for this worldly life and hatred of death.}[2]

Come and look at the advice that the Commander of the Believers, ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, gave to Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ when he was setting off for the Battle of Qādisiyyah. He warned him and those with him against falling into the consequences of this weighty divine standard practice. He called upon him to keep his army away from the deviations and slips that would make them liable to fall into the grip of oppressors. Part of what he said was:

‘O Saʿd, the son of Umm Saʿd, do not let yourself be deceived because they call you the paternal uncle of the Messenger of Allah, for indeed Allah does not replace evil with evil but rather He replaces evil with good. There is no connection between Allah and any individual except through obedience to Him. I command you and those with you to be warier of yourselves than of your enemy, for the sins of the army are a greater threat to them than their actual enemy. The Muslims are only given victory because of their enemy’s disobedience of Allah. If that were not the case, we would have no power against them, because our numbers are not like their numbers and our equipment is not like their equipment. If we are equal in disobedience, then they have power that is superior to ours. If we are not victorious over them because of our merit, we will never get the better of them because of our power. Do not say that our enemy is worse than us, and thus they will never be granted authority over us, for it is often the case that a people are put under the authority of someone worse than them. For example, when the Children of Israel committed disobedience, Allah put them under the authority of the disbelieving Magians, who entered the innermost part of their homes and it was a promise that was fulfilled.’

The purpose behind surveying these texts is so that you can clearly see the difference between being given honour and distinction and being given authority, and so that you understand that the West having the upper hand with its civilization, its power and its vigour over the Islamic Ummah is similar to the upper hand of a punisher holding a stick and using it to punish someone and make an example of them. It is not, under any circumstance, the upper hand of distinction and honour.

This means that what people imagine to be the flourishment of Western civilization is actually a reflection of the backwardness of Islamic civilization. The decline of the Islamic Ummah, in relation to its moral and social level, gives the impression that Western civilization is firmly established at the peak.

When the Muslims stop straying from the knowledge of their essence and become convinced of the meanings of their slavehood to Allah, Mighty and Majestic, and then turn towards dealing with the life that they enjoy and the world that surrounds them according to the approach that Allah has outlined for them in His Book, motivated by desire for His reward and fear of His punishment, it will then be possible for them to look and see Western civilization for what it truly is, for it will have changed and gone down in their estimation. They will see how its authority over them has contracted and that they have been liberated and freed from its orbit and gravitational pull.

However, you must know that regardless of how often this standard divine practice imposes itself upon people and nations, in different ages and eras, and however much the veracity of its application is manifest in the words that we have mentioned, having certainty in it cannot be complete unless it follows certainty in the existence of Allah, Mighty and Majestic is He, i.e. scientific, conscious certainty. It must also follow certainty that the Qurʾān, around whose axis our discussion has revolved, is nothing but the speech of Allah, Mighty and Majestic is He.

Whoever is lacking this certainty will not be convinced by anything we have said about this universal standard practice.

Who would affirm–from amongst those who do not believe in Allah, Mighty and Majestic is He, with true conscious faith–that the flourishment of Western civilization today, in our eyes, and the Islamic Ummah’s attraction to it is nothing but a manifestation of the humiliation that has surrounded this Ummah on account of its hypocrisy, which has worsened over time, and its abandonment of the responsibilities that Allah has imposed upon its neck, along with its claim–despite the aforementioned–that it believes in Allah and the Last Day and that it possesses the nobility of this civilizational heritage and boasts of its true connection to it?

There is no doubt that in everything we have discussed so far, we have only addressed those who have this certainty in Allah and have already looked into the matter of Allah being the Creator of the universe and that it is impossible for there to be a universe without a creator or an organized system without an organizer. As for those who do not yet have this, they must not waste their time discussing that which will not benefit them, regarding anything that we have finished elucidating. Rather, if they want to treat this matter seriously, they must go back and look at their conception of the universal structure from its foundations as well as of the greater issue, the foundation and starting point of the entire matter, which is none other than the issue of Allah’s existence and oneness, and His being the Creator of this universe. They must investigate and examine these matters impartially and devoid of whims and biases.

***

It remains for us to ask: how can the Muslims return to their praiseworthy state?

If Allah grants us success, this is what we will explain in the next chapter, which is the chapter that concludes this book’s issues and discussions.

______________
[1] (tn): i.e. weakness
[2] Related by Abū Dāwūd and Aḥmad

[Translated from Minhāj al-Ḥaḍārah al-Insāniyyah fil Qurʾān (Damascus: Dar al-Fikr, 2009) p.157-159]

This advice is also found in the imam's book Man and Allah's Justice on Earth, the translation of which will also be published soon, if Allah so wills.

How to Live a Saintly Life: The Life and Times of Abu Umar al-Maqdisi

A book review and discussion

The book is available here
This book is a follow-up to A Word of Advice

Related podcast: What Is Tasawwuf?

Further reading: The 15th of Sha'ban

Victory is With Patience

An excerpt from the upcoming translation of al-Wāfī fī Sharḥ al-Arbaʿīn an-Nawawiyyah by Imams Muṣṭafā al-Bughā and Muḥyī ad-Dīn Mistū

The Nineteenth Ḥadīth:

عَونُ اللهِ تعالى وحِفْظُهُ ونصره وتأييده

عن أبي العَبَّاس عَبْدِ الله بِن عَبَّاسٍ رَضي اللهُ عنهما قال: كُنْتُ خَلْفَ النَّبِيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلّم يوما، فقال: {يا غُلامُ، إِنِّي أُعَلِّمُكَ كلِماتٍ: احْفَظِ اللهَ يَحْفَظْكَ، احْفَظِ اللهَ تَجِدْهُ تُجَاهَك، إذا سأَلْتَ فاسْأَلِ اللهَ، وإذا اسْتَعَنْتَ فاسْتَعِنْ باللهِ، واعْلَمْ أَنَّ الأُمَةَ لو اجْتَمَعَتْ على أَنْ يَنْفَعُوكَ بِشَيءٍ لَمْ يَنْفَعُوكَ إلَّا بِشَيْءٍ قد كَتَبَهُ اللهُ لَكَ، وإن اجْتَمَعُوا على أن يَضُرُّوكَ بشيءٍ لَمْ يَضُروك إلّا بِشَيءٍ قد كَتَبَهُ اللهُ عَلَيْكَ، رُفِعَتْ الأقلامُ وجَفَّتِ الصُّحُفُ.} رواه الترمذي وقال: حديث حسن صحيح.

وفي رواية غير الترمذي: {احفَظِ اللهَ تَجِدْهُ أَمَامَكَ، تَعَرَّفْ إلى اللهِ في الرخاءِ يَعْرِفْكَ في الشِّدةِ، واعْلَمْ أنَّ ما أَخْطأَكَ لم يَكُنْ لِيُصِيبَكَ، وما أَصَابَكَ لَمْ يَكُنْ لِيُخْطِئَكَ، واعْلَمْ أنَّ النَّصْرَ مع الصَّبر، وأنَّ الفَرَجَ مع الكَرْبِ، وأنَّ مع العُسْرِ يُسْراً.}

Allah the Exalted’s Help, Protection, Assistance and Support

It is on the authority of Abū al-ʿAbbāṣ ʿAbdullah ibn ʿAbbās, may Allah be pleased with both of them, who said, ‘I was behind the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, one day and he said, {Boy, I will teach you some words. Be mindful of Allah and He will be mindful of you. Be mindful of Allah and you will find Him in front of you. When you ask, ask Allah. When you seek help, seek help from Allah. If all of creation came together to benefit you with something, they would only benefit you with something that Allah had already written for you. If they came together to harm you with something, they would only harm you with something that Allah had already written against you. The pens have been lifted and the pages have dried.} At-Tirmidhī has related it and said that it is a good, authentic ḥadīth.

In a narration other than that of at-Tirmidhī: {Be mindful of Allah and you will find Him in front of you. Get to know Allah in times of ease and He will know you in times of adversity. Know that whatever misses you was never going to hit, and whatever hits you was never going to miss. Know that help is with patience, deliverance is with distress and that with difficulty there is ease.}

At-Tirmidhī has collected this ḥadīth in the Description of the Hour, the Softening of Hearts and Carefulness from the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace (in the chapter entitled: {Rather, O Ḥanẓalah, an hour and an hour}), no.2016, and Aḥmad has collected it in his Musnad: 1/307. The aforementioned wording has been related by ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd in his Musnad, as the commentators of The Forty have mentioned.


The Importance of the Ḥadīth:

Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī says in his book Jāmiʿ al-ʿUlūm wa al-Ḥikam, ‘This ḥadīth comprises great advice and comprehensive principles that are some of the most important matters of the religion, such that one of the scholars said, “I reflected on this ḥadīth and it astonished me. I was almost confused. Alas for my ignorance of this ḥadīth and my paltry understanding of its meanings.”’

(...)

Victory is with Patience: The life of man is various battles. He is exposed therein to many enemies, of all kinds, and his victory in these battles is connected to the extent of his patience and is the consequence of it. Patience is the way to the victory that is sought. It is the effective weapon that subdues the enemy in his various forms, whether he is hidden or in the open. This is why Allah, Mighty and Majestic is He, has made it the subject of the exam for His slaves in this life, to distinguish the filthy from the pure, so that the truthful and certain is known from the doubtful hypocrite: “We will test you until We know the true fighters among you and those who are steadfast and test what is reported of you.” [Muḥammad 47:31] “You will be tested in your wealth and in yourselves and you will hear many abusive words from those given the Book before you and from those who are idolaters. But if you are steadfast and have taqwā, that is the most resolute of matters.” [Āl ʿImrān 3:186] i.e. the matters that every sane person should be resolute in and be accustomed to, because of the perfection of virtue and honour that they contain.

Allah the Exalted has said in describing the righteous, the people of taqwā and the truthful, “…and are steadfast in poverty and illness and in battle.” [al-Baqarah 2:177]

Patience, as it has been defined, is to keep the ego in check, i.e. to control it, according to what is required by the intellect and the Revealed Law. Likewise, one keeps it in check and prevents it from that which the intellect and the Revealed Law prevent it from. If we were to review Allah’s verses, Mighty and Majestic is He, and the ḥadīths of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, we would find that the word patience (ṣabr) appears in many places, and in each place it bears the abovementioned definition, aiming at one end and realising one result, which is victory and triumph. These places include:

A. Patience with doing acts of obedience and leaving disobedience:
Doing what Allah the Exalted has commanded and leaving what He has prohibited is a discomfort. There is no doubt that it is a type of weight on the human soul, and therefore a person must strive to overcome his real enemy, which is embodied in the nafs,[1] one’s passions and Shayṭān: “The nafs commands to evil acts” [Yūsuf 12:53], “…and do not follow your own passions” [Ṣād 38:26], “Shayṭān is your enemy.” [Fāṭir 35:6] These hidden enemies places temptations in front of a person, and embellish for him the love of worldly appetites. They entice him to turn away from obedience and incline towards disobedience. They are tireless in what they do, never leaving him alone and never subsiding. Thus, a person must strive to subdue them, push his nafs to be obedient, and make his passions follow what Allah’s legislation has brought, Mighty and Majestic is He. All of this involves patience, endurance, struggle and sacrifice. Allah the Exalted has said, “Follow what has been revealed to you and be steadfast until Allah’s judgment comes.” [Yūnus 10:109]

He has also said, “He is Lord of the heavens and the earth and everything in between them, so worship Him and persevere in His worship.” [Maryam 19:65]

He, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, has said, {The mujāhid is the one who does jihād against his nafs for the sake of Allah}, as related by at-Tirmidhī and Ibn Ḥibbān.

There is no doubt that whoever is able to confine his nafs to what pleases Allah the Exalted, and thus obeys Him and avoids disobeying Him, has overcome his hidden enemy and subdued his nafs, his Shayṭān and his passions. This is a victory that no other victory comes close to, because with it the person controls himself and becomes free from the captivity of desires, passions and the whisperings of Shayṭān. When that battle with the internal enemy has ended with him being vanquished and subdued, the truth shines forth in the believer’s heart and illuminates it, and thus he follows Allah’s path, Mighty and Majestic is He: “As for those who do jihād in Our Way, We will guide them to Our Paths.” [al-ʿAnkabūt 29:69] The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, spoke the truth when he said, {Patience is radiant light}, as related by Muslim.[2]


B. Patience with Calamities:
In this life, man is exposed to catastrophes that beset his person, his property, his family and his dependents, or his safety and serenity, and there is no doubt that this has a severe impact on a person, allowing despair to overcome him: “When evil touches him, he despairs.” [al-Isrāʾ 17:83] Restlessness (halʿ) and anxiety (jazʿ) take over: “Truly man was created restless, anxious when bad things happen.” [al-Maʿārij 70:19-20]

Halʿ is more intense than jazʿ, and jazʿ is intense fear.

A person in this state is defeated. He cannot carve a path to victory in this life. This is why Allah, Mighty and Majestic is He, urges the believers to be resolute, to hold their ground in the face of these calamities, which are real, no doubt, and to rise above weakness and lassitude and carve their path to victory and prosperity, arming themselves with patience, which is the foundation of exaltedness and the secret of success. “We will test you with a certain amount of fear and hunger and loss of wealth and life and fruits. But give good news to the steadfast, those who, when disaster strikes them, say, ‘We belong to Allah and to Him we will return.’ Those are the people who will have blessings and mercy from their Lord; they are the ones who are guided.” [al-Baqarah 2:155-157]

There is no doubt that these people are guided to the path of might, honour and glory, especially those who hold their ground as soon as a catastrophe strikes: {Patience is only at the first blow}, which is agreed upon. They therefore come out of it victorious, facing life with absolute courage and boldness, so that they can turn the trial that has befallen them into something good that they can benefit from, in this life and the Hereafter. Thus, their state in times of trial is no different from their state in times of ease. {How astonishing is the affair of the believer! His entire affair is good, and this is only for the believer. When something good happens to him, he is grateful, and that is good for him. When something bad happens to him, he is patient, and that is good for him.} Related by Muslim.

[Translated from p.131-132 and 140-142 (Damascus: Dār Ibn Kathīr, 1428/2007) ]

[1] (tn): i.e. the self, or ego
[2] (tn): Please see the 23rd ḥadīth in this book.

You can read more of the commentary here.

The Key to Happiness in Two Minutes

By Imam Muhammad Saeed Ramadan al-Bouti, may Allah have mercy on him

Original video

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NEW RELEASE: The Great Event Has Occurred: Usury Has Become Permissible by Imam Muhammad at-Taaweel of Morocco, may Allah have mercy on him 

More titles are on the way, insha'Allah, including
- Sharh as-Sudur by Imam Jalal ad-Deen as-Suyuti
- The Wonders of Waqf 
-  Islamic Law is Not Misogynistic by Imam Muhammad at-Taaweel

And with Allah alone is every success. 

Why do we waste so much food in Ramadan?

By Imam Muhammad Mutwalli ash-Sha'rawi, may Allah have mercy on him

Original video

I think the Imam says at the end, '...and receive Ramadan the way it should be received', and Allah knows best.

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The First Wisdom (Repost)

By Imam Muhammad Saeed Ramadan al-Bouti, may Allah have mercy on him,

The First Wisdom

A sign that one is relying on one’s deeds is the decrease in hope when one makes a mistake[1]

Is relying on one’s deeds praiseworthy in the Revealed Law or blameworthy?

Ibn ʿAṭāʾillāh says: When it comes to Allah being pleased with you and the reward He has promised you, beware of relying on the deeds that you have done and have been granted tawfīq[2] to do, such as prayer, fasting, charity and various other righteous acts. Rather, rely therein on Allah’s kindness, favour and generosity.

Is there any proof for this? Yes, and it is the ḥadīth of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, which has been related by Al-Bukhārī and others: {Not a single one of you will be entered into Paradise by his deeds.} They said, ‘Not even you, O Messenger of Allah?’ He said, {Not even me, unless Allah covers me with His mercy.}

Therefore, deeds are not the price for entering Paradise. As that is the case, what is thus sought when one is granted the tawfīq to carry out acts of obedience is to desire Allah’s pleasure and reward, hoping for His favour, pardon and generosity, and not to desire some sort of payment for the deed that one was granted tawfīq to do.

And here he says: One of the clearest proofs that you are relying on your deeds and not on Allah’s favour is that your hope in the Exalted’s pardon decreases when you make mistakes, i.e. when you become entangled in acts of disobedience and sin.

What this means is that while you were hoping for Allah’s generosity and magnanimity you were actually relying therein on your deeds, and thus whenever your good deeds were few and your sins were many, hope disappeared. This is the standard that shows that in your hope you are relying on your deeds and not on Allah’s favour and generosity, Glorified and Exalted is He. In brief, this is the meaning of this wisdom of Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Illāh, may Allah have mercy on him.

Furthermore, this wisdom has an important dimension in creed, an important dimension in the Sunnah, in the speech of our master, the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and after that it has a dimension in nurturing good character, and if Allah so wills we shall expound each one.

***

Let us thus understand that the wisdoms of Ibn ʿAṭāʾillāh fall into three categories:

The first category revolves around the axis of tawḥīd.[3]

The second category revolves around the axis of character.[4]

The third category is connected to behaviour[5] and purifying the self[6] from filth.

Let us begin by expounding the theological dimension and analysing it in the first wisdom:

The author of Jawharat Al-Tawḥīd[7] says:

If He rewards us, that is solely out of His favour

            And if He punishes us, that is solely out of His justice

This is the doctrine that should be dyed within every Muslim, and this is the way that was followed by the righteous, first three generations,[8] may Allah be pleased with all of them.

Someone might say at this point, ‘Rather, the outward purport is that the reward that we deserve is solely on account of the righteous actions that we have done.’

However, if we contemplate the relationship between the slave and his Lord and examine it closely, we realise that the matter is not like that.

What is the meaning of your statement: ‘Allah will only reward me because of my deeds…He will only enter me into Paradise because of my deeds.’? What these words mean is that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has set a price for Paradise, and it is not represented in dirhams or monetary liquidity but rather in acts of worship and obedience and avoiding that which is unlawful. Therefore, if you carry out acts of obedience and refrain from forbidden matters then you have paid the price, and thereupon you have become deserving of the merchandise that you have purchased! When you say, ‘I am only rewarded because of the deeds I have done’, then this is what your words mean, but is the matter really like that? In other words, when you carry out the commands that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has demanded of you, do you become deserving of Paradise and the owner of it by the sweat of your brow, in the same way that someone would become deserving of some donums of land by paying the set price to the owner who put it up for sale? If you contemplate, you will see that the matter is very different. If I were to pay the price for this garden in money, just as the seller has requested, I would thus become the owner of that garden, without him showing me any act of kindness, in a legally required, mechanical fashion. I would then have the right to say to him, ‘Get off my land. I’ve paid the full price for it.’

This is how the relationship between one slave and another is. As for when Allah, Glorified and Exalted, commands you to do the acts of obedience that He has enjoined upon you and forbids you from the unlawful matters that He has warned you about, and Allah gives you the tawfīq to carry out these obligations and avoid that which is unlawful, the matter is completely different. Who gave you the ability to perform that prayer? Who gave you the ability to do that fast? Who opened your heart to faith? Was it not Allah, Mighty and Majestic? Allah spoke the truth when He said, {They make it a favour to you that they have become Muslims. Say: Don’t think that your Islam is a favour to me. Rather, Allah has favoured you by guiding you to faith.} [Al-Ḥujurāt 49:17]

Therefore, there is a massive difference between the two illustrations. Who has made you love faith and hate disbelief, iniquity and disobedience? Who? It is Allah, Glorified and Exalted. Who has opened your heart and given you the ability to come to one of Allah’s houses and attend the congregational prayer, and then sit and listen to that which will bring you closer to Allah, Glorified and Exalted? Who? It is Allah, Glorified and Exalted. Therefore, what is it that makes you imagine that obedience is the price you pay from your own property in exchange for taking possession of Allah the Exalted’s Paradise, making an analogy of the one who pays instalments from his own free wealth in order to take possession of a garden, an analogy despite the massive difference.

Therefore, it is not permissible for you to imagine that you deserve (contemplate the exact expression that I am using: it is not permissible for you to imagine that you deserve) Allah the Exalted’s Paradise and His reward because you have carried out what He demanded, because you have done what He obligated, and avoided that which He declared unlawful. It is not permissible for you to believe this, and if you were to believe it, it would be one of the most dangerous kinds of idolatry.[9]

This is because such a creedal doctrine would mean that you believe that your prayer is performed with an intrinsic ability[10] from you, and that you carry it out as a favour for Allah, that your obedience that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has commanded you to is carried out with movement from your own essential being, and your essential being is your intrinsic property, and your ability is your intrinsic property, and thus you are the owner of your actions and you are the one who creates and brings your abilities into existence, and the Originator[11] has no connection to it whatsoever. Therefore, according to your imagination, it’s as if you are presenting your acts of obedience to Him on a plate and saying, ‘Here’s what You commanded and I’ve carried it out just as You wanted, with my own intrinsic power and ability, so give me the Paradise that you promised me.’

And this is how the process becomes one of buying and selling…I’ve given you the value and therefore I have the right to demand the price back from you! Is this what is logical between the slave and his Lord? Where are you in relation to the reality of your slavehood to Allah? Where are you in relation to the sanctified words that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, would teach to his Companions, {There is no power or strength except with Allah}? Where are you in relation to the certitude of faith that there is no doubt that Allah, Glorified and Exalted, is the Creator of the slaves’ actions?[12] Who is it that creates our, i.e. we the slaves, actions? I don’t think it will take us long to expound the truth, which is the creed of the righteous, first three generations, and they are the Muslim Orthodoxy,[13] as represented by the Ashʿarīs and the Māturīdīs.[14] Therefore, when I praise Allah, Glorified and Exalted, on my tongue, I should thank Allah for moving my tongue with this praise. If I get up in the middle of the night to pray, I should praise Allah for granting me the tawfīq to stand before him. Were it not for His love for me, were it not for His concern for me, were it not for His kindness towards me, I would have been immersed in my sleep, and yet He honoured me by having me stand before Him like this. 

One time, I told you the story of a young girl who was working as a servant for a family, and one night the man of the house woke up in the middle of the night and saw the girl praying in a corner of the house, and while she was prostrating he heard her say, ‘O Allah, I ask You by Your love for me to make me happy…that you protect me and honour me…’ and the rest of her supplication. The man of the house saw her words as significant, so he waited for her to finish her prayer and then he proceeded to ask her, ‘What is this pampering before Allah?’ You said, ‘O Allah, I ask You by Your love for me to make me happy and to honour me and to…’ She replied, ‘My master, were it not for His love for me, He wouldn’t have awoken me at this hour. Were it not for His love for me, He wouldn’t have made me stand before Him, were it not for His love for me, He wouldn’t have made me have this intimate conversation with Him.’

Take notice, dear brothers: this is the tawḥīd that should be dyed in every single one of us. How can you favour Allah with your prayer when He is the one who gave you the tawfīq to do it?!

This is the principle that the author of Jawharat Al-Tawḥīd and all other scholars of theology mean when they say:

If He rewards us, that is solely out of His favour

            And if He punishes us, that is solely out of His justice

At this point, some of us might be thinking: If that is the case, then what is the meaning of Allah’s statement, Mighty and Majestic: {Enter Paradise with that which you used to do.} [Al-Naḥl 16:32], and Allah has repeated these words many times in his pre-eternal elucidation? I will give you the answer and it will increase you in love for Allah and it will increase you in being immersed in the feelings of slavehood to Him:

Indeed, these words are established by one party, and it is Allah, Mighty and Majestic, and not two contracting parties…Allah gives you the tawfīq to do deeds and He inspires you to do the right thing. You knock on his door in fervent supplication, saying, ‘O Allah, there is no power or strength except with You. My forelock is in Your hands and You do what You want with it. Take it to the path of felicity and straightforwardness. Then Allah answers your supplication, opens your heart to goodness, gives you the tawfīq to do righteous deeds and then He says to you on the Day of Resurrection: {Enter Paradise with that which you used to do.} [Al-Naḥl 16:32] Are these words from Him, Mighty and Majestic, i.e. the implementation of the consensual contract between you and Him, the same as a contract between a seller and a buyer?

No, and we seek refuge in Allah. Indeed, when He, Mighty and Majestic, made your deeds a cause for entering Paradise He only did so out of His favour and beneficence.

If you refuse to imagine that the issue between Allah and His slaves is anything but an exchange of one right for another, and you bring those claims with you on the Day of Resurrection, saying to Allah, ‘I deserve Paradise and to reside therein eternally because of the required deeds that I have done’, and Allah, Mighty and Majestic – based on this claim of yours – decides to take you to account in a precise manner, there will be no right remaining from what you were claiming and it will all vanish under the might of your slavehood to Allah and your need of His help and tawfīq.

Perhaps the closest example of what I’m saying would be how a father acts with his son when he wants to encourage him to be generous and do good deeds. He would say to his son, ‘If you give that poor person some money I’ll give you a present.’ The father then slips some money into the child’s pocket and the son responds to his father’s requests because he hopes for the present he promised him. Thus, he gives the poor person the money that his father slipped into his pocket and his father rejoices at it, and to show how pleased he is with this act of generosity he describes his son by saying, ‘You have done a sublime humanitarian deed, and there is no doubt that you deserve an immense reward for it.’

It is clear that this is a clever means of nurturing, which the father is using with his son. There is no doubt that the son will understand this later, that the money in his pocket was his father’s money, and that the present that he received in the name of recompense and reward for his good deed was actually a show of love towards him out of a desire to motivate him to do more beautiful, humanitarian deeds. Thus, Allah’s statement, Mighty and Majestic: {Enter Paradise with that which you used to do.} [Al-Naḥl 16:32] is nothing but of this nature.

It has been mentioned in more than one report that one of the slaves of Allah the Exalted will say on the Day of Resurrection: ‘O Lord, take me to account with Your justice and with what I deserve, for indeed I lived my entire life in the world without spending a single day in Your disobedience.’ Then Allah will remind him of the blessing of his two seeing eyes, which Allah had granted him. ‘Have you shown thanks for these eyes?’ Allah’s favour towards him[15] will be placed on one side of the scale and all his acts of obedience and worship will be placed on the other, and the side with the divine favour will outweigh the side with the acts of obedience and worship that Allah had given him the ability to do.

If you looked at Allah’s blessings which you have at your disposal in the life of this world you would see that just a single moment in which you enjoy these blessings is greater than all the acts of obedience you have ever done…you are Allah’s slave, Glorified and Exalted is He. With His power you obey Him, with His mercy you move towards Him, and because of His mercy towards you, you draw nearer to Him. Indeed I say what my father, may Allah the Exalted have mercy on him, used to say in one of his supplications: ‘O Lord, indeed I thank You but You are the one who has inspired me to thank You, so my gratitude requires that I thank you for giving me the tawfīq for this gratitude, and then the matter continues indefinitely. You are the Creator of everything and You are Kind to me in all states.

Therefore, Allah the Exalted’s statement: {Enter Paradise with that which you used to do.} [Al-Naḥl 16:32] is established by one party. As for us, we should know that we are entering Paradise solely out of His favour, Mighty and Majestic. You carry out what He has made you legally responsible for with the feelings of the right that is due from you, such that when you do what Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has commanded and carry it out in the desired fashion, you should know that you are striving towards Allah’s generosity, Mighty and Majestic is He, without you deserving anything. You should only be aspiring for His mercy and His pardon. One of the righteous saw a man from amongst the godly [?] in his sleep after his death and he said to him – and he knew he had died - : ‘What has Allah done with you?’ He replied me, ‘He stood me before Him and said, “What have you come to Me with?’ I replied, ‘O Lord, I am a slave, and a slave doesn’t own anything that he can bring to his master. I have come desiring Your pardon and hoping for your generosity.’

Have you looked at the logic of slavehood? This is how we will come tomorrow before Allah, Mighty and Majestic, and whoever doesn’t realise this today shall realise it tomorrow.

This is what has been affirmed by the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, in the ḥadīth that has been related by Al-Bukhārī from the ḥadīth of Abū Hurayra, as well as from the ḥadīth of Lady ʿĀʾisha and the ḥadīth of Abū Saʿīd Al-Khudrī, that the Messenger of Allah said, {Not a single one of you will be entered into Paradise by his deeds.} They said, ‘Not even you, O Messenger of Allah?’ He said, {Not even me, unless Allah covers me with His mercy.} Here we should notice the precision of the Messenger of Allah’s speech in expressing the meaning that we have been explaining and clarifying, for he, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, did not say, ‘None of you will enter Paradise with his deeds.’ If he had said so then his speech would have contradicted the Qurʾān, which affirms that Allah enters His righteous slaves in Paradise with their deeds, and an example is in His statement, Mighty and Majestic: {Enter Paradise with that which you used to do.} [Al-Naḥl 16:32] Rather, he said, {Not a single one of you will be entered into Paradise by his deeds.} In other words, your reliance on your deeds independent of Allah’s pardon and clemency, His tolerance and generosity, will dash your hopes and none of your dreams will be realised. This is because Allah is the one who made your trifling deeds a path to His forgiveness and His Paradise. The particle bāʾ[16] in the Exalted’s statement: {with that which you used to do} has been attached to deeds. As for Allah’s mercy, Allah’s generosity, the vastness of Allah’s pardon, you don’t deserve it, O slave, whoever you are and whatever your affair and station may be.

Look at the example of one of us who gives money to a poor person and contemplate how the driver of divine mercy and sublime forgiveness is manifested for the bāʾ, which is inserted to indicate causation on behalf of one’s deeds: it is known that wealth is Allah’s wealth, and it has no true owner apart from Him. Has He not said: {And give from Allah’s wealth which He has given to you}? [Al-Nūr 24:33]? Then He addresses us by saying, {Who will lend Allah a good loan, which He will then multiply for him several times over?} [Al-Baqarah 2:245] He gives you from His wealth and then you presume that you are the actual owner of it. He places His Exalted Essence in the place of a borrower, saying: ‘Lend me something from this wealth of yours and I promise that I will return it to you and it will be multiplied many times over.’

So do you believe that you are the true owner and that Allah is nothing but in need of you and borrowing from you?! Is it possible to become so intoxicated by this divine, generous, loving rhetoric such that you become distracted from reality and believe that you are the owner and that Allah is the borrower, and then you claim that you have the right to demand back what you lent to Allah in addition to the benefits that you’ve mutually agreed upon?

If you imagine this, and you forget that the bāʾ of causation is actually a manifestation of divine kindness, you are insane by every qualification.

Therefore, we have realised and tasted the meaning of the words of our master, the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace: {Not a single one of you will be entered into Paradise by his deeds} and the rest of the ḥadīth.

But let us ask: is there any contradiction between Allah promising you that you will enter Paradise through His mercy and Him commanding you at the same time to worship Him?

There is no contradiction, because worship is Allah’s right over you due to the fact that you are His slave, and Paradise is a favour and gift from Allah to you due to the fact that He is most merciful and forgiving towards you. He has already decreed that the people closest to His mercy are those who do the most with regards to fulfilling His rights, and He declared this when He said, {My mercy extends to all things, but I will prescribe it for those who have taqwā.} [Al-ʿArāf 7:156]

And let no one say, ‘Why do I need Allah’s mercy and pardon if I am a believer and I have taqwā? The answer is that neither faith nor taqwā are a price for the gift that you will receive. Rather, it is a consequential right of Allah over you. If you fulfil the right that is on your neck then you don’t deserve anything in return, and everything you receive from Him is a favour, mercy and pardon.

Now, let us return to the words of Ibn ʿAṭāillāh and let us focus on a very important point that he warns us about: ‘A sign that one is relying on one’s deeds is the decrease in hope when one makes a mistake.’

In other words, one of the most dangerous consequences of relying on your deeds for Allah’s reward is losing hope of His pardon when you become embroiled in mistakes and sins, for between the two matters is an inextricable concomitance. The only way for one’s hope in Allah’s mercy and pardon not to be diminished when one falls short is not to depend on your deeds when tawfīq is your ally. When you do that, you will be striving for Allah’s generosity and magnanimity in both states, to the same extent that you will be fearful of His wrath and loathing.

Therefore, fear of Allah’s wrath and punishment must be present with constant hope in His mercy and favour, because man, whoever he may be, cannot detach himself from falling short with regards to the rights of Lordship over him, in all states and vicissitudes.

Thereupon, indeed the one who sees himself as suffering from weakness and falling short such that he cannot fulfil any of Allah’s rights over him, two equal feelings will tug at him in all situations: one of them is his feelings of hope in Allah’s favour and pardon and the second is his feelings of shame and fear of falling short with regards to Allah, Mighty and Majestic. The first set of feelings will not become ascendant and more intense when he sees himself having the tawfīq to carry out acts of obedience, and the second set of feelings will not be aroused when he sees himself falling short and being negligent with regards to fulfilling Allah’s rights, Mighty and Majestic, because in all situations he will not grant his acts of obedience any weight and he won’t rely on them when it comes to hoping for Allah’s mercy and pardon. Therefore, in all situations, he is between fear and hope.

Perhaps Shayṭān will whisper to you that your acts of obedience and drawing nearer to Allah have no part to play in Allah bestowing His favours upon His slaves, and thus there is no difference between the slave carrying out such acts and desisting from them!

However, you should know that Shayṭān’s whisperings are not the outcome of our explanation of Ibn ʿAṭāʾillāh’s words, or the words of the scholars of tawḥīd in this regard. Allah the Exalted has said, {My mercy extends to all things}. Did He say after that, ‘I will prescribe it for all of mankind’? or did he He say, {I will prescribe it for those who have taqwā}? [Al-ʿArāf 7:156]

There are two matters that the reality of a person’s worship of Allah cannot be detached from. The first is that one travels the paths of guidance and adherence to Allah’s commands and stays away from what He has prohibited. The second is that one knows that it is by Allah’s mercy and pardon, not his own efforts and deeds, that He will obtain reward.

This is the comprehensive meaning that is comprised in Allah the Exalted’s statement: {But I am Ever-Forgiving to anyone who repents and believes and acts rightly and then is guided.} [Taha 20:82] In other words, faith and righteous action are both obligatory, and reward comes by way of forgiveness and pardon, not by way of compensation and deserving it.

Indeed I, by the ruling of my slavehood to Allah, implement His commands. That levy of slavehood to Allah is on my neck. Then I spread out my hands facing the heavens, saying, ‘O Lord, I am Your slave, the son of Your male slave and Your female slave.’ My forelock is in Your hand. Your judgement of me is assured and Your decree concerning me is just. I ask You for Your mercy. Do not treat me the way I deserve to be treated. Rather, treat me with what You are worthy of. Indeed, You said, {Everyone acts according to his nature} [Al-Isrāʾ 17:84]. Your nature is mercy, so have mercy on me. Your nature is forgiveness, so forgive me.’

I say words like these without demanding any compensation for an action I feel I have offered. Rather, I ask Him for His mercy in accordance with my weakness and the intensity of my need. I beg Him to give just as a beggar begs for money or food from those whom he hopes will be generous and charitable. This is how slavehood to Allah is, Glorified and Exalted is He.

Perhaps you will say: ‘But Allah warns the disobedient and the sinners about His loathing and His punishment, so how can my hope in His pardon and beneficence not diminish when I commit that which necessitates this diminishment? How, when Allah has conditioned the attainment of His mercy on faith and taqwā, when He said, {I prescribe it for those who have taqwā.}? [Al-ʿArāf 7:156]

The answer is that the disobedient person who is required to remain hopeful of Allah’s generosity and pardon cannot turn to Allah in hope unless he enters His vastness from the door of repentance.

Have you seen the disobedient person who comes knocking on Allah’s door hoping for His pardon and forgiveness? Would it make sense for him to do that while persisting in His disobedience, relaxing in His deviations and sins?! No…it is clear according to the standards of human morals and feelings, let alone feelings of slavehood to Allah, that this disobedient person, as much as the hope for Allah’s pardon and forgiveness thrives within him, the incentives of repentance and the feelings of remorse he has will increase, as well as the determination to desist from what he was busily engaged in. Thus, if he sincerely repents, the hope he has for Allah’s pardon will grow and not diminish, as it is assumed that he reads the Book of Allah the Exalted and stops to examines statements such as: {Do they not know that Allah accepts repentance from His slaves and acknowledges their charity, and that Allah is the Ever-Relenting, the Most-Merciful?} [Al-Tawba 9:104]

And it is assumed that he has stopped and examined the likes of the ḥadīth qudsī that is agreed upon[17] and which the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, narrates from his Lord, {A slave commits a sin and says, ‘O Allah, forgive me for my sin.’ So, Allah, Blessed and Exalted, says, ‘My slave has committed a sin and he knows he has a Lord Who forgives sins and punishes sins.’ Then he goes back and sins again, and says, ‘Which lord will forgive me my sins?’ He, Blessed and Exalted, replies, ‘My slave has committed a sin and he knows he has a Lord Who forgives sins and punishes sins.’ Then he goes back and sins again, and says, ‘Which lord will forgive me my sins?’ He, Blessed and Exalted, replies, ‘My slave has committed a sin and he knows he has a Lord Who forgives sins and punishes sins. I have forgiven my slave so let him do what he wants.’

Therefore, there is no escape from repentance, and it is the only way that hope can be constantly thriving in the soul of someone who is disobedient. As for the person who continues to be busily engaged in sins and to whom repentance simply doesn’t occur, then hope for Allah’s pardon also cannot possibly occur to him.

Thus, it should be clear to you after what I’ve mentioned and explained that getting involved in the opposite of what Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Illāh has mentioned is the other proof against relying on one’s deeds. In other words, whosoever’s hope in Allah’s favour and reward increases whenever he turns to Allah with more righteous deeds, that is a proof that he is relying on his righteous deeds and not on Allah’s pardon and forgiveness.

The gravity of this link between increasing in hope and increasing in righteous deeds is obvious. If we imagine someone whose righteous deeds increase over time, and his obedience increases greatly, and every time that increases, his confidence in Allah’s reward and promise also increases, the gravity is clear because the conclusion this person will come to, by necessity of this link, is that he is in a specific phase and he will be absolutely certain that he has become from the people of Paradise and from those honoured with the blessings that Allah has promised. Because it is according to this link between deeds and compensation, he will inevitably believe – if he reaches that phase in his righteous deeds – that all of his deeds have been accepted by Allah and that his life is full of acts of obedience. 

Therefore, he is decisively from the people of Paradise! This is making a judgement[18] before Allah, and how many times has the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, warned against it!

Rather, the path is to distance oneself from this slippery slope and to know that Allah’s rights over His slaves are not fulfilled through acts of obedience, regardless of how many they are or how great they are. Rather, these rights will always remain. If it were possible to fulfil His rights, Mighty and Majestic, through acts of obedience, the first people to do so would be the Messengers and Prophets, but despite that we haven’t found any of them tying their hope in Allah’s reward to their act of obedience and drawing nearer to Him. Rather, they were all striving for Allah’s forgiveness and pardon.

Our master Ibrāhīm, peace and blessings be upon him – and he is the intimate friend of the All-Merciful[19] - saw himself as less than the rank of the righteous from amongst Allah’s slaves, so he asked Allah to be united with them, saying, {My Lord, give me right judgement and unite me with the righteous}. [Al-Shuʿarāʾ 26:83] He would strive for Allah’s forgiveness and pardon, saying, {Our Lord! Forgive me and my parents and the believers on the Day the Reckoning takes place.} [Ibrāhīm 14:41]

Yūsuf, peace and blessings be upon him, also saw himself as less than attaining the rank of the righteous, so he would ask Allah to unite him with them if he was not one of them. Did he not say, as Allah, Mighty and Majestic has informed us: {My Lord, You have granted power to me on earth and taught me the true meaning of events. Originator of the heavens and earth, You are my Friend in this world and the next. So take me as a Muslim at my death and unite me with the righteous.} [Yūsuf 12:101]

As for the master of the Messengers and Prophets, he is the one saying what you already know, {Not a single one of you will be entered into Paradise by his deeds.} They said, ‘Not even you, O Messenger of Allah?’ He said, {Not even me, unless Allah covers me with His mercy.}

Therefore an individual, whoever he may be, when he is granted the tawfīq to do righteous deeds he is only fulfilling a very small portion from the levy of slavehood to Allah, Mighty and Majestic, and from the rights of the blessings that Allah has bountifully showered on him in the life of this world, and they are many and various innumerable blessings.

If this person, despite the acts of obedience he has been given the tawfīq to do, is still burdened under Allah’s rights of Lordship over him, and burdened under the rights of the blessings that Allah has graciously bestowed upon him, how and with what argument can he demand that Allah honour him in return by giving him His eternal Paradise, and that He add to the blessings that He has already given him in this life and whose rights have still not been fulfilled by giving him the blessings of the Hereafter that he has described and talked about clearly in His Book?

***

The quintessence of what is being said is that the human being – after knowing Allah and realising that he is His owned slave – must worship Allah because he is His slave and because Allah is his Lord; in other words, regardless of whether Allah rewards him for his worship or doesn’t reward him. Then he must ask Him for His Paradise, as a favour and gift from Him, and seek refuge in Him from His Fire and punishment, kindly and seeking His mercy. This is how the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was in his supplications.

If one of us were to decide within himself that he would only worship Allah out of desire for His Paradise such that if he knew he would never attain this reward by way of worshiping Allah he would stop worshipping him and never worry about Allah’s Revealed Law and rules, this person would not be a Muslim or a believer by Allah’s standard and judgment. This is because he would be declaring himself as not a slave of Allah but rather a slave of Paradise, which he is looking for a means to get to.

And here we realise the loftiness of the feelings of tawḥīd in the intimate conversation of Rābiʿah Al-ʿAdawiyyah with her Lord, as she used to say, ‘O Allah, when I have worshipped You I have not worshipped You out of desire for Your Paradise nor out of fear of Your Fire. Rather, I know that You are a Lord who deserves to be worshipped, so I have worshipped You.’

Some superficial people think that Rābiʿah was expressing her lack of need of the Paradise that Allah had promised His righteous slaves, and thus they endlessly rebuked and reviled her. This is hastening to understand something and oppression in judgment. Rābiʿah was asking Allah for His Paradise and seeking refuge in Him from His Fire, and how many times in her intimate conversations did she feel afraid of His punishment, which she saw herself as exposed to. How many times did she yearn for His kindness and the Paradise of being close to Him. But she did not seek that as compensation for her worship. Rather, she asked Him for that because He is the Independent, the Generous, and she is the impoverished, the one desiring his generosity.

As for her acts of obedience and worship, she was drawing nearer to Allah through them because He is her Lord and she is His slave. She is indebted with regards to being His slave, and therefore her slavehood presses her to worship Him and submit to the authority of His Lordship, for nothing other than the fact that she is His slave and because He is her Lord. And whether He grants her the blessings of His Paradise or throws her into His painful punishment, she will never nullify the covenant of this adherence with Him, and how could she nullify it when in every situation she is the making of His hand and the property of His Essence.

This is the position of Rābiʿah, may Allah be pleased with her, and so are there amongst the Muslims those who say, ‘This is an incorrect position’? This would make the correct position its opposite, which would be to say, ‘O Allah, I haven’t worshipped You because You are a Lord who deserves to be worshipped but because I desire Your Paradise’! Are there people who believe in Allah, even if they are iniquitous, who would address Allah with such impudence?

Despite our shortcomings and our remoteness from the rank of the likes of Rābiʿah Al-ʿAdawiyyah, it is indeed not permitted for us to address our Lord and our Creator except with the exact speech that she would address her Lord with. We should say:

O Allah, You are our Lord and we are Your slaves. We worship You and obey Your commands as much as we are able to, for nothing other than the fact that You are our Lord and we are Your slaves. We know that however upright we might be on Your path, we will always fall short, and not because of arrogance towards Your affair but because You have decreed for us to be weak.

We will travel to you from this life of ours with many violations; mistakes, misdeeds and deviations, hoping that we will have the tawfīq to patch over them with true, sincere repentance. We will travel to you impoverished and naked apart from the meekness of being Your slave and being in need of You.

And let the answer of each one of us be when we are asked, ‘What have you come with from your life that I established you in?’: ‘I have come with hope in Your mercy, with hope in Your generosity. I have come impoverished apart from my slavehood to You. That is my capital with which I stand before You and it will never give me the courage at that point to beg for Your Paradise and the generosity of Your gifts apart from what I know of Your favour and Your generosity and what I exult in through being attributed to the meekness of being Your slave.

To proceed, this is the core of tawḥīd, which must dominate the feelings of every Muslim after being established with certainty in the intellect. It is the reality that Ibn ʿAṭāʾillāh intended when he said, ‘A sign that one is relying on one’s deeds is the decrease in hope when one makes a mistake.’
    

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[1] (tn): Translated from al-Hikam al-ʿAṭāʿiyyah: Sharḥ wa Taḥlīl, by Imam Muhammad Saʿīd Ramaḍān al-Būṭī (Damascus: Dar al-Fikr, 2009), v.1, p.21-39

[2] (tn): i.e. the success to do something, or “enabling success”

[3] (tn): i.e. the belief that Allah is the only deity that exists and thus the only deity worthy of worship

[4] (tn): Ar. akhlāq

[5] (tn): Ar. sulūk

[6] (tn): Ar. nafs

[7] (tn):  i.e. Imam Al-Laqānī…

[8] (tn): Ar. Al-Salaf Al-Ṣāliḥ, based on the ḥadīth in Al-Bukhārī and Muslim: “The best of my community (khayr ummatī) is my generation, then those who follow them, then those who follow them.”” There is also the wording: “The best of people (khayr al-nās) is my generation…” Another wording in Muslim is: “The best generation (khayr al-qurūn) is my generation…” These generations are the Companions (al-Ṣaḥābah), the Followers (al-Tābiʿūn) and the Followers of the Followers (Atbaʿ or Tābiʿū al-Tābiʿīn).

[9] (tn): Ar. al-shirk

[10] (tn): Ar. qudrah dhātiyyah

[11] (tn): Ar. Al-Bāriʾ

[12] (tn): Please see Al-Ṣāffāt 37:96

[13] (tn): Ar. ahl al-sunnah wa al-jamāʿah

[14] (tn): and the Ḥanbalīs

[15] (tn): i.e. the blessing of seeing eyes

[16] (tn): meaning with

[17] (tn): i.e. by Imams Al-Bukhārī and Muslim

[18] (tn): Ar. al-taʾallī, i.e. to declare that someone is going to Paradise or the Fire

[19] Ar. khalīl Al-Raḥmān

This translation is also covered in this podcast. 
This translation has been reposted because its original publication, which was on the Naseem al-Sham website, is no longer available because that website was hacked.